University College London

University College London (branded as UCL^[8][9][10]) is a public research university in London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of London, and is the second-largest university in the United Kingdom by total enrolment^[11] and the largest by postgraduate enrolment.

University College London

Latin: Collegium Universitatis Londinensis[1]
Other name	UCL
Former names	London University (1826–1836) University College, London (1836–1907) University of London, University College (1907–1976) University College London (1977–2005; remains legal name)
Motto	Latin: Cuncti adsint meritaeque expectent praemia palmae
Motto in English	Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
Type	Public research university
Established	1826; 198 years ago (1826) (University status 2023)
Endowment	£156.8 million (2023)[2]
Budget	£1.933 billion (2022/23)[2]
Chair	Victor L. L. Chu[3]
Visitor	Sir Geoffrey Vos (as Master of the Rolls ex officio)[4]
Chancellor	Anne, Princess Royal (as Chancellor of the University of London)
President and Provost	Michael Spence
Academic staff	9,910 (2022/23)[5]
Administrative staff	6,275 (2022/23)[5]
Students	51,810 (2022/23)[6]
Undergraduates	25,675 (2022/23)[6]
Postgraduates	26,135 (2022/23)[6]
Other students	895 (studying wholly overseas; 2021/22)
Location	London, England 51°31′29″N 00°08′01″W
Campus	Urban
Colours	Purple and blue celeste[7]
Affiliations	ACU EUA LERU Russell Group SES University of London Universities UK
Website	ucl.ac.uk

Established in 1826 as London University (though without university degree-awarding powers) by founders inspired by the radical ideas of Jeremy Bentham, UCL was the first university institution to be established in London, and the first in England to be entirely secular and to admit students regardless of their religion.^[12][13] It was also among the first university colleges to admit women alongside men in 1878, two years after University College, Bristol.^[14] Intended by its founders to be England's third university, politics forced it to accept the status of a college in 1836, when it received a royal charter and became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London, although it achieved de facto recognition as a university in the 1990s and formal university status in 2023. It has grown through mergers, including with the Institute of Ophthalmology (in 1995), the Institute of Neurology (in 1997), the Royal Free Hospital Medical School (in 1998), the Eastman Dental Institute (in 1999), the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (in 1999), the School of Pharmacy (in 2012) and the Institute of Education (in 2014).

UCL has its main campus in the Bloomsbury area of central London, with a number of institutes and teaching hospitals elsewhere in central London and has a second campus, UCL East, at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, East London. UCL is organised into 11 constituent faculties, within which there are over 100 departments, institutes and research centres. UCL operates several museums and collections in a wide range of fields, including the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and the Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, and administers the annual Orwell Prize in political writing. In 2022/23, UCL had a total income of £1.93 billion, of which £527 million was from research grants and contracts.^[2] The university generates around £10 billion annually for the UK economy, primarily through the spread of its research and knowledge (£4 billion) and the impact of its own spending (£3 billion).^[15]

UCL is a member of numerous academic organisations, including the Russell Group and the League of European Research Universities, and is part of UCL Partners, the world's largest academic health science centre.^[16] It is considered part of the "golden triangle" of research-intensive universities in southeast England.^[17] UCL has publishing and commercial activities including UCL Press, UCL Business and UCL Consultants.

UCL has many notable alumni, including the founder of Mauritius, the first Prime Minister of Japan, one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, and the members of Coldplay. UCL academics discovered five of the naturally occurring noble gases, discovered hormones, invented the vacuum tube, and made several foundational advances in modern statistics. As of 2022^[update], 30 Nobel Prize winners^[18] and three Fields medallists^[19] have been affiliated with UCL as alumni or academic staff.

Main article: History of University College London

1826 to 1836 – London University

Share no. 1105 in the University of London, issued 3 February 1829

The London University (now the UCL Main Building) as imagined by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd in 1827–28, when construction was in progress. The portico and dome were completed in 1829, but lack of funds meant it would be many years before reality matched the picture.

UCL was founded on 11 February 1826 as an alternative to the Anglican universities of Oxford and Cambridge.^[20] It took the form of a joint stock company, with shares sold for £100 (equivalent to £10,600 in 2023) to proprietors, under the name of London University, although without legal recognition as a university or the associated right to award degrees.^[21][22][23] London University's first warden was Leonard Horner, who was the first scientist to head a British university.^[24]

Henry Tonks' 1923 mural The Four Founders of UCL

Despite the commonly held belief that the philosopher Jeremy Bentham was the founder of UCL, his direct involvement was limited to the purchase of share No. 633, at a cost of £100 paid in nine instalments between December 1826 and January 1830. In 1828, he did nominate a friend to sit on the council, and in 1827, attempted to have his disciple John Bowring appointed as the first professor of English or History, but on both occasions his candidates were unsuccessful.^[25] However, Bentham is commonly regarded as the "spiritual father" of UCL, as his ideas on education and society were influential with the institution's founders, particularly James Mill (1773–1836) and Henry Brougham (1778–1868).^[26]

In 1828, the chair of political economy at London University was created, with John Ramsay McCulloch as the first incumbent.^[27] In 1829, the university appointed the first professor of English in England, although the course concentrated on linguistics and the modern teaching of English – studying English literature – was introduced by King's College London in 1831.^[28] In 1830, London University founded the London University School, which would later become University College School.^[29] In 1833, the university appointed Alexander Maconochie, secretary to the Royal Geographical Society, as the first professor of geography in Britain.^[30][31] Classes in medicine began at the opening of the college in 1828, and in 1834 University College Hospital (originally North London Hospital) opened as a teaching hospital for these classes, which were organised into a faculty of medicine in 1836.^[32]

1836 to 1900 – University College, London

After almost a decade of attempting to win recognition as a university and the right to award degrees, including an Address to the Crown from the House of Commons, the proprietors of London University accepted the government's proposal to establish the University of London as an independent examining body, accepting the status of a college for their institution.^[33] As a result, the proprietors of London University were incorporated by royal charter under the name University College, London on 28 November 1836. On the same day, the University of London was created by royal charter as a degree-awarding examining board for students from affiliated schools and colleges, with University College and King's College, London being named in the charter as the first two affiliates.^[33][34] The first students from UCL and King's matriculated as undergraduates in 1838 and the first degrees were awarded to students of the two colleges in 1839.^[35]

There had been an intention to establish a course in engineering at the college's opening but no professor was appointed until 1840 or 1841, after engineering courses had started at Durham University (1837) and King's College London (1838).^[36][37] The Slade School of Fine Art was founded as part of University College in 1871, following a bequest from Felix Slade.^[38]

In 1878, the University of London gained a supplemental charter making it the first British university to be allowed to award degrees to women. The same year, UCL admitted women to the faculties of Arts and Law and of Science, although women remained barred from the faculties of Engineering and of Medicine (with the exception of courses on public health and hygiene).^[39][40] UCL's admission of women in 1878 came almost three decades after Bedford College became the first institution to offer university-level education for women in Britain, and the establishment of the University of London's General Examination for Women in 1868.^[41][42]

The Ladies' Educational Association held classes for women from 1868, taught by professors from UCL but independently of the college. From 1871 to 1872 these were held inside the college building, although still independently of the college. From 1872, some professors, particularly Edward Poynter of the Slade, started to admit women to their classes.^[43] The full opening on the faculties of arts, science and law in 1878 came two years after the admission of women alongside men at the University of Bristol from its foundation (as University College Bristol) in 1876.^[44] The first woman to officially enrol in architecture at UCL was Gertrude Leverkus in 1915,^[45] although Ethel and Bessie Charles had been allowed to audit classes in the 1890s.^[46] Women were finally admitted to medical studies during the First World War in 1917, although limitations were placed on their numbers after the war ended.^[47]

A new royal charter granted to the University of London in 1858 effectively removed the affiliation of colleges to the university. Dissatisfaction from the colleges and the desire for a "teaching university" in London led to royal commissions that reported in 1888 and 1892 and the reconstitution of the university under the University of London Act 1898.^[33]

1900 to 1976 – University of London, University College

University College London (Transfer) Act 1905
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Citation	5 Edw. 7. c. xci
Dates
Royal assent	11 July 1905
Text of statute as originally enacted

Following the University of London's reconstitution in 1909, transforming it from an examining board to a federal university with constituent "schools", UCL, became a school of the University of London. While most of the colleges that became schools of the university retained their autonomy, UCL chose to be merged into the university in 1907 under the University College London (Transfer) Act 1905 (5 Edw. 7. c. xci) and surrendered its legal independence in return for gaining a greater say in the running of the university.^[33] Its formal name became University of London, University College, although for most informal and external purposes the name "University College, London" (or the initialism UCL) was still used. As of 2022,^[update] it remains listed as "University of London: University College" on US Federal Student Aid applications.^[48]

The Cruciform Building, seen from inside the quadrangle of the UCL Main Building

1900 also saw the decision to appoint a salaried head of the college. The first incumbent was Carey Foster, who served as Principal (as the post was originally titled) from 1900 to 1904. He was succeeded by Gregory Foster (no relation), and in 1906 the title was changed to Provost to avoid confusion with the principal of the University of London. Gregory Foster remained in post until 1929.^[49][50][51] In 1906, the Cruciform Building was opened as the new home for University College Hospital.^[52] UCL opened the first department and chair of chemical engineering in the UK, funded by the Ramsay Memorial Fund, in 1923.^[53]

In 1904, Francis Galton donated £1,000 to the University of London for a eugenics laboratory; this transferred to UCL in 1907 with Karl Pearson as its director.^[54] UCL apologised for its "fundamental role in the development, propagation and legitimisation of eugenics" in 2021.^[55]

In 1911, UCL received an anonymous donation of £30,000 (equivalent to £3,860,000 in 2023) for a building for its school of architecture. In 1919 the donor consented to being named as Herbert Bartlett and the school was renamed in his honour.^[56]

UCL sustained considerable bomb damage during the Second World War, including the complete destruction of the Great Hall, the Carey Foster Physics Laboratory and the Ramsay Laboratory. Fires gutted the library and destroyed much of the main building, including the dome; it was not until 1954 that the main building was fully restored. The departments were dispersed across the country to Aberystwyth, Bangor, Gwynedd, Cambridge, Oxford, Rothamsted near Harpenden, Hertfordshire and Sheffield, with the administration at Stanstead Bury near Ware, Hertfordshire.^[57] The first UCL student newspaper, Pi, was founded in 1946.^[58] The Institute of Jewish Studies relocated from Manchester to UCL in 1959.^[59] The Mullard Space Science Laboratory was established in 1967.^[60]

In 1973, Peter Kirstein's research group at UCL became one of only two international nodes on the ARPANET, later becoming part of SATNET.^[61][62] UCL's interconnection between the ARPANET and early British academic networks was the first international heterogeneous resource sharing network.^[63] UCL played a significant role in the very earliest experimental Internet work and adopted TCP/IP in 1982, ahead of the ARPANET.^{[64][65][66][note 1]}

The college's senior common room, the Housman Room, remained men-only until 1969. After two unsuccessful attempts, a motion was passed that ended segregation by sex at UCL. This was achieved by Brian Woledge (Fielden Professor of French at UCL from 1939 to 1971) and David Colquhoun, at that time a young lecturer in pharmacology.^[67]

1976 to 2005 – University College London

The Wilkins Building in 1956

2014

In 1976, a new charter restored UCL's legal independence, although still without the power to award its own degrees.^[68][69] Under this charter the college became formally known as University College London. This name abandoned the comma used in its earlier name of University College, London.

In 1993, a reorganisation of the University of London meant that UCL and other colleges gained direct access to government funding and the right to confer University of London degrees themselves. This led to UCL being regarded as a de facto university in its own right.^[70][71]

Mergers were a major feature of this period of UCL's history. In 1986, the college merged with the Institute of Archaeology.^[72] In 1988, UCL merged with the Institute of Laryngology & Otology, the Institute of Orthopaedics, the Institute of Urology & Nephrology and Middlesex Hospital Medical School.^[72] Middlesex and University College hospitals, together with the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, formed the University College London Hospitals NHS Trust in 1994.^[73]

Mergers continued in the 1990s, with the Institute of Child Health joining in 1995, the School of Podiatry in 1996^[74] and the Institute of Neurology in 1997.^[72][75] In 1998, UCL merged with the Royal Free Hospital Medical School to create the Royal Free and University College Medical School (renamed the UCL Medical School in October 2008). In 1999, UCL merged with the School of Slavonic and East European Studies^[76][77] and the Eastman Dental Institute.^[72]

Proposals for a merger between UCL and Imperial College London were announced in 2002.^[78] The proposal provoked strong opposition from UCL teaching staff and students and the AUT union, which criticised "the indecent haste and lack of consultation", leading to its abandonment by UCL provost Sir Derek Roberts.^[79][80]

From 2005

The UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies building, which was opened in 2005

UCL was granted its own taught and research degree awarding powers in 2005,^[81] and all UCL students registered from 2007/08 qualified with UCL degrees.^[82] The same year, UCL adopted a new corporate branding under which the name University College London was replaced by the initialism UCL in all external communications.^[83]

UCL established the UCL School of Energy & Resources (later UCL Australia) in Adelaide, Australia, in 2008 as the first campus of a British university in the country.^[84] The school was based in the historic Torrens Building in Victoria Square.^[85] In 2011, the mining company BHP Billiton agreed to donate AU$10 million to UCL to fund the establishment of two energy institutes – the Energy Policy Institute, based in Adelaide, and the Institute for Sustainable Resources, based in London.^[86] UCL Australia closed in December 2017, with academic staff and student transferring to the University of South Australia.^[87] Since 2018, UCL and the University of South Australia have offered joint master's degrees in data science and in energy systems with study in Adelaide and London.^[88]

In 2011, UCL announced plans for a £500 million investment in its main Bloomsbury campus over 10 years, as well as the establishment of a new campus, UCL East, next to the Olympic Park in Stratford in the East End of London.^[89] In 2018, UCL opened UCL at Here East, at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, offering courses jointly between the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment and the Faculty of Engineering Sciences.^[90][91] The first undergraduate students, on a new Engineering and Architectural Design MEng, started in September 2018.^[92] One Pool Street, the first building on the UCL East campus, opened in November 2022. UCL East was officially opened, along with the Marshgate building that completed phase 1 of the development, in September 2023 by Olympic gold medalist and UCL alumna Christine Ohuruogu.^[93][94]

UCL continued to grow through mergers with smaller colleges in the University of London. On 1 January 2012 the School of Pharmacy, University of London merged with UCL, becoming the UCL School of Pharmacy within the Faculty of Life Sciences.^[95][96] UCL and the Institute of Education formed a strategic alliance in October 2012,^[97] followed by a full merger in December 2014.^{[98][99][100][101]}

New Student Centre on Gordon Street

UCL paid tens of thousands of pounds to settle ten sexual harassment claims against staff in the 2017/18 academic year, a rise from four cases the year before. Following pressure from victims, and after physicist Emma Chapman won the legal right to speak freely about her abuse at the university, UCL announced in 2018 that it would abandon non-disclosure settlements in settlements.^[102][103] In 2020, UCL became the first Russell Group university to ban romantic and sexual relationships between lecturers and their students.^[104]

It was discovered in 2018 that an annual eugenics conference, the London Conference on Intelligence, had been held at UCL, as an external paid event, between 2014 and 2017.^[105] An enquiry found that the organiser, an honorary lecturer, did not correctly follow the room booking procedure, including claiming that no controversial topics would be discussed, leaving the university unaware of the nature of the conference.^[106] Following the revelation, UCL announced in 2018 that it would launch an enquiry into the university's historical links with eugenics.^[107] This reported in 2020,^[108] but covered only historical eugenics and did not address the 2014–17 conferences, leading to a majority of the authors refusing to sign the final report.^[109] The Galton Lecture Theatre, Pearson Lecture Theatre and Pearson Building were all renamed in 2020,^[109] and in 2021 UCL apologised for its part in promoting eugenics during the first half of the 20th century.^[55][110] UCL was criticised (along with Oxford, Imperial and other London universities) in 2021 for accepting money from the Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust, established to hold the fortune left to Max Mosley by his father, British fascist leader Oswald Mosley. UCL received £500,000 to establish a forensic evidence interpretation laboratory.^{[111][112][113]}

Following the passing of the University of London Act 2018, which allowed member institutions to become universities in their own right while remaining part of the University of London, UCL applied for university status in 2019.^[114] The application was approved by the Office for Students in 2022 and a supplemental charter was sealed on 17 April 2023, granting UCL university status.^[115]

Bloomsbury

UCL East

UCL Observatory

UCL School of Management

UCL Sports Ground

UCL campuses (red) and other facilities (blue) within London

Statue of John Locke by Richard Westmacott, on display in the Main Building.

Bloomsbury

See also: Filming at University College London

UCL is primarily based in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, in Central London. The main campus is located around Gower Street, with many other departments close by in Bloomsbury.^[116] Many health institutes are located close to associated hospitals, including the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Queen Square,^[117] the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children,^[116] and the UCL Eastman Dental Institute and Eastman