Support UCL

In September 2012, Louise began a PhD research project at the UCL Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging (CABI), a new multidisciplinary research centre. Louise receives financial support for her research through the UCL Impact Studentship, a programme designed to attract researchers with the highest scientific skills to the field of biomedical and life sciences. The generous funding donated to the programme not only transforms the lives of PhD students, but also enables them to make a meaningful contribution to medical research at UCL and on a global scale.

Xtreme Everest is a dedicated team of intensive care doctors, nurses and scientists. They conduct experiments on themselves and other volunteers at high altitude in order to develop novel therapies to improve the survival rates of patients in intensive care. Alumni gifts have helped to support the volunteers who participate in these expeditions, which provide practical knowledge that can be translated to the intensive care wards in our hospitals.

The Institute of Making held a Christmas make session on 12 December 2012 at the UCL Engineering Café. UCL staff, students, alumni and friends explored some of the wonders of the material world in a series of free making workshops. Visitors experimented with dipping, casting, folding, coating and constructing using wax, chocolate, paper, pewter and even got hands on carving moulds out of cuttlefish bone. Over 150 people attended the event and the Institute of Making team brought the scientific processes behind pewter casting and electroplating to chocolate tempering and sugar crystallisation to life. The team posted a big cast pewter thumbs up to all those who attended the event. 

UCL third year anthropology students and creative partners, Megan Laws and Joshua Lipworth describe their joy at winning the UK leg of an American short film competition and the proceeding four month trip across the USA to film their first long format documentary. The research trip and the film that followed were both made possible through the generous support of UCL alumni and friends.

Donations from UCL alumni and friends have enabled some of the sporting talent amongst our student community to reach world-class potential. The UCLU Elite Athlete Programme has been co-funded by a UCL union grant and by the generosity of UCL alumni and friends.

The Paralympic Games were established right here in Britain in 1948! Just one of the many things I was taught during my training to run the recent Paralympic Sports Taster Day, organised with the help of funding from the Greatest Needs and Opportunities Fund and the Volunteering Services Unit at UCL.

On Monday 12 March we hosted our second student-led Scholarships and Bursaries reception, to celebrate the impact of philanthropic support for our students. We were pleased to welcome a number of generous donors who had supported a named scholarship or bursary at UCL. Over 30 student ambassadors attended the event, all of whom are current recipients of student support.

UCL President & Provost Malcolm Grant officially opened the new Students’ Union building, which was in part made possible by a number of generous alumni and friends supporting the major renovation of the old Lewis’s Building on the corner of Gower Street and Gordon Place. 

UCL Library Services have recently digitised, thanks to the generous donations from UCL alumni, the surviving text of Galton’s novel Kantsaywhere. UCL decided it to make it publicly available for the first time as part of a year of events commemorating the 100th anniversary of his death.

In March this year the Grant Museum of Zoology moves to a new, more spacious and more public home, in the Rockefeller Building on Gower Street. It retains its Victorian cases, crammed with specimens, and these look spectacular in the new space, but – due in large part to the generosity of donors to the UCL Annual Fund - the approach to visitor interaction is very much of the 21st century.

A team of UCL architects, engineers and students pooled their expertise to build a primary school and community-centre complex in earthquake-stricken Haiti in 2010.

It has been another busy and successful year of mooting which has been supported directly by alumni gifts made in 2011-2012 to the UCL Faculty of Laws.

UCL alumni and friends have supported a project to reduce maternal and child mortality and morbidity in Malawi. Gifts from UCL supporters have enabled the production of Umodzi (Together) a documentary about women’s groups in rural Malawi facilitated by MaiMwana Project, a collaboration between UCL's Centre for International Health and Development (UCL-CIHD) and the Malawi Ministry of Health. 

I recently completed my MSc in Security Studies with a distinction – something I’m extremely proud of – but also something I couldn’t have accomplished without alumni support.

This year the kind contributions of UCL alumni and friends have supported our academics as they undertake research into ‘Healthy Cities’. The Healthy Cities project will consider how changing the built environment might affect the health of its residents. 

UCL Laws students have the opportunity to work in a real-time law environment thanks to an exciting new initiative. The Pro Bono project is being set up to enable students, under supervision from qualified solicitors, to offer free legal advice to members of the community.

Second year students from UCL’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering have helped to build earthquake proof housing in Peru thanks to a grant from the Greatest Needs and Opportunities Fund.

There are over 20,000 students from nearly 140 countries at UCL. Educated by exceptional, dedicated teachers, they experience a dynamic learning environment in one of the world’s most exciting cities. It’s a demanding place to study – but for some it’s not just the academic work that is a challenge. The cost of being at university can prove overwhelming and each year there are students who would not be able to remain at UCL without financial assistance.

Donations from UCL alumni and friends have led to the creation of a web-hosted learning environment allowing Medical students instant and constant access to a wide array of learning resources.

My name is Helena and I recently completed an MA at UCL having studied for my undergraduate degree here as well. I studied English at UCL and knew from the day I set foot on campus for my interview that this was where I wanted to be. I loved the sense of history you felt just from walking round the cloisters and reading in the main library. I was excited too about the idea of living in a fantastically busy city whilst being part of a close-knit community. My UCL experience certainly didn’t disappoint; my tutors were fantastic and challenged me to produce my best.

One of UCL’s most popular hangouts – the Print Room Café – was created thanks to the generous supporters of the Greatest Needs and Opportunities Fund.