About UCL: Community

LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

About UCL Community

More than 25,000 students and 8,000 staff enrich the life and economy of our local community.

More than 750,000 London hospital patients are treated in UCL partner hospitals every year.

150 UCL student mentors and tutors visit London schools every year to raise aspirations and demystify university life.

Three museums are open to the public, offering a variety of events for adults and children all year round.

An intrinsic part of community life

UCL prides itself on making a difference to London life – and has done so for nearly 200 years. Today we value more than ever working with our community to raise educational aspirations and quality of life.

We run a longstanding, wide-ranging programme of activities – and are sponsors of the UCL Academy, a new secondary school in our home borough – to equip local young people with the ambition and capacity to pursue a higher education.

We share our intellectual and cultural resources with our neighbours through the renowned Lunch Hour Lecture series, exhibitions at our unique museums and countless public events.

Our business support strengthens the financial wellbeing of enterprises in London and further afield. Numerous UCL researchers and students draw on their expertise and enthusiasm to improve the lives of people across the capital, country and beyond.

A true dialogue is at the heart of our community relationships, challenging our ideas and injecting our activities with new perspectives.

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Outreach

We want everyone who could benefit from a university education – especially those on our doorstep – to have the knowledge and inspiration to apply to UCL. Our Outreach team, with the help of staff and students, therefore aim to broaden and inspire minds as well as to foster a genuine interest in university life and study. A plethora of activities that run at UCL and in schools and colleges throughout the year give potential students a flavour of the challenges and rewards of higher education.

We believe children need to be aware early in life of the opportunities open to them. Through our groundbreaking Ambitions project we follow, from the age of 12, the progress of gifted children in Southwark state schools who might not otherwise consider a university education, regularly involving them in activities to inspire them along the way.

Furthermore, we have supported children in care to apply and make the transition to university for several years – and our best practice in this area has won us a Frank Buttle Trust Quality Mark for Care Leavers in Higher Education – unique among Russell Group universities.*

*The Russell Group represents 24 leading UK universities that are committed to maintaining the very best research, an outstanding teaching and learning experience and unrivalled links with business and the public sector.

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image: UCL Academy

UCL has developed formal links with several schools in the capital to foster lasting educational results and aspirations.

Our partnership with City and Islington College dates back more than a decade.

The UCL Academy − the first in the UK to be solely sponsored by a university − represents our most ambitious project to date to equip local talent with the desire and capacity to pursue a higher education. The Academy is a new non-selective, mixed state secondary school in Camden.

As sponsor, we will share our intellectual, scientific and cultural resources to help raise students’ aspirations and invigorate the secondary curriculum. Our academics were involved in designing the learning spaces and resources, and our students will mentor and support pupils.

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UCL Horizons is a long-term outreach scheme for students from non-selective state schools in inner London, particularly those from families or backgrounds where university education is not the norm.

Horizons aims to improve academic attainment, foster higher education and career aspirations and encourage high quality applications to UCL through a series of education and employment programmes.

The scheme includes an annual Year 10 Summer School as part of a wider effort to foster interest and confidence in higher education.

Participants, supported by academic mentors, engage with topical issues such as human rights and global health. Debating workshops, lectures and museum visits broaden students’ horizons and enhance their critical thinking and public speaking skills.

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UCL’s masterclasses programme enables children from non-selective state schools in year 9 upwards to learn about a university subject through interactive study with UCL academics and PhD students. It also provides an insight into the opportunities available through higher education.

UCL participates every spring and summer in the University of London Taster Course Programme, providing a series of one-day courses for year 12 students who want to find out more about university education. The courses, run by established academics, give prospective students the chance to experience university teaching and facilities, and to make an informed decision about subjects that they are considering studying.

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Student ambassadors play a key role in many of UCL’s outreach events, giving visitors a personal outlook on university life. Ambassadors represent UCL in a variety of ways, from campus tours at open days and talks at higher education fairs to presenting at assemblies and facilitating workshops on higher education in secondary schools.

Many UCL students are involved in the development of young people’s attainment and educational aspirations through the university’s tutoring and mentoring schemes, run by UCL Outreach. Both programmes involve students working with pupils in schools across London. Tutors provide individual and group academic support, while mentors offer structured one-to-one guidance on personal development.

PhD and Masters students have the chance to enthuse the next generation of academics with their research by giving a taster lecture in their field. Taster lectures introduce young people from London schools in an inspiring and lively way to the range of subjects studied at UCL.

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image: Haoyang Zhao, UCLU Photosoc

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Public engagement

UCL research and teaching thrives on a culture of dialogue with people outside the university. We have a small team of dedicated professionals to help make this happen, originally created when we won a competition to be London’s only ‘Beacon of Public Engagement’ – a scheme that encouraged closer involvement between universities and their local communities – with partners including the British Museum, the Southbank Centre, and City and Islington College.

Today, our Public Engagement Unit helps UCL staff and students to tell adults and children about our work, to support communities with their expertise, to enable people outside the university to contribute their ideas and knowledge to our programmes, and much more. The unit also shares successes with other higher education institutions, to encourage more, meaningful conversations across the board.

UCL celebrates the commitment of staff and students in this area every year through the Provost’s Awards for Public Engagement. People at all levels of their career and across faculties are passionate about involving people from all walks of life in their work, through lectures, festivals, exhibitions, film competitions, open access software, social media and a myriad of other inventive means.

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On campus

Stimulating debate at UCL for more than 70 years, Lunch Hour Lectures are an accessible, informal opportunity for anyone to sample the exceptional research undertaken at the university. Indeed, they have been rated ‘Number 1 Best Way to Spend your Lunchbreak’ according to the Guardian. Speakers are drawn from across UCL’s departments. The lectures, available online and fully subtitled, frequently showcase new research and publications, giving the public access to the latest developments in a variety of academic disciplines. In recent years, the Lunch Hour Lectures have gone ‘on tour’ in the summer to our close neighbour the British Museum, to share our research with an even wider audience.

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image: ESA

UCL’s Petrie Museum, Grant Museum and Art Museum are open to the public, offering free access to and events about Ancient Egyptian and Sudanese artefacts, rare zoological specimens and treasures by Rembrandt, Turner, Rego and many more. UCL’s outstanding, unique collections cover diverse areas, reflecting UCL’s position as the top multi-faculty university in London.

Our teaching collections, specialising in geology and archaeology amongst other fields, can be viewed by appointment.

Your Universe is an annual festival of astronomy for schools, families and anyone with an interest in the stars, hosted by Francisco Diego (UCL Physics & Astronomy).

Lectures, exhibitions and telescopes in the UCL Quad and Cloisters bring to life numerous aspects of astronomy, such as Mars Rover missions, the Large Hadron Collider and the search for extraterrestrial life.

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Off campus

Several UCL departments and museums take part in the annual Bloomsbury Festival, running stalls and special activities that allow curious neighbours of all ages to find out more about our research.

Recognising the need for collaboration in public health, UCL seeks to involve the local community in medical education while giving medical students and professionals insight into patients’ lives. Successful projects include ‘patient days’ on glaucoma and birdshot, and a video competition that asked the public to submit short films on their experience of health and sickness.

The Food Junctions festival, held in the King’s Cross area and co-organised by PhD student Marina Chang, united more than 200 contributors from UCL and the local community in promoting healthy living and local food production.

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Members of the UCL Bartlett School of Planning assisted voluntary and community groups in formulating thorough and informed responses to the London Plan, the Mayor of London’s 20-year development plan, culminating in several positive policy outcomes.

The Cheltenham Science Festival welcomes thousands of people to its discussions and demonstrations every summer. Dr Mark Lythgoe (UCL Centre for Biomedical Imaging) is a seasoned Co-Director of the festival, and several UCL academics participate every year.

UCL students also cover sessions on the UCL website.

image © Cheltenham Science Festival

Bright Club is the ‘thinking person’s variety night’: Dr Steve Cross (UCL Public Engagement Unit) recruits researchers from across UCL to perform stand-up comedy about their work in social venues to convey the aims and nature of research in a novel, entertaining way. The event has sold out repeatedly and the model is being emulated in several cities across the UK.

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Research & Enterprise

The breadth of research talent across UCL is vast. The variety of disciplines under our roof – spanning ten faculties – enables us to conceive and conduct cross-cutting investigations that open up fresh insights into old – and newer – problems that affect London life, such as urban planning, global health and climate change. We aim to extend the distinctive way we bring leaders from beyond UCL to collaborate in our studies, to strengthen our approaches to the major issues of our time.

We also strive to expand the impact of our research locally, as well as nationally and internationally, by influencing public policy and professional practice, and commercial and social enterprise activity.

One of the cornerstones of our enterprise strategy is to increase our partnerships with organisations in London.

Many local companies already take advantage of the entrepreneurial training and support we provide.

Our enterprise agenda is about making a difference not just to our staff and students, but also to society.

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Influencing public policy

UCL academics help inform policy at local, regional and national levels by providing their expertise to specialist select committees, participating in parliamentary groups on particular topics or leading research studies commissioned by the government.

UCL Public Policy aims to enhance the impact of the university’s research by developing partnerships with think tanks and government departments, as well as encouraging policy secondments for UCL academics. The university also publishes independent working papers, policy briefings and public policy commentaries, such as the multi-disciplinary UCL – Lancet Commission on Managing the Health Effects of Climate Change, which informed discussion at the Commonwealth Health Secretariat and the World Health Assembly.

In addition, we host events throughout the year that provide a less formal forum for debate surrounding policy issues, such as the governance of climate change technologies and the transparency of the European Union.

UCL Grand Challenges bring together specialist expertise across UCL and beyond to address the world’s key problems relating to global health, sustainable cities, intercultural interaction and human wellbeing.

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Research projects

Mapping for Change is a social enterprise partnership between UCL and London 21 Sustainability Network that supports sustainable communities by offering online mapping and geographic information systems to help communicate complex information in an accessible format.

Healing Heritage was a study involving researchers and curators from UCL and University College Hospital into the therapeutic benefits of taking museum objects to the bedsides of hospital patients and healthcare residents. It showed that museum object handling had significant benefits on patients’ wellbeing by improving mental and physical functioning, providing a positive experience during the hospital stay, and improving patient – doctor/carer communication.

The Thames Discovery Programme, based at UCL’s Institute of Archaeology, is exploring the history of London through mapping archaeological sites along the city’s waterway, and involves training volunteers to carry on the project independently at local sites across the capital.

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Fostering collaboration and social enterprise

UCL is creating a Future Cities Centre – a place where businesses, academics and start-ups will be able to collaborate – along with network technology specialists Cisco and Imperial College London. It will be part of Tech City in Shoreditch, the fastest growing technology cluster in Europe.

The centre will form a major node of Cisco’s National Virtual Incubator, a sustainable public technology network that promises to stimulate entrepreneurship by connecting physical sites through IT infrastructure.

Several UCL projects have won ‘Dare to be Different’ awards from UnLtd, a charity that focuses on helping social entrepreneurs to develop their projects and achieve a better social impact. Foodpaths is an interactive project with local groups that runs activities on the theme of food. Admin Solutions tackles administrative tasks for business and social enterprises, while providing work for students and unemployed young people. Heritage Without Borders builds heritage skills in developing countries, helping to preserve important cultural artefacts.

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Supporting local commerce

UCL Advances – UCL’s centre for entrepreneurship and business interaction – coordinates the Selected Mentors and Interims for London Enterprises initiative and leads the Higher Education London Outreach project, both of which help London-based small and medium-sized companies to grow by analysing their needs and connecting them with business mentors drawn from across the UCL community.

UCL’s enterprise bootcamps offer local entrepreneurs a rigorous grounding in a variety of areas integral to running a successful business – such as marketing, making the most of the web and boosting sales conversions. They also provide networking opportunities with local peers, freelancers and suppliers, not to mention renowned business experts and leaders.

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UCL students in the community

Every year, UCL students give around 1,500 hours to 160 activities coordinated by UCLU’s Volunteering Services Unit (VSU), ranging from adult literacy and conservation to working at citizens’ advice bureaux or with terminally ill patients.

Volunteers take part in established schemes, or set up their own projects, supported by training and advice from the VSU’s Innovations Programme.

James Xi Xu (UCL Italian & Management Studies) was named London and International Student of the Year out of 1,220 students across the UK in a recent competition run by the British Council, thanks to his commitment to raising money for victims of the Haiti earthquake, Pakistan flood and various other activities in London.

UCLU Volunteering Society and many other UCL student societies harness the time and skills of UCL students to strengthen an even greater number of causes, across the capital and beyond.

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Digital engagement

At UCL, we believe in the benefits of digital outreach to reach wider audiences in ways that suit them.

UCL Discovery, our showcase of UCL research, provides full public access to thousands of journal articles, book chapters and conference proceedings.

Transcribe Bentham, a pioneering ‘crowdsourcing’ scheme involves the public in transcribing papers from the vast collection of philosopher Jeremy Bentham via the internet.

It has received the Award of Distinction from the Prix Ars Electronica, the world’s foremost digital arts competition.

More than 1,000 volunteers have worked on the collection to date. The manuscripts are now available online.

The UCL Events blog features reviews of UCL public events by staff, students, alumni and university partners. It enables those unable to attend in person to share the experience, often through video or audio, and to join in the discussion.

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image: Š Sylvain Deleu

Find out more

Outreach: www.ucl.ac.uk/outreach Public Engagement Unit: www.ucl.ac.uk/public-engagement Research: www.ucl.ac.uk/research Enterprise: www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise Volunteering Services Unit: http://uclu.org/services/volunteering-at-uclu UCL Academy: http://uclacademy.co.uk Follow UCL news – and get in touch www.ucl.ac.uk Twitter: @uclnews YouTube: UCLTV In images: www.flickr.com/uclnews Audio: www.soundcloud.com/uclsound iTunes U: http://itunes.ucl.ac.uk Events calendar: www.events.ucl.ac.uk Events blog: http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/events

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Nearly 100 projects encouraging the public to find out more about university research and teaching were funded through UCL’s role as the London Beacon for Public Engagement.

UCL is London’s first university – and the first UK university to be a sole sponsor of an Academy school.

Every year, UCL students contribute around 1,500 hours to 160 projects across London through UCL’s Volunteering Services Unit.

www.ucl.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7679 2000

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