Definite article before schools, colleges, and universities

Is the always used before the name of a school, college, or university?

Solution 1:

My personal rule of thumb would be that if the school name includes an "of", use "the": The University of Minnesota, The College of St. Catherine, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, etc. (And when abbreviating one of these names, use "the" only if the "of" is present in the abbreviation: "I attend the University of California at San Diego" → "I attend UCSD"; but "I attend the University of Minnesota" → "I attend the U of M".)

But if the school name does not include an "of", and especially if its name consists of a proper noun prepended to a school type, do not use "the": Carleton College, South Dakota State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, etc.

(Naturally, as pointed out by Shaun in his answer, there will be exceptions.)

Solution 2:

Not necessarily.

I have come across several colleges/universities/schools (some starting with proper nouns and some not),not preceded by "The".

Some examples below:

Singapore(Asia):

• National University of Singapore
• Singapore Management University SIM
• Nanyang Technological University and many more

UK:

• King's College London (KCL)
• University of Strathclyde, Glasgow UK
• Courtauld Institute of Art Goldsmiths, University of London (GUL)
• Heythrop College (HEY)
• Institute of Cancer Research (ICR)
• Institute of Education (IoE)

India(Asia):

• All India Institute of Medical Sciences New Delhi, India
• Indian Institute of Technology
  and many more.

There are perhaps more examples across the world as well.