LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY
Welcome UCL was built to open up higher education in England to those who had been excluded from it, and to change the way we create and share knowledge. That pioneering spirit is alive today in the work of people across our university, who are taking on some of the biggest challenges of our time, and making vital contributions to the public good. You can read many examples in the following pages, including our pioneering research on dementia, which currently affects 47 million people, our involvement at the forefront of discussions about the future of the world economy, and our work to transform the treatments and outcomes for patients with life-threatening diseases. Our Connected Curriculum stretches the intellects and skills of our students, creating the next generation of change makers. In late 2018, developmental neuroscientists at UCL received a visit from the Duchess of Cambridge, in connection with her work on providing children with the best possible start in life – a prime example of how our research continues to push the boundaries of knowledge and make international headlines. Our position as one of the world’s top universities enables us to do all these things and more, by helping us to attract the best minds and the most exciting partners. By broadening our strengths across disciplines and following the objectives of our 20-year strategy, UCL 2034, we can ensure we remain among the world’s best. It is a difficult climate for higher education, but UCL’s spirit of openness also means we are uniquely positioned to prove that universities are essential to society,
democracy and progress. As a university with a global outlook, and many partners across the world, we challenge the notion that being international entails leaving anyone behind. UCL academics are continuing to inform the Brexit policy debate on a wide range of topics, including EU foreign policy and migration, energy and environmental policy, economics, finance, fisheries and agriculture. We are also striving to ensure the best outcome from Brexit, not just for our staff and students, but the whole of the UK. Much of the work at our new campus, UCL East, will contribute to key areas of the government’s Industrial Strategy, including AI, energy technology and manufacturing materials. Meanwhile, we are also working to strengthen our international ties, with collaborations and partnerships across the world. We have recently consolidated our first deep partnership – with Peking University – and have been developing cross-institutional partnerships in Europe, North America and East Asia. You can discover more about our strategic goals and history on our website at: ucl.ac.uk/about and ucl.ac.uk/2034. I am proud to lead such an impressive organisation, and hope that you will enjoy finding out more about what we do.
Professor Michael Arthur UCL President & Provost
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UCL Quad © UCL Digital Media
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UCL 2034: our 20-year strategy
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Our Vision
Our Mission
Our distinctive approach to research, education and innovation will further inspire our community of staff, students and partners to transform how the world is understood, how knowledge is created and shared and the way that global problems are solved.
London’s Global University: a diverse intellectual community, engaged with the wider world and committed to changing it for the better; recognised for our radical and critical thinking and its widespread influence; with an outstanding ability to integrate our education, research, innovation and enterprise for the long-term benefit of humanity.
Principal Themes
Key Enablers
Founding Principles
1. Academic leadership grounded in intellectual excellence
• Giving our students the best support, facilities and opportunities
2. A global leader in the integration of research and education
• Valuing our staff and delivering on equality and diversity
3. Addressing global challenges through our disciplinary excellence and our distinctive cross-disciplinary approach
• A strong financial performance is critical to the success of UCL
UCL was established in 1826 in order to open up education in England for the first time to students of any race, class or religion. By 1878, it had become the first English university to welcome female students on equal terms with men.
4. An accessible, publiclyengaged organisation and a lifelong community 5. London’s Global University: in London, of London and for London 6. Delivering global impact through our international activities, collaborations and partnerships
• Delivering excellent systems and processes in support of UCL’s vision • Maintaining a sustainable estate to meet our aspirations
The founding principles of academic excellence and research aimed at addressing real-world problems continue to inform our ethos to this day.
• Communicating and engaging effectively with the world
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UCL 2034 Principal Themes 1. Academic leadership grounded in intellectual excellence Enduring intellectual excellence – derived from talented individuals’ curiosity about, and commitment to, their chosen subject areas – is the prerequisite of academic leadership. This, more than anything, underpins the contributions that a university makes to society.
2 . A global leader in the integration of research and education, underpinning an inspirational student experience We will inspire our students at every level – undergraduate, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research – and equip them with the knowledge and skills that they need to contribute significantly to society and be leaders of the future in their chosen field and profession. All our students and staff will be seen as collaborative members of our university community, with a shared interest in the future of UCL.
3. Addressing global challenges Our commitment to innovation and relevance, our home in the heart of a global capital and the breadth and depth of our expertise offer us a unique opportunity to address the most important problems confronting humanity in the 21st century. The UCL Grand Challenges – of Global Health, Sustainable Cities, Cultural Understanding, Human Wellbeing, Transformative Technology and Justice & Equality – are the flagship embodiment of our institutional commitment to provide wise solutions to global challenges.
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4. An accessible, publicly-engaged organisation that fosters a lifelong community UCL has a proud history of being the first university in England to be open to all, irrespective of race or religion, and the first to admit women on an equal basis. We will continue to seek out those students best able to benefit from, and contribute to, our thriving intellectual community, regardless of their background and circumstances.
5. London’s Global University: in London, of London and for London UCL is committed to becoming a global leader in knowledge exchange, enterprise and open innovation with societal impact. Our relationship with London is central to this commitment. We will bring our profile as London’s Global University and our international connectivity to bear on establishing UCL at the centre of a cluster of organisations that will make London the premier destination for higher education, research and innovation in the world. We recognise our role in making London a better place to live and work in for all, and in promoting and contributing to social equity and environmental sustainability in our capital city.
6. Delivering global impact
We will enhance our international profile by developing a reputation as a university that delivers outcomes with impact for communities, and that listens, learns, helps to build capacity and adds long-term value through our international activities and presence. We intend to focus much of our new international activity on countries in the ‘Global South and East’.
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Education and student affairs Research-based education We continue to build a learning culture that challenges and develops students’ critical thinking and readiness for the next step in their careers. Our students are active participants in research: at the second Posters in Cloisters exhibition in January 2019, two outstanding projects were selected to present at Posters in Parliament, a national competition for undergraduate research, where Natural Sciences student Alice Pistono won first place for her investigation of DNA persistence under varying climatic conditions for forensic science applications. Elsewhere, secondyear Arts and Sciences student Imran Mannan developed a ‘life cycle costing tool’ that has been distributed to AGRICEN (Agro-industries and Clean Energy in Africa) research teams across Africa, to be used by farmers and crop-processing plants to compare the costs of different energy options. Imran’s work is just one example of the impressive research carried out by our Laidlaw scholars. We have now recruited the third cohort to the UCL Laidlaw Research and Leadership Programme. Our professional development programme for staff who teach or support teaching reached a milestone when our 1,000th Arena Fellow achieved nationally recognised accreditation for their work, while our Integrated Engineering Programme was recognised as an emerging leader in an MIT review of engineering education around the world. Personalising support for students In response to student feedback, we introduced Late Summer Assessments 08
(resits and deferrals) across the institution following a two-year pilot, aligning UCL with the majority of UK universities. We’ve also created a new Personal Tutoring website to encourage a consistent experience for all students. More than 120 staff and students attended the first conference on closing the BME attainment gap and we recruited faculty champions to support the project. Teaching estate We’ve created 2,800 additional teaching seats, while 534 extra study spaces have brought the total managed by Library Services to just under 4,200. The new Student Centre opened in February 2019, providing a further 1,000 study spaces and bringing student services, including prayer and multi-faith facilities, into one place. Student partnerships More than 1,000 students have participated in the Student Panel, helping to shape the UCL experience, and more than 1,000 nominations were made for the Student Choice Awards, which recognise exceptional contributions by staff to teaching and learning. Some 294 students participated as ChangeMakers in studentstaff projects to improve the teaching and learning experience. Transforming the student experience Through the UCL Education Strategy 2016–21, we’re transforming the student experience through a number of UCL-wide initiatives, including the development of a platform to support personal tutoring, and full reviews of how students are assessed, the postgraduate taught portfolio and the virtual learning environment.
Professor Anthony Smith, Vice Provost (Education and Student Affairs) and Abeni Olayinka Adeyemi, Women’s Officer for Students’ Union UCL, cutting the ribbon on UCL’s new Student Centre, 18 February 2019. Image credit: Kirsten Holst
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Addressing global challenges UCL is committed to using our collective expertise to address global problems. We’re working to extend our knowledge of the local and global, and increase the grassroots relevance of our work. We’re developing partnerships within and beyond the education sector to inform the work that we do and increase our positive impact on the world around us. New UCL-Lancet Commission calls for better treatment of migrants A new joint commission on migration and health established by UCL and medical journal The Lancet was launched at the UN Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in Marrakesh in December 2018. The UCL-Lancet Commission provides evidence in a new report that harmful, unfounded myths about migration and health have become accepted and used to justify policies of exclusion. It calls for cooperation and action on what has become one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century, as well as calling on governments to improve migrants’ access to services, strengthen migrants’ right to health, and tackle wider determinants of health, including a zero-tolerance approach to racism and discrimination. Additional launch events took place in New York, Johannesburg, Berlin and London. Professor Mariana Mazzucato joins world leaders at WEF 2019 Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), joined global 10
leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2019, providing expertise around globalisation and competitiveness. Professor Mazzucato took part in and led several discussions, meetings and workshops, exchanging ideas and insight as part of wide-ranging conversations about the future of the world economy. On the final day of the conference she took part in a panel discussion chaired by Christine Lagarde, MD of the International Monetary Fund, ‘Global Economy in Transition: Shaping a New Architecture’, looking at how to shape a more equitable and collaborative global architecture that is beneficial for future prosperity, environmental sustainability and global security. Growing the Grand Challenges network We initiated the UCL Grand Challenges programme because we believe that the problems facing the world cannot be addressed by one discipline alone. By bringing together academics from a range of disciplines and backgrounds we aim to find holistic solutions to complex issues. They act as a catalyst for new collaborations, facilitate novel research and enable us to work across traditional boundaries of academic disciplines. Now, two new Grand Challenges have been created; Transformative Technology, which considers how technology and innovation can have far-reaching benefits for society and the planet, and Justice and Equality, which focuses on the barriers that deny equality of opportunity, and how we can build a fairer society and enable access to education, health and resources around the world.
Professor Mariana Mazzacuto. Image credit: UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
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Accelerating impact and innovation UCL’s ambition is to change the world for the better, tackling the great global challenges of our time. UCL Innovation & Enterprise (I&E) is at the heart of this aspiration, working with organisations and UCL’s people to help turn knowledge and ideas into solutions that benefit us all. The neuroscience of narratives Dr Joe Devlin (Department of Psychology) worked with Audible to find out what happens in people’s brains when they listen to stories. Joe’s team ran experiments with over 100 volunteers, measuring their physiological responses when either listening to or watching scenes from bestselling blockbusters. They discovered that when listening to an audiobook your imagination works harder, which leads to greater emotional engagement. The success of this project has led to an ongoing relationship with Audible, with talks of a number of spin-off projects, including research around empathy when listening to stories through different channels. Student social enterprise helps tackle food poverty Billions of tonnes of rice goes to waste every year because of inadequate postharvest rice drying practices. As a result, food insecurity and poverty is rife among rice farmers. Undergraduate students Kisum Chan, Lincoln Lee, Julia Vannaxay, and Vannie Koay came up with the idea for Rice Inc – a social enterprise that gives farmers in South East Asia access to rice drying technology. The team applied for the Hult Prize in 2018. With mentoring, business guidance and financial support 12
provided by I&E, their idea won the $1million prize to launch their enterprise. Networking to innovate the arts Building on existing connections and developing new ones, I&E worked with academics to establish a dance network that includes Sadler’s Wells, the English National Ballet and Studio Wayne McGregor. From developing technology to improve dancers’ health, through to creating an academic community to inspire choreography, departments across UCL have been involved in revolutionising the creative sector, which is one of the fastest growing parts of the UK economy. Transforming treatments for patients with life-threatening diseases Four UCL gene therapy spinout companies received record investment totalling £438 million over the last 12 months, creating the potential to transform patient outcomes. Orchard Therapeutics aims to transform the lives of patients with life-threatening disorders, including primary immune deficiencies, using innovative gene therapies. Autolus Therapeutics is committed to bringing life-changing treatments to cancer patients by reprogramming their own T-cells to combat malignancies and tumours. MeiraGTx is a clinical stage gene therapy company developing potentially curative treatments for patients living with serious diseases of the eye, salivary gland and central nervous system. And Freeline Therapeutics is a leading company focused on innovative liver-directed gene therapies.
FAR, 2010, Studio Wayne McGregor, dancer Catarina Carvalho. Photo by Ravi Deepres
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The Campaign for UCL Philanthropy founded UCL and, nearly 200 years later, it still plays a transformational role in our present and our future. As one of the world’s most impactful universities, UCL is the partner of choice for philanthropic individuals and organisations globally who want their funding to make a tangible difference. Launched in 2016, It’s All Academic is UCL’s major philanthropy and engagement campaign which has two ambitious targets: • A fundraising target of £600m – to help deliver UCL’s biggest long-term ambitions, focused on the four main themes of students, health, London and disruptive thinking. • An engagement target of 250,000 volunteering hours – to build our global community of alumni, supporters and advocates. At the end of 2018, the total funding raised had reached £486m, putting the campaign one year ahead of schedule. During the same period, 8,200 alumni have invested 159,000 volunteering hours to support current students, other alumni and UCL. Leading alumni volunteers include Hiu Ng and her husband Daniel Foa who founded and developed the UCL Club of Beijing, growing it from a membership of five in 2005 to over 3,000 today – offering an active social and professional network for alumni as well as guidance for prospective or current UCL students. Since the launch of the Campaign in 2016, It’s All Academic has focused on underpinning and extending UCL’s global impact through a range of initiatives. It is 14
helping to drive equality, diversity and social mobility through a varied portfolio of scholarships. It is also promoting a better student experience with funding for capital projects including a new Student Centre, which opened in February 2019. Beyond Bloomsbury, the campaign is powering UCL’s creation of UCL East (see page 38), a campus for the twenty first century, and playing a crucial role in the work of the Centre for Access to Justice with vulnerable communities in Stratford. Health fundraising is focused on extending the reach and speeding up the application of some of UCL’s most impactful areas of medical research. £34m has been raised towards the creation of a new interdisciplinary neuroscience building that will be the hub and headquarters of the UK Dementia Research Institute (see page 30). Other key health beneficiaries include UCL’s multidisciplinary cancer campus and its world-leading ophthalmology research and translation. Philanthropy is especially powerful when it is focused on the novel, risky and early stage research, which traditional funding streams find challenging to finance. Disruptive thinking supported by It’s All Academic includes advancing artificial intelligence and machine learning in partnership with AI world-leader DeepMind. It is also driving a mission-oriented approach to innovation and economic growth thanks to major funding from investment management company Baillie Gifford for UCL’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, led by renowned economist Mariana Mazzucato.
Lila Ibrahim, COO of DeepMind, speaking at UCL’s annual Scholarships Reception. Image courtesy UCL OVPA
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UCL Culture UCL staff, students and the wider public continue to use and enjoy the university’s world-class spaces and collections. In 2018 UCL marked the centenary of the law which allowed the first women to vote in the UK with Female Firsts, a year-long exhibition by artist Kristina Clackson Bonnington featuring pioneering women who studied and worked at UCL. In the Octagon Gallery, Disrupters and Innovators explored the lasting contributions of female students and staff to research and teaching over the past 100 years, and UCL Art Museum’s acclaimed Prize & Prejudice exhibition rediscovered the women who won the coveted Slade Prize in 1918. 2018 also marked the tenth anniversary of UCL’s Public Engagement Unit, which embeds a culture in which staff, students, departments, and the institution as a whole listen to and engage with communities. UCL Culture marked this milestone with the Provost’s Awards for Public Engagement and an invitation to explore the future of UCL Public Engagement. In the spring, Jeremy Bentham’s auto-icon travelled to New York’s Met Breuer, a museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art. In preparation for the auto-icon’s journey, staff made a full inspection of the auto-icon and carried out important conservation work. With support from Arts Council England, the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology brought thousand-year-old texts to life, including conserving, rehousing and translating the museum’s collection of papyri. UCL Culture has also 16
been awarded £110,250 by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Wolfson Foundation to transform the museum’s entrance in 2019. More than 400 people attended the annual Bloomsbury Festival, which returned to UCL in October, bringing researchers and artists face-to-face with the public on the subject of activism in all its forms. Looking ahead to 2034 and the development of UCL East (see page 38), UCL Culture is collaborating closely with academics, partners and communities around the new campus. Working with researchers, UCL Culture presented Bright Club – the thinking person’s comedy night – in Stratford for the first time and also rolled out Evaluation Exchange, which is transforming how UCL researchers can work with Voluntary Sector Organisations. School children from east London are also exploring UCL’s extraordinary collections and expertise. Working with Widening Participation colleagues, UCL Culture is welcoming young people to work across different disciplines, such as creating robots inspired by specimens from the Grant Museum of Zoology and animated by UCL’s engineering department. As 2018 came to a close, the lovingly restored Bloomsbury Theatre opened its doors again following a massive renovation project. We have embraced the Brutalist design inside and out, while upgrading every bit of the building to create a state-of-the-art theatre space for UCL staff, students and performers to bring new ideas and collaborations to the stage.
Conservation of Jeremy Bentham’s auto-icon, 2018 © UCL Culture 2018
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Psychology and Language Sciences UCL’s Division of Psychology and Language Sciences (PALS) is the largest and highest ranked psychology department in the UK, with over 120 academic staff and 1,500 students at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Part of the Faculty of Brain Sciences, the division encompasses seven research departments, and staff are involved with a host of associated research centres and institutes both internal and external to UCL. In November 2018 the Duchess of Cambridge visited PALS, meeting students and leading academics in the field of developmental neuroscience. Professor Eamon McCrory, the lead academic for the visit, introduced her to the work of the Developmental Risk and Resilience Unit (DRRU) which he co-directs. The Duchess saw how MRI brain scanning facilities can demonstrate the effect of early experience on brain structure and function. She also took part in a roundtable discussion with Professor Alan Thompson, Dean of Brain Sciences, and Professor Cathy Price, Director of the Wellcome Centre for Neuroimaging, chaired by Professor Peter Fonagy, Head of PALS, to hear about the important wider work in this area taking place within the division. Developmental research at PALS is at the forefront of understanding how environment and biology interact to shape the way in which children develop both socially and emotionally. The work of Professor McCrory focuses on the impact of early life adversity on brain development and how this may
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influence later mental health resilience and vulnerability. During the roundtable discussion with the Duchess Professor Pasco Fearon presented his work on the early infant-parent bond and its development, Professor Niko Steinbeis presented his work on neural plasticity (the ability of the brain to adapt to different situations) while Professor Essi Viding (also co-director of the DRRU) presented her work on the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the development of conduct problems. Collectively, this programme of work is playing a vital role in improving our understanding of early childhood development, and shaping policy and practice in education and health. The Duchess supports a number of charitable causes and organisations, several of which are centred around providing children with the best possible start in life. For several years she has been working with experts and organisations that are championing the importance of providing solid psychological, social and emotional platforms for children in their earliest years of life in order to support their mental health and emotional resilience, and to provide them with the foundations to lead to healthy and fulfilling adulthoods. Professors McCrory and Fonagy are members of a steering group convened by the Duchess to examine ways to make a positive difference to the lives of children, focusing on the early years. The group’s recommendations will form the basis of her strategy for developing her work in this area in years to come.
The Duchess of Cambridge visits UCL PALS. Picture by Andrew Parsons / Parsons Media
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2018/2019: Students by faculty Headcount at 1 December 2018 Undergraduate
Postgraduate Taught
Postgraduate Research
Total
Arts & Humanities
2,813
846
263
3,922
Brain Sciences
698
1,438
927
3,063
Built Environment
767
2,222
371
3,360
3,303
1,913
966
6,182
Institute of Education
652
4,920
713
6,285
Laws
598
423
28
1,049
Life Sciences
2,255
692
571
3,518
Mathematical & Physical Sciences
2,874
543
671
4,088
Medical Sciences
1,988
1,228
422
3,648
136
773
381
1,290
3,368
1,844
433
5,645
0
55
1
19,452
16,907
5,747
Engineering Sciences
Population Health Sciences Social & Historical Sciences Office for International Affairs Total
Male 41%* * Percentages given exclude “Other” - 8 students (0.02%) identified as “Other”.
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Female 59%*
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42,106
2018/2019: Students by domicile Undergraduate
Postgraduate Taught
Postgraduate Research
Total
UK
9,724
9,232
3,516
22,472
53.37%
Rest of EU
3,203
1,283
793
5,279
12.54%
Other international
6,525
6,392
1,438
14,355
34.09%
Total
19,452
16,907
5,747
42,106
16%
Percentage
10% 15% 43%
41%
UK
24%
61%
Rest of EU
45%
45%
Other international Undergraduate Postgraduate Taught Postgraduate Research
Source: www.ucl.ac.uk/srs/statistics
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A global community: UCL alumni around the world UK
170,000
Europe
29,000
North America
16,000
Latin America
3,000
Africa & Middle East
5,500
East Asia
15,000
South Asia
3,000
South-east Asia and Australasia
9,000
UCL has over 250,000 alumni in over 190 countries worldwide
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Global league table position Global top 10 universities by ‘mean rank’ Position
University
Mean
1
Harvard
(2.4)
2
Stanford
(2.6)
3
Oxford
(4.2)
4
MIT
(5.2)
5
Cambridge
(5.6)
6
UCL
(10.8)
7
Johns Hopkins
(12)
8
Columbia
(13.2)
9
Imperial College London
(13.4)
10
UC Berkeley
(14.6)
UCL is in sixth place in the world in this table of the mean 2018 global league table positions, created using the most up-to-date global league tables at the time of data collection. Here, these are: QS 2019, THE World 2019, Shanghai ARWU 2018, NTUR 2018 and URAP 2018/19. More on rankings can be found here: www.ucl.ac.uk/about/why/rankings 23
2018/2019: Staff in numbers Headcount at 1 October 2018 (excludes honorary and casual staff) Academic and research staff
Teaching only
Other staff
209
171
72
452
1,128
49
437
1,614
Built Environment
335
178
150
663
Engineering Sciences
804
130
271
1,205
Institute of Education
474
158
297
940
Laws
73
100
37
210
Life Sciences
599
34
247
880
Mathematical & Physical Sciences
643
89
232
964
Medical Sciences
769
93
546
1,408
Population Health Sciences
903
27
533
1,463
Social & Historical Sciences*
501
276
291
1,068
Professional Services
-
-
1,629
1,629
Provost & Vice-Provost Offices**
32
165
668
6,481
1,470
5,410
Arts & Humanities Brain Sciences
Total
* Includes School of Slavonic & East European Studies ** Includes Development & Alumni Relations and Library Services Source: www.ucl.ac.uk/human-resources/policies-advice/workforce-reporting-and-analytics
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Number of employees
865
13,361
Delivering global impact UCL’s Global Engagement Strategy (GES) is based on a commitment to international partnerships and the belief that bringing together different perspectives and diverse experience accelerates the process of discovery and global impact. The Global Engagement Office (GEO) supports UCL academics to collaborate with others who share their dedication to excellence and passion for knowledge, irrespective of where they are in the world. We do this by developing and strengthening partnerships with other global institutions in five ways: running seed-funding programmes; organising inbound and outbound delegation visits; supporting individual academics, departments and faculties in developing global activities, projects and programmes with key partners; profiling the world-leading research and education carried out by UCL academics with their partners; and monitoring and mitigating risks to UCL’s international outlook and activity. Supporting international collaboration Over the past three years, GES funding programmes have benefited more than 550 academics, with £760k of internal funding allocated, leveraging more than £13.4m of external funding so far. This year, the programmes were again over-subscribed, with a 10% increase in applications overall. In 2018, GEO led or co-led 16 outbound delegation visits, involving over 20 academics. During the November 2018 visit to China, targeted communications reached a potential audience of over 413 million 26
people, and led to an increase in visitors from China to the UCL website. Developing cross-institutional partnerships To grow existing partnerships and extend new opportunities, we have focused our efforts on developing UCL’s crossinstitutional global partnerships. This year GEO has been building closer partnerships with the University of Toronto and the Max Planck Society, as well as strengthening UCL’s first deep strategic partnership with Peking University. We’ve also had notable success developing faculty-level partnerships into cross-institutional partnerships, of which we currently have six: a second in Europe in addition to MPS (Université PSL – Paris Science et Lettres), a second in North America in addition to UofT (Yale) and two in East Asia (University of Hong Kong and Osaka University). We are also continuing to explore potential for other current Faculty-level partnerships to possibly become institutional partners in future, with a healthy list of 17 institutions in the pipeline. Strengthening European engagement At UCL we have a rich history of academic collaboration across Europe. To ensure this continues after Brexit, we have been intensifying our global engagement efforts. Our triple track European strategy has involved consolidating existing partnerships with European universities, launching a new initiative called the Cities partnerships Programme (starting in Rome and Paris), and stepping up our support for EU research collaboration.
UCL’s Japanese Garden on the Bloomsbury Campus. Image credit: Mary Hinkley, UCL Digital Media
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Health UCL School of Life & Medical Sciences (SLMS) collaborates with colleagues across UCL and beyond to tackle the greatest health challenges facing society.
involved in the first two operations was coordinated by colleagues from the UCL Institute for Women’s Health and UCL GOS Institute of Child Health.
Our research is behind the first successful gene therapy trial to treat haemophilia A. Researchers at the UCL Cancer Institute developed the therapy, which was licensed to US biotech company Biomarin.
As well as working to deliver the hub of the UK Dementia Research Institute (see page 30), we have been able to start the construction of a new home for the UCL Institute for Immunity and Transplantation. This work paves the way for clinicians and scientists to work more closely with patients to accelerate the development of new types of medicine.
A new gene test to help diagnose and predict a range of serious childhood eye conditions has been developed by researchers at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and the UCL GOS Institute of Child Health (ICH). The London Project to Cure Blindness, a partnership between UCL, Moorfields Eye Hospital and the National Institute for Health Research published a study describing the successful use of a new stem cell based treatment for wet agerelated macular degeneration. Our latest cancer research has transformed the diagnostic pathway of prostate cancer. We have also received NICE approval for a novel type of radiotherapy for breast cancer that takes 30 minutes instead of 30 days. Our work in bioinformatics allowed the inference from genome to skin to help reveal the face of ‘Cheddar Man’, Britain’s oldest nearly complete skeleton. In a medical first for the UK, a team from UCL, UCLH and GOSH operated on the abnormally developed spinal cords of two babies in utero. The 30-strong team 28
After a comprehensive, six-month competitive process we have appointed the architects to design the new UCL and Moorfields eye centre. This facility will bring together clinical care, research and education expertise in one flexible, fully integrated facility. We were awarded a Major Cancer Centre in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London, King’s College London and the Francis Crick Institute and a Health Data Research UK Centre with Queen Mary University of London, King’s College London, Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases. Internationally, UCL was awarded £31.6m from the Wellcome Trust to develop the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), a new organisation that brings together two leading centres of research (K-RITH and the Africa Centre) and the University of KwaZulu-Natal to fight the co-epidemic of TB and HIV in KwaZulu-Natal.
“In The Blood” courtesy of Odra Noel, odranoel.eu
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The UK Dementia Research Institute (UKDRI) hub at UCL By 2025, it is expected that over one million people in the UK and 60 million worldwide will have dementia. The UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) is a newly established joint £290 million investment from the Medical Research Council (MRC), Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK, set up with the vision of conquering dementia with research. The UK DRI brings together world-leading expertise in biomedical, translational and care dementia research in a national institute, focusing on innovative, earlystage science to advance our understanding of how dementias develop and progress. Using novel technologies and interdisciplinary approaches to build new knowledge, the institute undertakes research relevant to all dementias, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, vascular dementia and more. The main focus of the UK DRI is basic biomedical research to uncover the root causes of dementia and find new targets for treatments, as well as better diagnosis and prevention. Technology driven research into dementia care will also be integrated into the institute from 2019. UCL was selected in December 2016 to host the research hub and operational headquarters of the UK DRI, forming the focal point for activity across the six university partners of the UK DRI (the other centres are at the University of Cambridge, Cardiff University, the University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London and King’s College London). The hub is embedded as an autonomous research 30
department within the world-renowned UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology (QS-IoN) – itself engaged in world-leading research into neurological disease. The hub’s interim facilities in UCL’s Cruciform Building were officially opened in July 2018, providing specially-designed labs and work spaces for scientists working on 12 major research programmes. Ongoing international recruitment will lead to a group of up to 250 at UK DRI at UCL as part of a national UK DRI team of over 700 neuroscience researchers. Work will start in 2019 on a new facility in Gray’s Inn Road, which will house the UK DRI hub alongside new premises for the QS-IoN and an outpatient and imaging unit for the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. This new hub will be a powerhouse of dementia research, offering unrivalled opportunities for crosscollaboration between the UK DRI and QS-IoN to find better ways to diagnose, treat and prevent dementia-causing neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease. Meanwhile, the UK DRI is already making significant progress in its mission to boost, connect and revolutionise dementia discovery science. Up to 2018 UK DRI researchers produced 232 publications, as well as winning a number of accolades including the 2018 Brain Prize, which was awarded to Professor John Hardy (QS-IoN and UK DRI) and Professor Bart De Strooper (Director of the UK DRI) for their research on the genetic and molecular basis of Alzheimer’s disease.
Artist’s impression of the new UK DRI Hub Building. Image courtesy of Hawkins\Brown Architects
UCL in London
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London A world-leading university in a global city is a powerful and inspiring combination. UCL reflects London’s strengths, and we make significant contributions to London’s impact on the UK, Europe and globally. Our staff and students benefit from being in one of the world’s most celebrated and diverse cities, and they give back by making a real difference to London’s people, economy, communities and culture. To create this impact, we work in partnership with a wealth of organisations and individuals, including central government, the professions, the NHS, the Greater London Authority, schools, further education colleges, businesses, charities and many more, carrying out interdisciplinary research on subjects as diverse as housing, public policy, transport, education, health and wellness, migration and culture. Helping young people reach their potential A Camden-based start-up founded by a UCL student is helping young Londoners from low income backgrounds connect with scientific researchers. The non-profit organisation in2scienceUK is the brainchild of UCL Neuroscience PhD student Rebecca McKelvey, who founded it with support from UCL Innovation & Enterprise. Since 2010 in2scienceUK has provided over 1,000 young people with mentors, science placements and career guidance. It has worked with over 320 schools and 600 volunteer researchers, inspiring young people to achieve their ambitions. Over 70% of participants progress to university
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and on to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects. Assisting Londoners with legal advice Nearly 300 East Londoners have received free legal advice through a clinic founded and run by UCL. The UCL Integrated Legal Advice Clinic (iLAC) is run by the Centre for Access to Justice at the UCL Faculty of Laws. Based in central Stratford, UCL iLAC offers local residents free face-to-face general legal advice on all aspects of social welfare law. During 2018, the clinic obtained a legal aid contract in the categories of housing law and community care law. Staffed by UCL law students working under the close supervision of qualified lawyers and advisers, the clinic offers students a rich educational opportunity while also providing a valuable and much needed service to members of the local community. Leading the world in disability innovation A new centre dedicated to developing assistive technologies is being hosted by UCL Computer Science on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London. The Global Disability Innovation Hub (GDI), a collaboration of several institutions, is set to become the leading place to research, study, practice and share disability innovation, globally. In 2018, the hub was awarded funding from the UK Government after receiving support and advice from UCL Innovation & Enterprise. Its aim is to reach more than three million people, testing new approaches to assistive products and services.
in2ScienceUK students getting hands on experience during their two week summer work placement in 2017. Credit: in2ScienceUK
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Transforming UCL Transforming UCL is the largest capital programme in our history. More than £1.25 billion is being invested over ten years to support the university’s growth. We are creating new world-class facilities in our Bloomsbury campus – both through new developments and refurbishing some of our buildings that are rich in heritage. Construction is also due to start this year on UCL East, an entirely new campus in east London, adjacent to the Olympic Park (see page 38). Planning is well-advanced for a new neurological research facility for the UCL Institute of Neurology and UK Dementia Research Institute (DRI) on a newly acquired site in King’s Cross (see page 30). Developing world-class teaching and learning spaces Creating rich and dynamic learning spaces for students is the focus of much of our investment programme. A total of 596 seats opened early this year at the UCL Institute of Education, with a further 334 opening in the building in the spring. These follow the creation of a suite of teaching spaces in 1–19 Torrington Place, and in the refurbished Faculty of Laws building, which both opened in 2018. Together, these projects represent an impressive 23% increase in teaching space over the past two years. Improving academic research facilities Other developments that were completed in 2018 include a new home for the MRC Prion Unit; Charles Bell House, a new institute for collaboration between Life and Medical Sciences and the Engineering Sciences; and the second phase of the 36
new UK DRI (see page 30) in the Cruciform Building. Transforming the student experience The completion of the new Student Centre (pictured) early this year marked a major milestone. The centre has 1,000 ‘study seats’, including quiet zones, social areas and flexible spaces designed to facilitate collaborative and research-based learning. It will provide new ways for our students to work, discover and learn for generations to come. It also houses UCL’s Student Enquiries Centre, where students can get help on topics including exams, IT and studying abroad, as well as advice on disability, mental health and wellbeing issues. The building creates a new, accessible east-west connection across UCL’s open and engaging campus between Gordon Street and Gower Street, including the communal spaces such as the Wilkins Terrace and Lower Refectory, which opened in 2018. The centre is UCL’s most sustainable building to date and sets a benchmark as our programme to transform UCL continues. Astor College student residence has been refurbished and extended. It is due to reopen this year, creating welcoming, fit-for-purpose accommodation to support the best possible student experience. UCL’s Bloomsbury Theatre has reopened after an extensive refurbishment. Its high-quality performance spaces are now hosting the best of theatre, dance, music and comedy, alongside student productions, and a new programme devised with UCL researchers to bring ground-breaking discoveries to life on stage.
The new Student Centre. Image courtesy of UCL Estates
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UCL East Summer 2019 will see us breaking ground on our new 50,000m2 campus, UCL East. A key part of the Transforming UCL programme (see page 36), UCL East will be built on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, alongside spaces for the V&A, BBC, Sadler’s Wells and London College of Fashion. Bringing together eight faculties, the two new buildings will be home to 12 academic entities, providing innovation, research and over 50 taught programmes for around 4,000 students. UCL East will house: • Advanced Propulsion Lab: Championing and developing new technologies to create the next generation of battery and fuel cell vehicles • Bartlett Real Estate Institute: Investigating the multiple forms of value that real estate creates or generates and looking beyond bricks and mortar, square meterage and short-term financial profit • Culture Lab: Equipping future cultural leaders with a new mix of technical and intellectual skills to drive creative industries which shape and reflect the dynamic evolution of our world • Experiential Learning and Research Hub: Thinking differently about engineering education to teach the future makers and innovators who will engineer a better world • Global Business School for Health: Educating the future managers, innovators and analysts of global health systems in the world’s first business school focused entirely on health • Global Disability Innovation Hub: Building a fairer world for the one billion people who experience disability through new research and teaching collaborations 38 32
• I nstitute of Finance and Technology: Re-thinking the way finance works in the service of people and the planet, equipping the financial and business leaders of the future to manage the challenges of the 21st century • I nstitute of Making: Understanding the world and its materials in a new multidisciplinary open-access workshop, enabling exploration, collaboration, making and remaking • Manufacturing Futures Lab: Futureproofing manufacturing for a carbonconstrained future where environmental drivers, like population growth and climate change, will test the creativity of our best engineers •N ature Smart: Expanding understanding of the interplay between ecological and human health and how best to develop sustainable and resilient environments •R obotics and Autonomous Systems: Creating next-generation robots that are designed for their environments – in buildings, in air and in water – and that respond to, and enhance, the nature of society around us •U rbanism and the Built Environment: Understanding urbanisation and its outcomes globally, pioneering transdisciplinary, people-centred approaches to understand how cities change Since 2015, we have engaged over 5,500 people through more than 60 UCL East consultation events, pop-up roadshows and exhibitions – in both Bloomsbury and east London. Over 150 UCL academics are helping make the UCL East academic vision a reality.
Architect’s model for the UCL East site on the Olympic Park. Image courtesy of Stanton Williams Architects
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Financial Summary for the Year Ended 31 July 2018 Consolidated Income & Expenditure Account
2018 ÂŁm
2017 ÂŁm
Tuition fees and education contracts
521.1
460.6
Funding body grants
227.3
194.6
Research grants and contracts
476.3
459.8
Other income
193.4
185.4
6.0
6.4
27.0
20.6
NET INCOME
1,451.1
1,327.4
TOTAL EXPENDITURE
1,317.5
1,255.3
Loss on disposal of fixed assets
(0.1)
(0.2)
Gain on investments
24.1
12.2
Share of operating loss in joint ventures and associates
(0.1)
(1.8)
-
-
(1.1)
(2.1)
156.4
80.2
24.8
16.4
Fixed assets
1.876.7
1,707.6
Investments
254.2
222.4
(110.8)
(38.6)
2,044.9
1,907.8
Non-current liabilities
(472.4)
(483.5)
Pension provisions
(130.6)
(150.3)
(17.8)
(6.4)
1,424.1
1,267.6
117.8
111.4
1,306.2
1,156.0
0.1
0.2
Investment income Donations and endowments
Actuarial loss in respect of pension schemes Taxation TOTAL COMPREHENSIVE INCOME FOR THE YEAR Intangible assets
Net current liabilities Total assets less current liabilities
Other provisions TOTAL NET ASSETS Represented by: Endowments Reserves Minority interest 40
UCL officers UCL Senior Officers
Deans of UCL Faculties
UCL Council (Trustees)
Visitor The Master of the Rolls
Arts & Humanities Professor Stella Bruzzi
Ex Officio Professor Michael Arthur Mr Farooq Dean Mr Mahmudur Rahman
President & Provost Professor Michael Arthur
Vice-Provosts Development Mrs Lori Houlihan Education & Student Affairs Professor Anthony Smith Enterprise & London Dr Celia Caulcott Health Professor David Lomas International Dame Nicola Brewer Research Professor David Price Chief Operating Officer Ms Fiona Ryland
Brain Sciences Professor Alan Thompson Built Environment Professor Alan Penn Professor Christoph Lindner (from 1 September 2019) Engineering Sciences Professor Nigel Titchener-Hooker Institute of Education Professor Becky Francis Laws Professor Piet Eeckhout Life Sciences Professor Geraint Rees Mathematical & Physical Sciences Professor Ivan Parkin Medical Sciences Professor Mark Emberton Population Health Sciences Professor Graham Hart
Appointed Mr Dominic Blakemore Dr Andrew Gould Dame DeAnne Julius (Chair) Mr Victor Chu (Chair from 1 August 2019) Ms Nahid Majid Ms Lindsay Nicholson Mr Turlogh O’Brien Lord (John) Sharkey Mr Philip Sturrock MBE Mr Justin Turner QC Baroness (Jo) Valentine Ms Sarah Whitney Elected Professor Lucie Clapp Professor Annette Dolphin Dr Martin Fry Professor Patrick Haggard Dr John Hurs Dr Hynek Pikhart Professor Andrew Wills Secretary Ms Wendy Appleby
Social & Historical Sciences Professor Sasha Roseneil
Š UCL Communications and Marketing, March 2019. Information correct at time of going to print To request copies of this booklet please contact: internalcommunications@ucl.ac.uk