University developments

In the largest single expansion since UCL was founded nearly 200 years ago, UCL East (at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford) joins our Bloomsbury campus in discovering, co-creating and sharing new knowledge for the benefit of all.

At the end of nine years of planning and four years of building work, the first building, One Pool Street, opens in 2022, just along the river from the London Aquatics Centre. It is joined in 2023 by a larger building opposite called Marshgate, standing beside the London Stadium and giant ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture.

Dr Michael Spence AC becomes the new President and Provost of UCL. He takes up the position after moving to London from his home in Australia, where he had been the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney since July 2008.

The £67.4 million multi-purpose Student Centre officially opened its doors on 18 February 2019. It is located on Gordon Square, Bloomsbury campus, and provides 1,000 study spaces, over eight levels, for UCL's 42,000-strong student community. Centred around a spectacular atrium, the building includes features such as a new artwork by Turner Prize-winning artist Rachel Whiteread, a landscaped courtyard, a café and rooftop terrace with views across London.

The Institute of Education (IOE) merges with UCL, becoming an 11th faculty. The Institute was founded in 1902, and is today known throughout the world as the UK’s premier centre of excellence for the education and training of teachers and for the conduct of educational research.

Professor Michael Arthur becomes Provost, the first clinical academic to hold the position in the university’s history. A hepatologist, Professor Arthur was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds before joining UCL. He has a significant international profile in higher education as well as medicine. He is former Chair of the Advisory Group for National Specialised Services for the Department of Health, the Worldwide Universities Network and the Russell Group. 

UCL launches the interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts and Sciences undergraduate degree programme. All students on the course will be required to study a mix of arts and sciences, as well as a foreign language. They will also be offered the opportunity to study abroad for a year.

The UCL Academy opens its doors to Year 7 and 12 students. UCL is the sole sponsor of the academy, a non-selective, mixed state school. The London Evening Standard described it as "likely to match, or even outstrip, what’s on offer at the country’s most outstanding private schools" (10 September 2012).

The School of Pharmacy merges with UCL, becoming part of the Faculty of Life Sciences. The School was founded in 1842 by the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain to "elevate the profession of pharmacy by furnishing the means of proper institution".

UCL becomes a founding partner of the Francis Crick Institute, a medical research consortium also involving the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust, Imperial and King's College London.

The Yale UCL Collaborative is formally established. Its working mission is to educate to enable positive contribution, interpret complex issues for wider society and solve important issues through collaborative research and its implementation.

UCL Partners is designated as one of the first academic health science partnerships in the UK. As well as UCL, the founding partners include Barts Health NHS Trust, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Queen Mary University of London, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

UCL establishes a Vice-Provost (Enterprise) post to promote collaboration with industry partners and entrepreneurial activity within the university.

"An enterprising community is one that is resourceful, creative, dynamic, and bold – characteristics that we recognise as part of the fabric of UCL." Professor Stephen Caddick, Vice-Provost (Enterprise)

UCL is given the power to award its own degrees. Previously, it had awarded University of London degrees.

Barrister, environmental lawyer, academic and public servant, Professor Grant becomes UCL’s ninth Provost in 2003. Grant's extensive writing covers many subjects including planning and environmental law, biotechnology regulation, finance and political management, central–local government relations and human rights. Professor Grant is awarded a CBE in 2003 for service to planning law and local government, and is knighted for services to higher education in 2013, his final year as Provost.

Smith oversees successful research bids in the Joint Infrastructure Fund and through the Science Research Investment Fund, totaling £100 million. However, a worsening deficit and Smith’s academic restructuring attracts criticism from some, leading to his resignation in 2002 to resume research work. Sir Derek Roberts returns to his previous post on an interim basis until a successor is found.

The University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is established. One of the first of its kind, it includes UCH, and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

• 1999 The Eastman Dental Institute joins UCL
• 1999 The School of Slavonic and East European Studies merges with UCL
• 1997 The Institute of Neurology merges with UCL
• 1986 The Institute of Archaeology becomes part of UCL

With a professional background largely in industrial scientific research, Roberts’ appointment marks somewhat of a shift. Expansion during his tenure includes the merger of UCL and the Institute of Child Health in 1996. Roberts retires in 1999.

Lighthill is Lucasian Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cambridge University at the time of his appointment to Provost. Faced with substantial government cuts to higher education during the 1980s, UCL dramatically increases its funding from non-governmental organisations, thus maintaining its growth during this difficult time. Lighthill remains Provost for 10 years.

UCL's student accommodation expands to 1,500 places. There were just 350 places in 1961.

Wates House (UCL Bartlett) opens to accommodate the Faculty of the Built Environment.

UCL establishes the Department of Physics and Astronomy, an amalgamation which becomes the College’s largest department. Space research had begun in the Department of Physics in 1956 led by Sir Robert Boyd.

Against a backdrop of diminishing funds and student unrest, Lord Annan exerts strong diplomacy during his time as Provost and oversees a number of major building projects. The last major building to be opened during his tenure is Wates House, home of the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, in 1975, thanks in large part to a substantial donation from the Wates Foundation. Annan retires in 1978.

Bentham House, in Endsleigh Gardens, is purchased to house the Faculty of Laws. It had previously been the offices of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers.

A former English student at the university, Evans is Education Director of the British Council during the war. During his time at UCL he retains a strong public presence as a well-known literary critic, writer and broadcaster. He oversees a period of great expansion at the university, retiring in 1966.

Pye oversees a tumultuous time for the university after substantial damage is endured during the Second World War. In 1943, he remarks: “There was hardly a square foot of glass.” Previously an engineer, Pye had worked on the development of jet propulsion while Director of Scientific Research for the Air Ministry. He remains Provost until 1951.

The Lunch Hour Lecture series begins, commencing UCL's proud tradition of public engagement by offering lectures open to all. And still running!

UCL is seriously damaged in a Second World War bombing raid. The bombing entirely destroys the Great Hall and guts much of the library. Fortunately, all departments had been evacuated from London at the onset of war in 1939.

Sir Gregory Foster retired from his post as Provost in 1929 to focus on becoming Vice-Chancellor under the university’s new Statutes. He was replaced by Sir Allen Mawer, a former graduate student of UCL who had also become a Professor of English at Newcastle and Liverpool. Mawer held the position until 1942.

• 1928 Charles Spearman becomes the first chair of Psychology
• 1921 UCL establishes a chair in Phonetics

King George V and Queen Mary visited UCL during UCL's Centenary celebrations in 1927, which also included a series of lectures, exhibitions and dinners.

The Cruciform Building is completed. It houses the University College Hospital until 2000.

It was decided in 1900 that there should once again be a salaried head of the university, with the title of Principal. In order to avoid confusion with the newly formed Principal of the University of London, Foster’s title was renamed Provost. Formerly a student and teacher at the university in the late 19th century, Foster was also President of the Union before taking up his post as UCL’s first Provost, a role he held until 1929.

Poet and classicist A. E. Housman publishes A Shropshire Lad, while Professor of Latin at UCL. It has remained in print ever since.

UCL becomes the first university in England to establish a students’ union. It is founded without the permission of the UCL Council, in part to protest the inadequacies of sports facilities.

Sir Flinders Petrie becomes the first chair in Egyptology using money from novelist and explorer Amelia Edwards. It is Ms Edwards’s wish that Sir Flinders spends his winters excavating in Egypt, which he duly does.

UCL becomes the first university in England to welcome women to university education:

"The officers of the College are not aware that objections have ever been made by any of the students to this combined instruction." (UCL Annual Report)

"I need not say how strongly I feel that it is the business of the U.C. (UCL) to be boldly first in recognising fully any new and real want of the time." Henry Morley, Professor of English, discussing the admission of female students to the university

Work commences on the UCL Slade School of Fine Art. It is built using endowments from Felix Slade, a famous London collector, as a place to teach professional artists.

The Department of Hygiene and Public Health is created.

Work commences on the South Wing extension, which now predominantly houses teaching and learning space.

Robert Liston performs the first operation under anaesthetic in Europe at University College Hospital.

The first chair of Civil Engineering in the country is established. The first professor, C. B. Vignoles, is a leading railway engineer who comes to UCL having lost £80,000 in shares while Chief Engineer of Sheffield and Manchester Railway.

J. J. Sylvester, one of the century’s great mathematicians, joins UCL as a professor. He had previously been expelled for threatening another student with a refectory knife.

Originally founded as North London Hospital in 1834 as a place for medical students to do clinical training, it had space for 130 patients. It changed its name to University College Hospital in 1837.

Captain Alexander Maconochie, a retired naval captain, is UCL and Britain's first professor of Geography 1833-36. He was also secretary of the newly-founded Royal Geographical Society.

UCL is the first university in England to admit students regardless of religion at a time when this is a radical departure from tradition. It is heavily attacked by the traditional establishment and the conservative press. As a non-residential university, UCL makes higher education affordable and accessible to a much broader section of society than before. The new university mainly attracts young men and boys (some as young as 14 years old) from London’s professional classes.

UCL establishes the first academic departments in Chemistry, English, German and Italian in England. The new modern languages were taught by refugees from their respective countries, including Antonio Panizzi, who had escaped from a death sentence in his native Italy.

In the early nineteenth century London is the largest city in Europe but almost the only capital without a university. The first English university outside the ancient establishments of Oxford and Cambridge, UCL is founded by a group of progressive and liberal reformers, some of whom take inspiration from the philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832).