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Opportunities for local organisations and residents
The history of UCL's engagement with the public is as old as the university itself. Our arrival in east London affords us a new and exciting chapter in the way we reach beyond the bounds of the institution to the wider world.
We value the insights our local communities can give us into their challenges, and look to them for inspiration in where to take our collaborative work and research. Here you'll find opportunities to connect and start conversations around areas of shared interest.
Growing mutually beneficial partnerships
Community and Cultural Engagement at UCL East
Here are some of our key programmes running throughout the year. Find out more and get involved.
Read about some of our Community and Cultural Engagement activities on our Medium blog.
UCL East Community Board
The UCL East Community Board brings community expertise into UCL, ensuring that the ways we work in our spaces and in our local communities is collaborative and mutually beneficial. The Board enables us to tackle challenges from different perspectives.
Events, exhibitions, and public art
Connecting UCL researchers, local organisations and creative practitioners, we contribute to cultural discourse through public art commissions and programming. Find out more and get involved.
Memory Workshop and Memory Bike
The Memory Workshop and Memory Bike support the recording, archiving and digitisation of local voices and oral histories in and around the Olympic Park. They help student researchers develop collaborations with artists, residents and organisations.
Through Students' Union UCL
Community Research Initiative
The Community Research Initiative is all about creating ways for voluntary & community sector organisations to meet our top quality students. This is part of UCL's commitment to working with and for its local community.
Connect with volunteers
If you're a local charity or community organisation looking for help recruiting UCL volunteers, you're in the right place. To advertise your volunteering through us, or come to our events, take a look at how to become a registered community partner.
Social Hackathons
Social Hackathons are solution-creating events that connect local not-for-profit organisations with UCL volunteers. Students are placed with a local not-for-profit organisation for one day, devising and implementing solutions to issues they currently face.
Collaborating through the East Bank
As a founding partner of the East Bank, we lead on and engage in a wide range of activities and projects, including the following.
New Talent-Future Leaders
Co-led by UCL and East Bank partners this ambitious 5-year programme is creating inclusive training and employment opportunities for East London’s diverse young workforce.
STEP internship
We are proud to be a key partner in this flagship paid internship programme for talented local 18-30 year-olds, whose fresh perspectives will transform the creative and cultural sector.
East Summer School
East Summer School includes a range of activities from UCL, such as skateboarding, filmmaking, insights into sport medicine, exploring special collections and more. There are also sessions from Eastbank organisations including the BBC music, Sadler’s Wells, and many others.
East Careers Week
East Careers Week offers school students insights into higher education and routes into industry, with workshops and talks showcasing how to develop transferable skills for the world of work. This event is part of National Careers Week held in March every year.
The 'Great Get Together'
As a founding partner of the new cultural and educational district East Bank, we help to create positive experiences for locals including free events like the 'Great Get Together' which brought over 3,000 people together last August.
“One of the most rewarding parts of the experience and of my placement so far has been working with colleges and schools from east London. I often sense a good rapport between myself and the pupils, being young east Londoners, and it felt good to know that by virtue of representation I had helped make higher education and employment appear like more of an option in the minds of the pupils.
Mohammed, STEP (Shared Training and Employment Programme) trainee
“Working with the deaf community doesn’t just mean sharing research with people but listening to them. It means working with a community to find research questions that are important for the community.
Professor Bencie Woll, sign language researcher, Trellis arts programme
What's on at UCL East
Find out more about our latest activities and opportunities to get involved with our news and events.
UCL East news
UCL East events