Talking about religion at the ‘Godless’ College, UCL

Georgina Brewis and Sam Blaxland (both from the Institute of Education, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society) drew on new research into the faith-related experiences of students in London since the foundation of the capital’s first university in 1826.  The book will be published by UCL Press in 2026 as Student London: A New History of Higher Education in the Capital.

Sudaxshina Murdan, Sara Garfield and Farzana Ali presented their research on developing interfaith-based interventions to address vaccine hesitancy. Suggested interventions include building trust from the beginning, healthcare professionals to train faith/community leaders who can then tailor-make messages for their constituents and bringing faith leaders together so that they can give out the same information, i.e. ‘sing from the same hymn sheet’.

Further information:

• Generation UCL project website with blog posts. For more information, contact Dr Sam Blaxland or Professor Georgina Brewis.
• Garfield S, Ali F, Murdan S (2025). Enhancing faith and interfaith based facilitators and reducing related barriers to enhance vaccine acceptance: a qualitative study.  Vaccine, 61, 127348, https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0264-410X(25)00645-0. The research was funded by a grant from the BMA Foundation, Kathleen Harper Grant (2022). For more information, contact Professor Sudaxshina Murdan, Dr Sara Garfield or Dr Farzana Ali.