University College London (UCL), formerly styled University College, London, is a public research university in London, Englandand a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1826 as London University, UCL was the first university institution established in London and the first in England to be entirely secular, to admit students regardless of their religion, and to admit women on equal terms with men.[5] The philosopher Jeremy Bentham is commonly regarded as the spiritual father of UCL, as his radical ideas on education and society were the inspiration to its founders, although his direct involvement in its foundation was limited. UCL became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London in 1836. It has grown through mergers, including with the Institute of Neurology (in 1997), 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's main campus is located in the Bloomsbury area of central London, with a number of institutes and teaching hospitals elsewhere in central London, and satellite campuses in Adelaide, Australia and Doha, Qatar. UCL is organised into 11 constituent faculties, within which there are over 100 departments, institutes and research centres. UCL has around 36,000 students and 11,000 staff (including around 6,000 academic staff and 980 professors) and had a total income of £1.02 billion in 2013/14, of which £374.5 million was from research grants and contracts.[1] Measured by number of students it is both the largest higher education institution in London and largest postgraduate institution in the UK.[6][7] UCL is responsible for 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.
UCL is considered to be one of the most prestigious universities in the world[8] and ranks highly in league tables; it is 20th in the world (and 4th in Europe) in the 2014 Academic Ranking of World Universities,[9] joint 5th in the world (and joint 3rd in Europe) in the 2014 QS World University Rankings[10] and 22nd in the world (and 5th in Europe) in the 2014/15 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. For the period 1999 to 2009 it was the 13th most-cited university in the world (and most-cited in Europe).There are 32 Nobel Prize winners and three Fields Medalists amongst UCL's alumni and current and former staff. UCL alumni include the "Father of the Nation" of each of India, Kenya and Mauritius, the inventor of the telephone, and one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA. All five of the naturally-occurring noble gases were discovered at UCL by William Ramsay.
UCL is part of three of the 11 biomedical research centres established by the NHS in England and is a founding member of theFrancis Crick Institute and UCL Partners, the world's largest academic health science centre. UCL has hundreds of research and teaching partnerships, including a major collaboration with Yale University, the Yale UCL Collaborative. UCL is a member of numerous academic organisations including the G5, the League of European Research Universities and the Russell Group and forms part of the 'golden triangle' of British universities.
UCL was founded on 11 February 1826 under the name London University as a secular alternative to the religious universities of Oxford and Cambridge. London University's first Warden was Leonard Horner, who was the first scientist to head a British university.
Henry Tonks' 1923 muralThe 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 installments 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. This suggests that while his ideas may have been influential, he himself was less so. However Bentham is today commonly regarded as the "spiritual father" of UCL, as his radical ideas on education and society were the inspiration to the institution's founders, particularly the Scotsmen James Mill (1773–1836) and Henry Brougham (1778–1868).
In 1827, the Chair of Political Economy at London University was created, with John Ramsay McCulloch as the first incumbent, establishing one of the first departments of economics in England.[21] In 1828 the university became the first in England to offer English as a degree subject[22] and the teaching of Classics and medicine began. In 1830, London University founded the London University School, which would later become University College School. In 1833, the university appointed Alexander Maconochie, Secretary to the Royal Geographical Society, as the first professor of geography in the UK. In 1834, University College Hospital opened as a teaching hospital for the university medical school.[23] In 1836, London University was renamed University College, London, when, under a Royal Charter, it worked with the recently established King's College, London, to create the federal University of London. The Slade School of Fine Art was founded in 1871 following a bequest from Felix Slade.[24] In 1878 UCL became the first British university to admit women on equal terms to men.[25] In 1898, Sir William Ramsay discovered the elements krypton, neon andxenon whilst professor of chemistry at UCL.[26][27]
1901 to 2005[edit]
William Ramsay is regarded as the "father of noble gases".
Gregory Foster became UCL's first Provost in 1906, a post he would hold for the next 23 years. In the same year the Cruciform Building was opened as the new home for University College Hospital.[28] In 1907 the University of London was formally reconstituted with a new Royal charter, and a number of new institutions joined the federation. As part of this reconstitution each of the constituent institutions, including UCL, lost their legal independence, and henceforth all offered degrees awarded by the University of London. UCL sustained considerable bomb damage during the Second World War, including to the Great Hall and the Carey Foster Physics Laboratory. The first UCL student magazine, Pi Magazine, was published for the first time on 21 February 1946. The Institute of Jewish Studies relocated to UCL in 1959. The Mullard Space Science Laboratorywas established in 1967.[29] In 1973, UCL became the first international link to the precursor of the internet, the ARPANET, sending the world's first e-mail in the same year.[30][31]
The Wilkins Building in 1956
A contemporary view of the same
In 1976, a new charter restored UCL's legal independence, although not the power to award its own degrees.[32][33] It was also under this charter that the College became formally known as University College London (thus abandoning the comma after "College" which had been used since 1836).
In 1986, UCL merged with the Institute of Archaeology.[34] In 1988 UCL merged with the Institute of Laryngology & Otology, the Institute of Orthopaedics, the Institute of Urology & Nephrology and Middlesex Hospital Medical School.[34] In 1994 the University College London Hospitals NHS Trust was established.[35]UCL merged with the College of Speech Sciences and the Institute of Ophthalmology in 1995, the Institute of Child Health and the School of Podiatry in 1996[36] and the Institute of Neurology in 1997.[34][37] 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[38][39] and the Eastman Dental Institute.[34]
The UCL Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science, the first university department in the world devoted specifically to reducing crime, was founded in 2001.[40]
Proposals for a merger between UCL and Imperial College London were announced in 2002.[41] 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 the UCL Provost Sir Derek Roberts.[42]
The London Centre for Nanotechnology was established in 2003 as a joint venture between UCL and Imperial College London.[43][44]
Since 2003, when UCL Professor David Latchman became Master of the neighbouring Birkbeck, he has forged closer relations between these two University of London colleges, and personally maintains departments at both. Joint research centres include the UCL/Birkbeck Institute for Earth and Planetary Sciences, the UCL/Birkbeck/IoE Centre for Educational Neuroscience, the UCL/Birkbeck Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, and the Birkbeck-UCL Centre for Neuroimaging.
2005 to 2010[edit]
The UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies building, which was opened in 2005
In 2005, UCL was again granted its own taught and research degree awarding powers and all new UCL students registered from 2007/08 qualified with UCL degrees. Also in 2005, UCL adopted a new corporate branding, under which, among other things, the name University College London was replaced by the simple initialism UCL in all external communications.[45] In the same year a major new £422 million building was opened for University College Hospital on Euston Road,[46] the UCL Ear Institute was established and a new building for the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies was opened.
In 2007, the UCL Cancer Institute was opened in the newly constructed Paul O'Gorman Building. In August 2008 UCL formed UCL Partners, an academic health science centre, with Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.[47] In 2008 UCL established the UCL School of Energy & Resources in Adelaide, Australia, the first campus of a British university in the country.[48]The School is based in the historic Torrens Building in Victoria Square and its creation followed negotiations between UCL Vice Provost Michael Worton and South Australian Premier Mike Rann.[49]
In 2009, the Yale UCL Collaborative was established between UCL, UCL Partners, Yale University, Yale School of Medicine and Yale – New Haven Hospital.[50] It is the largest collaboration in the history of either university, and its scope has subsequently been extended to the humanities and social sciences.[51][52]
2010 to present[edit]
The Torrens Building inAdelaide, South Australia, which houses the UCL School of Energy and Resources
In June 2011, the mining company BHP Billiton agreed to donate A$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.[53] In November 2011 UCL announced plans for a £500 million investment in its main Bloomsbury campus over 10 years, and the establishment of a new 23-acre campus next to the Olympic Park in Stratford in the East End of London.[54]
The School of Pharmacy, University of London merged with UCL on 1 January 2012, becoming the UCL School of Pharmacy within the Faculty of Life Sciences.[55][56] In May 2012, UCL, Imperial College London and the semiconductor company Intel announced the establishment of the Intel Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Connected Cities, a London-based institute for research into the future of cities.[57][58]
In August 2012 UCL received criticism for advertising an unpaid research position; it subsequently withdrew the advert.[59]
UCL and the Institute of Education formed a strategic alliance in October 2012, including co-operation in teaching, research and the development of the London schools system.[60] In February 2014 the two institutions announced their intention to merge[61][62] and the merger was completed in December 2014.[63][64]
In October 2013 it was announced that the Translation Studies Unit of Imperial College London would move to UCL, becoming part of the UCL School of European Languages, Society and Culture.[65] In December 2013, it was announced that UCL and the academic publishing companyElsevier will collaborate to establish the UCL Big Data Institute.[66] In January 2015 it was announced that UCL had been selected by the UK government to be one of the five founder members of the Alan Turing Institute (together with the universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford and Warwick), an institute to be established at the British Library to promote the development and use of advanced mathematics, computer science, algorithms and Big Data.[67][68]
Campus and locations[edit]
