Panel appointed for Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab inquiry

The panel has been established by the UCL Council to inquire into all matters surrounding the period of time Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab spent as a student at the university, and has held its first meeting.

Membership is as follows:

• Dame Fiona Caldicott: Principal, Somerville College, Oxford and Pro-Vice-Chancellor, University of Oxford (Chair)
• Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: Secretary General, The Muslim Council of Britain
• Dame Sandra Burslem: former Vice-Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University
• Professor Anthony Finkelstein: Head of the UCL Computer Science and Dean-designate of the UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences
• Lord (Garry) Hart of Chilton: a lay member of UCL Council, UCL's governing body
• Dr Ruth Siddall: UCL's Dean of Students (Welfare)
• Mr John Worne: Director of Strategy and External Relations, British Council.

UCL President and Provost Professor Malcolm Grant first announced the review on 31 December 2009, following the arrest of Mr Abdulmutallab in the US on 25 December under suspicion of attempting to bomb an aircraft.

The review will examine all aspects of Mr Abdulmutallab's time at UCL, including his period as President of the student Islamic Society, and explore how far there were at that time - and/or today - conditions at UCL that might contribute to the radicalisation of students. It will examine the extent to which UCL has properly discharged its legal obligations to provide a platform for visiting speakers so as to secure freedom of speech on campus within the law, and ask what lessons there are to be learned for the future.

Find out more by following the links below.

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