University College London

University College London (UCL) is a public research university in London, England and a founding constituent college of the federal University of London. The largest postgraduate institution in the UK by enrollment, UCL is regarded as one of the most prestigious multidisciplinary research universities in the world.

Established in 1826 as London University by founders inspired by the radical ideas of Jeremy Bentham, UCL was the first university institution to be established in London, and the first in England to be entirely secular, to admit students regardless of their religion.[13] UCL makes the disputed claims of being the third-oldest university in England[note 1] and the first to admit women on equal terms with men. UCL became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London in 1836, which was granted a royal charter that year. It has grown through mergers, including with the Institute of Neurology (in 1997), the Royal Free Hospital Medical School (in 1998), the Eastman Dental Institute (in 1999), the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (in 1999), the School of Pharmacy (in 2012) and the Institute of Education (in 2014).

UCL's main campus is located in the historic Bloomsbury area of central London, with a number of institutes and teaching hospitals elsewhere in central London. An affiliated satellite campus is located Doha, Qatar. UCL is organised into 11 constituent faculties, within which there are over 100 departments, institutes and research centres. UCL operates several museums and manages collections in a wide range of fields, including the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and the Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy. In 2014/15, UCL had around 35,600 students and 12,000 staff (including around 7,100 academic staff and 980 professors) and had a total income of £1.18 billion, of which £427.5 million was from research grants and contracts. UCL is a member of numerous academic organisations, including the G5 group of universities, and is part of UCL Partners, the world's largest academic health science centre and the 'golden triangle' of elite English universities.

UCL is one of the most selective British universities and consistently ranks highly in national and international league tables. UCL's graduates are ranked among the most employable in the world by international employers and its alumni include the "Father of the Nation" of each of India, Kenya and Mauritius, the founders of Ghan modern Japan and Nigeria, the inventor of the telephone, and one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA. UCL academics have contributed to major advances in several disciplines; all five of the naturally-occurring noble gases were discovered at UCL by William Ramsay, hormones were co-discovered at UCL by Ernest Starling and William Bayliss, the vacuum tube was invented by UCL graduate John Ambrose Fleming while a faculty of UCL,[28] and several foundational advances in modern statistics were made at UCL's statistical science department founded by Karl Pearson.[29] There are at least 29 Nobel Prize winners and three Fields medalists amongst UCL's alumni and current and former staff.[note 2]
In 1836, London University was incorporated by Royal Charter under the name University College, London. On the same day, the University of London was created by royal charter as a degree-awarding examining board for students from affiliated schools and colleges, with University College and King's College, London being named in the charter as the first two affiliates.

The Slade School of Fine Art was founded in 1871 following a bequest from Felix Slade.

In 1878 the University of London gained a supplemental charter making it the first British university to be allowed to award degrees to women. The same year, UCL admitted women to the faculties of Arts and Law and of Science, although women remained barred from the faculties of Engineering and of Medicine (with the exception of courses on public health and hygiene). While UCL claims to have been the first university in England to admit women on equal terms to men, from 1878, the University of Bristol also makes this claim, having admitted women from its foundation (as a college) in 1876. Armstrong College, a predecessor institution of Newcastle University, also allowed women to enter from its foundation in 1871, although none actually enrolled until 1881. Women were finally admitted to medical studies during the First World War in 1917, although after the war ended limitations were placed on their numbers.