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UCL and India
This can be through recruiting brilliant students, engaging with our exceptional alumni, delivering transformative education or undertaking impactful research. We share expertise in areas as diverse as healthcare engineering, population and space sciences, disaster planning and artificial intelligence.
Bidirectional learning, interdisciplinarity, innovation and respect form the bedrock of UCL’s approach in India, creating solutions to complex societal issues including those within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
UCL continues to share longstanding and meaningful connections with India, to jointly address pressing global challenges in innovative ways.
Dr Michael Spence
UCL President & Provost
UCL community
India has long formed an integral part of UCL's global community. Today there are nearly 728 Indian students studying at UCL and academics are engaged across all disciplines, with partners in India. Notable UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi, who registered for UCL (Law) in 1888-89, as well as the Bengali Nobel Laureate, writer and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore (Thakur). Find out more through the slideshow stories and links below:
728 students from India study at UCL
UCL has 2,522 contactable alumni in India
Udit Singhal, a UCL undergraduate who set up a company turning glass into sand, named on Forbes India’s “30 Under 30” list.
Indhu Varatharajan who comes from a small village in Tamil Nadu, India, says UCL’s support gave her lift-off as a planetary scientist.
Sir Michael Pepper, UCL Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering (EEE), is one of five scientists who have been awarded the Royal Society Yusuf Hamied Visiting Professorships to India.
UCL alumnus and entrepreneur Dr Kartik Sharma talks about his ongoing collaborations and involvement in UCL's Hatchery programme.
Professor of Global Health at UCL and based in Mumbai since 2004, David Osrin works in an urban health research collaboration with SNEHA (the Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action).
Alankrita Amarnath (UCL Bartlett), from India, shares her experiences of postgraduate life in the UK.
Making a difference
UCL academics share expertise in line with India’s priorities for development, especially in the fields of health, medicine, sustainable cities and space. During Covid-19, in 2021 UCL sent more than 1,160 UCL-Ventura CPAP breathing aids to India to support the country's fight against the virus.
Find out how else we are delivering global impact together here.
Some of the poorest families in India can now access affordable loans thanks to a new app developed by UCL in partnership with social finance enterprise Village Invest UK.
Two UCL Bartlett alumni, Tanya Khanna and Anika Mittal, launched the Knowledge for a Cause campaign to help the post-pandemic world.
UCL has sent a total of 1,160 breathing aids to India and 130 to Nepal to support the countries’ fight against a Covid-19 surge.
UCL and the charity India Alliance delivered an online global art and science exhibition to raise awareness of the impact on children’s health of the first 1,000 days of their lives.
Read about UCL student Sara's time on the International Summer School in New Delhi and subsequent volunteering opportunities in Bharatpur and Gurgaon.
Dr Pushpa Arabindoo (UCL Geography) took part in an 'Ours to Save' podcast on emergency urbanism and the promises and pitfalls of the ‘Smart Cities’ mission in India.
Under UCL's Grand Challenge of Cultural Understanding, India Voices aimed to effect social impact through a range of initiatives in India.
Research, partnerships and projects
There are 50+ collaborations across UCL faculties, addressing challenges in the fields of health, engineering, disability, urbanisation, environment, education and more. See below for some of our networks, initiatives and partners:
- UCL and Indian partners to drive disability innovation through assistive technology
- UCL Centre for the Study of South Asia and the Indian Ocean World (CSSA)
- UK India Education Research Initiative
- Strategic Partner Funds with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT-Delhi), Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Professor Jayant Vaidya (UCL Surgery & Interventional Science), describes how he and colleagues invented a new way of treating breast cancer.
Read UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering's report Growing Indian partnerships in 2020.
UCL students took part in a virtual programme about sustainable development through the lens of Mumbai - hosted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
At a recent seminar, a diverse range of speakers reflected on the new National Education Policy (NEP) and the changing Indian higher education landscape.
UCL speakers joined two recent sessions of the National Clinical Ground Rounds hosted by AIIMS, New Delhi to share experiences of managing COVID-19.
Collective groundwater pumping by millions of farmers in Bangladesh has created vast natural reservoirs underground that rival the world’s largest dams.
