About us

Professor Anthony Smith, Vice-Provost (Education & Student Affairs) leads on Principal Theme 2 of UCL's institutional strategy, UCL 2034 - the integration of research and education.

“"The way knowledge is created and shared is changing. So the way students access that knowledge and the way they make use of it is changing too. Our goal is to make UCL a global leader in the integration of research and education, underpinning an inspirational student experience (Principal Theme 2, UCL 2034)."  
Professor Anthony Smith, Vice-Provost (Education & Student Affairs)

Professor Smith and his team drive improvements to UCL education under the framework of the UCL Education Strategy 2016-21:

• personalising student support
• putting research and enquiry at the heart of learning
• improving assessment and feedback
• developing student engagement and leadership
• revitalising postgraduate taught education
• creating a teaching estate to meet our needs
• enriching digital learning
• preparing students for the workplace and the world

What we do

Led by Professor Anthony Smith, Vice-Provost for Education and Student Affairs, we create the framework for improvement to UCL teaching and learning, putting teaching on a par with research.

Using the education strategy as our road map, we work with Academic Services and the UCL Arena Centre to give support and resources to faculties and professional services.

We look outward, managing UCL’s submission to the Teaching Excellence Framework, responding to government policy and broader external pressures.

We look inward, running the institutional surveys like New to UCL, NSS and PTES and we use the data to measure our success and inform our direction.

We deliver extra-curricular programmes like the Laidlaw Research and Leadership programme for the benefit of the entire institution, exemplifying a key aspect of the education strategy: research-based education.

At the moment, we are leading institution-wide improvement projects on:

• personal tutoring;
• BME attainment;
• assessment and feedback;
• academic careers framework;
• academic writing support; and
• the Introductory Programme.

We monitor our progress through:

• Education Strategy Implementation Group (ESIG)
• Annual Student Experience Review (ASER)
• National Student Survey (NSS) and Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES)
• Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF)

We deliver our objectives through: