Provost's Perspective: your year ahead at UCL

Welcome to the new academic year at UCL.

Whether you are a 'fresher' or are returning to the later years of your course, I am delighted to welcome you to campus. Many of you will have visited UCLU's Welcome Fair over the weekend and will be starting to immerse yourself in different aspects of student life, getting stuck into your studies and perhaps joining new clubs and societies. You will doubtless be getting stuck into course enrolment, accommodation, and myriad other matters during this period of (re)orientation.

As Provost, one of the ways in which I hope to involve you in university life is by giving you a bird's eye view of UCL to complement all of your other sources of information. The academic year 2014-2015 is shaping up to be a momentous and exciting one for UCL and I am pleased to keep you informed about some key 'big picture' issues, and what I see as being important, through this regular column.  

Student Experience

I want first to highlight a particular priority for me in the year ahead - that of improving the student experience. The focus on building better student facilities is a key part of this endeavour. You will notice a lot of building and refurbishment work going on; much work was completed over the summer but a considerable amount is ongoing. All of this building work is part of a ten-year £1.2bn capital plan that will gradually transform UCL, while retaining our historic character. Returners to UCL will hopefully be delighted to see that a new-look UCLU building has opened, as well as two new cafes in the Old Refectory and in the Jeremy Bentham Room. The Cruciform Hub has also opened, offering a blended library, teaching and learning space. In the coming weeks, two new pavilions will open in the Main Quad and the Japanese Garden, the latter of which will provide a social space for students to study, read and eat. Inevitably, there will be some disruption to the campus, but our plans have been designed to minimise any impact on you.

Integrating research and education

Another major focus for me is the fuller integration of research and education at UCL. As you'll know by now, UCL is one of the world's leading research universities, and I want to ensure that as students, you play a central role in this great academic powerhouse from your earliest days with us. This means finding ways to better involve you in the academic research process, and to teach you the critical independent thinking skills and problem solving skills that will stand you in excellent stead on graduation. You'll be hearing much more from me on this subject in the year ahead.

Merger with the Institute of Education

A major development for 2014-2015 is the proposed merger of UCL with the Institute of Education (IOE), with final decisions pending with both Councils (the overarching governing bodies of both institutions) this October. You may have passed the IOE headquarters just south of UCL on Bedford Way. This merger is being driven forward for academic reasons; the main advantages to UCL are the opportunity to add a key discipline, namely 'Education' to our breadth of activities, with all the pedagogic expertise that will bring, as well as real strengths in quantitative social science research. The merger should widen the resources and expertise in these academic areas for both students and researchers.

UCL East

The other major proposal for the year ahead is UCL's ambition to develop new facilities and academic activities at the Olympic Park, as a key player in the post-Olympic legacy. In partnership with others, UCL intends to create a new hub for Culture and Education. The final decision to go ahead will be taken by our Council at their October meeting.

The current working plan is to create a 'campus of the future' that will be designed to blur the edges between the space required for education, research, innovation, entrepreneurship and public engagement. If the proposals are agreed, it will be a historic moment for UCL - although we have research centres across London and beyond, the vast majority of our staff and students have been confined to Bloomsbury up to this point.

To give some idea of the scale of the plans, we anticipate an academic presence of more than 3,000 students and 450 academic and non-academic staff by 2025. The hub would provide some much-needed living space for future generations of UCL students, early career researchers and junior academics. It will also have space dedicated for entrepreneurship and innovation and to working with industry, including small- and medium-sized companies from that part of London and beyond.

There are many other subjects I could address here, but I will cover these in future issues, along with updates on the initiatives here. I want to end simply by encouraging you to enjoy everything that UCL has to offer, all of which will help you to develop to your full potential. Like anything in life, the more effort you put into your time here, the more benefit you will gain.  The very fact that you have been admitted to UCL means that you are very talented and already highly successful in academic terms. If you work hard and join in with our university community with enthusiasm and commitment, then UCL is a place that offers great rewards.

Michael Arthur

UCL President & Provost

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