UCL: London's global university
- First English university to admit women as full degree students
- First English university to admit students of all beliefs and ethnicities
- 150 clubs and societies with 14,500 student members
- 17% of the student body volunteer
- Annual One World celebration of diversity
- Almost 140 student nationalities and 100 staff nationalities
- 21 modern languages taught at UCL
- Central London location
Download our Education for Global Citizenship booklet
Education for Global Citizenship at UCL
UCL is a world-class, research-led, multi-faculty university, consciously and deliberately global and wide-ranging in its reach and ambition. We strive for excellence and are committed to making a difference in the world; our aim is to provide an educational environment that reflects these values and supports our students to develop in the round. We believe that a university can and should aim to shape students’ personal and social development, as well as encourage their intellectual growth. This is what we mean when we talk of a UCL ‘education for global citizenship’: the term encapsulates all that we do at UCL to enable our students to respond to the intellectual, social and personal challenges that they will encounter throughout their future lives and careers.
Teaching and learning: Our degree courses are designed to ensure that students are developing a global and multi-dimensional perspective on their subjects: through course content, teaching methodology and the experience of learning alongside others from a range of backgrounds, countries and cultures.
Extra-curricular activity: We want our students to become fully involved in university life, and to see this as an integral element of their UCL education. Students are actively encouraged to join our Student Union’s many clubs and societies, to take on leadership positions, to innovate and to establish new activity across the university - and to give back to the local community through activities such as volunteering.
Life in London: UCL is located in the heart of London, one of the world’s most culturally diverse cities. Learning to negotiate the capital is a challenge in itself, and one which more than prepares our students for their lives beyond university. Additionally, students have unrivalled access to some of the world’s best cultural and sporting venues, contact with over 300 different national and cultural communities, and proximity to international centres of commerce, business, media and academia.
We consider that the UCL ‘education for global citizenship’ produces outstanding graduates; individuals who are:
- Critical and creative thinkers
- Ambitious, idealistic and committed to ethical and socially responsible behaviour
- Sensitive to cultural difference and able to appreciate its value in intellectual and social contexts
- Entrepreneurs with the ability to innovate
- Prepared to assume leadership roles: in the family, the community and the workplace
- Highly employable and ready to embrace professional mobility
Through this site, we hope to give you a flavour of what ‘education for global citizenship’ means in practice at UCL. We want to show you how our principles have influenced the ways in which we teach and learn, the scope of activity in which are students are engaged, and the profound impact that our diverse staff and student bodies have had on the ways in which we think and behave.
Our students are genuinely remarkable in their enthusiasm, their energy and their engagement. We are fortunate to be able to draw on all of these qualities – together with the expertise of our staff – to develop an ‘education for global citizenship’ which is recognisably a UCL education.
Professor Michael Worton
UCL Vice-Provost (Academic & International)
