UCL was founded in 1826 to open up university education in England to those who had been excluded from it. In 1878, it became the first university in England to admit women students on equal terms with men.

Nowadays, UCL has the best academic to student ratio in the UK (1:10), enabling small class sizes and outstanding individual support. UCL is one of the top two universities in the UK for the number of professors, which means that our students are taught by the most highly qualified experts in their field. UCL provides an environment that encourages students to be ambitious yet idealistic. In 2013 alone, UCL students participated in 41,500 hours of voluntary work and set up 80 social enterprises and 25 student businesses.

UCL is the top-rated university in the UK for research strength, and, according to independent analysis, UCL won the largest funding allocation from the UK research councils in 2013 (£135m). UCL also has the greatest number of prestigious Doctoral Training Centres.
UCL attracts the third highest number of academic citations per faculty member in the UK showing the high esteem and relevance of the institution’s research. (QS 2013) All of UCL’s research, subject to permissions, is placed in Discovery − UCL’s online repository, available to everyone.