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University College London

UCL (University College London) was founded in 1826, the first university in London.
UCL portico


UCL (University College London) was founded in 1826, the first university in London.  It is a degree-awarding university in its own right. Since its beginnings, it has been a central part of the higher education ecosystem in the capital, in the UK, and in the world.  

UCL positions itself as “London’s Global University”. It has the largest population of graduate and postgraduate students from overseas at any UK university.  Such student diversity is paralleled by the diversity of the staff who come from all over the world, from many different countries, cultures and academic systems.

UCL has a long history of significant achievements and prominent and distinguished faculty.  It has always taken a leading role in breaking traditions of exclusion and insularity, addressing challenges of inclusivity and of diversity as they are recognised by each generation.  Widening participation is central to the University’s work as it pursues its charitable and public mission. 

UCL has profound academic strengths in a wide range of sciences (biological, physical, mathematical, data, medical, brain, psychological, engineering, social and historical sciences), in the arts, humanities, laws, and education. It is also home to outstanding schools of fine art and architecture.  UCL prides itself on its commitment to interdisciplinarity by encouraging disciplines to interact with each other.  The compact nature of the campus ensures that interactions are easily started and readily maintained. 

UCL also focuses on global Grand Challenges. These inspire concerted interdisciplinary action in critical areas of health, sustainability, culture, wellbeing, justice, and technology. This openness to big challenges is communicated widely through UCL’s research and outreach activities.

Primrose Hill

Based in Bloomsbury in Central London, UCL is in the middle of a vibrant cultural area. It is surrounded by theatres, galleries, museums, clubs, restaurants, libraries, and parks.  UCL even has its own very large theatre for plays, musicals, concerts, operas, and comedy and includes several significant museums amongst its buildings.  London, and everything embedded in it, benefits from the rare “multi-capital” effect generated when a single city is simultaneously a knowledge capital, a financial and commercial capital (the City of London), a political capital (Westminster), a legal capital (national and international) and a cultural and historical capital. Few cities in the world share this extraordinary capacity for synergy. This makes London an outstanding centre for putting knowledge to work through transfer, innovation, and enterprise.

Travel to and from UCL is particularly convenient both for local longer distance commuting for it has enviable national and international transport links.