Access Officer and recent alum Lucia Qureshi has sought to ensure that all young people feel able to pursue and thrive in higher education, guided by the legacy of UCL’s early women students.
Since joining UCL in 2022, Lucia Qureshi’s worn many hats. Beginning her journey as Access Assistant, she helped to run school visits for 16–17-year-olds who were underrepresented in UK higher education. By June 2023 she had progressed to Access Officer, supporting delivery of intensive residential school programmes for regional students, in partnership with social mobility charity The Sutton Trust.
Growing up in a lower-income household within an affluent area of Surrey, Lucia was “acutely conscious of socioeconomic barriers”. She felt academically isolated at her large comprehensive school where “learning wasn’t something that was cool or something to shout about”. Things changed when she went to university, to study English Literature and History.
When I got to university, I suddenly realised how different an environment could be, that this is somewhere where learning and curiosity and working hard were really valued. It was because of that feeling that I’ve been working in higher education since.
UCL was where Lucia first developed an interest in the history of universities, as sites of significant cultural and social formation. She undertook a part-time MA in Gender, Society and Representation alongside her full-time roles, focusing on the experiences of UCL’s early women students through a queer lens. This gave her what she describes as a “connection across time” with women who carved out space for themselves in institutions not built for them.
She often brings these stories into her outreach and events work, from campus tours to summer school sessions, using history to show students that people like them have always been part of UCL’s story. This work also gave her the confidence to trust her own instincts.
It seems small, but my master’s was the first time I could use the word “I” in academic writing, it was when I realised that acknowledging my own position was a strength, not a weakness. My experiences were essential tools for interpreting the archives and shaping the direction of my work.
Looking ahead, she hopes UCL continues its “radical sense of inclusion,” particularly for targeted support groups:
Students from forced migration backgrounds, those who are care‑experienced or estranged from their families, or those with specific disabilities all need very specialist support. UCL does great work to get students through the door, but we must make sure we are supporting them throughout the student cycle, so that access doesn’t end at admission.
Completing her MA in 2025, Lucia plans to pursue a PhD exploring women’s histories in the context of race and empire, continuing to bring her widening participation lens to academic scholarship.
