UCL was established in 1826 to open up education in England for the first time to students of any race, class or religion. Its founding principles of academic excellence and research aimed at addressing real-world problems, inform the university’s ethos to this day.
More than 6,000 academic and research staff are dedicated to research and teaching of the highest standards. Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 29 former academics and graduates and UCL ranks consistently amongst the most-cited universities in the world.
As London’s Global University, UCL has the opportunity and the obligation to use the breadth of its intellectual expertise to help resolve some of the world’s major problems. We are seizing this opportunity to develop an innovative cross-disciplinary research agenda, which will enable us to understand and address significant issues in their full complexity. Our vision extends beyond the common understanding of what a university is; we aim not just to generate knowledge, but to deliver a culture of wisdom – that is, an academic environment committed to the judicious application of knowledge for the good of humanity.
In the national debate about the pros and cons of immigration, the impact on the UK’s tax and welfare system and overall public finances is perhaps the single most important economic issue. We have recently…
Within the European Union there is an East-West gap, in health and innovation. The gap is widening because eastern European member states (such as Poland, Romania, Latvia, Hungary and Slovakia) are winning…
Friend them, like them, poke them but are they really your friends?
LarimdaME
Is it possible to socially interact with another person in the absence of a body and the senses? Social networking allows us to present versions of ourselves. But when we use a computer to mediate our…
Sanity has prevailed in the US, at least temporarily. For now, the threat of America’s first ever debt default has receded. But we may be back in the same territory in early 2014 as the US treasury is…
Bacteria-eating viruses that kill the hospital superbug C. difficile have been isolated by scientists. The use of these kinds of viruses, known as phages, to tackle bacterial infection was employed before…
It’s Nobel season and who could forget IVF pioneer Sir Robert Edwards who won the accolade for medicine in 2010? More than ever before, reproductive medicine is throwing up new treatments and answers to…
The potential of stem cells is everywhere in medicine - from growing new tissue that could go on to provide replacement organs, repairing damage from disease or injury and in reconstructive surgery. And…
Off to cause trouble in the Arrrrrrctic.
Joel Ryan/PA
Last week several Greenpeace activists bearing ropes and posters attempted to board Gazprom’s oil platform, the Prirazlomnaya, in the Russian exclusive economic zone. They did so in an inflatable craft…
You might think social networks couldn’t possibly gather more information on you than they already do. That in a world where your every move is tagged, flagged and logged, there is nothing more that could…
Antipsychotic drugs are usually considered to be one of the 20th century’s major medical breakthroughs. They are often believed to be so effective that they brought about the closure of the old mental…
Cameron bonding with Barroso would make scientists happy.
Dominic Lipinski/PA
At a time of much business debate around whether the UK should remain in the European Union (EU), there is one critical area being overlooked regarding the relationship – science. With a growing appreciation…
Universe’s secrets are revealed in a dark corner in Switzerland.
timtom.ch
Five years ago, at breakfast time, the world waited anxiously for news from CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The first nervy bunch of protons were due to be fired around the European…
Hands up if you love synchronised swimming.
EPA/Christopher Jue
It is Tokyo, after all. It was nearly 6am when a few thousand supporters gathered at Komazawa stadium, one of the key venues for Tokyo’s 1964 games, exploded in celebration as International Olympic Committee…
The tech wars took a major swerve into the leftfield this week. No longer content with updating their phone offerings, companies have come over all James Bond in the hope of hitting upon the next big innovation…
Hail to the chief: Obama is a tonic for the troops.
Wikimedia Commons
Tensions in the Middle East rose considerably this morning when Russian radar detected the launch of two rockets in the eastern Mediterranean, triggering alerts across the region. After initially claiming…
It’s getting crowded up there.
Copyright, European Space Agency, ESA
George Clooney revealed details last week about “his” spy satellite over Sudan, which he funds to keep an eye on the Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, who has been accused of war crimes. The Satellite…
Killer robots, a problem as old as voodoo.
x-ray delta one
Robots represent the cutting edge in science. For decades we have been promised a bright future in which these human-like machines will become so advanced that we won’t be able to tell the difference between…
Are Jack Sparrow’s diaries in there somewhere?
Jurriaan Persyn
New research has shown that the Southern Ocean near Antarctica is filled with whale bone-eating worms, but it lacks wood-eating marine fauna, which are found everywhere else in the world’s oceans. This…
Universities from around the UK are investing in London campuses.
Anthony Devlin/PA
To cash in on global demand for British higher education, universities have been busy setting up international branch campuses to transplant the UK student experience (or aspects of it) to the Gulf or…
The high street: here today, gone tomorrow.
Andrew Matthews/PA
A bonfire of red tape that would “revitalise our high streets” - that’s what planning minister Nick Boles has promised. This might have been drawn from Mary Portas’s 2011 report on the future of the high…