UCL and India: A historic relationship

In 1845, the first Indian students to formally enrol at any UK university came to UCL, studying medicine. Their presence marked the beginning of a tradition of openness and global engagement that remains central to UCL today. Indian languages were taught at UCL from our earliest years, supported by a growing community of Indian scholars.

UCL became one of the earliest and largest employers of Indian teaching staff in UK higher education, creating a welcoming environment for students from the subcontinent. Among them was Dadabhai Naoroji, lecturer of Gujarati (1856–65), later the first Indian elected to the UK Parliament, whose work on political economy and anticolonial thought influenced generations. UCL’s research heritage in India also has deep roots.

Sir William Ramsay, UCL Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and both Britain and UCL’s first Nobel Laureate (1904), visited India in 1900 at the invitation of Jamsetji Tata. His report was instrumental in establishing the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and two UCL alumni - Morris William Travers and Sir Alfred Gibbs Bourne - became IISc’s first directors.

Prominent UCL alumni such as Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (BSc, 1883), pioneer of radio science and plant physiology, helped shape the foundations of India’s scientific research institutions, including the Bose Institute in Kolkata. These connections also include Rukhmabai, one of India’s earliest women doctors, whose story reflects both educational ambition and social reform.

In 1890, she came to London to study at the London School of Medicine for Women (later the Royal Free Hospital Medical School, which merged with UCL in 1998). A former child bride who challenged attempts to force her to live with her husband in a landmark legal case in India, she later returned as a trained doctor and became a strong advocate for women’s rights.

Connections continued through scholars including Augustus De Morgan, born in Madurai and later UCL’s first Professor of Mathematics, and Professor Otto Koenigsberger, UCL’s first Professor of Planning, who helped shape post-Partition refugee settlements and the town plans for Bhubaneswar and Jamshedpur.

UCL alumni have also shaped cultural and political life. Rabindranath Tagore, who briefly studied at UCL in 1879, went on to become one of India’s most celebrated literary figures. Other alumni, including Romesh Chunder Dutt, made landmark contributions to economic nationalism and the study of Indian history.

In 1925, S. R. Ranganathan - today considered the father of library and information science in India - came to UCL and developed the first major faceted classification system, still influential worldwide. These historic ties are more than milestones; they represent a shared commitment to learning, innovation and public purpose.