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s buildings
surrounding the original Wilkins building on
what is known as the UCL precinct.
UCL now has a student population of 19,300,
of whom 12,100 are undergraduates,
following one of the widest ranges of degree
programmes in the country, from Fine Art to
Medicine, from Russian to Chemical
Engineering, from Law to Physics and from
Anthropology to Neuroscience. The
undergraduate student body is cosmopolitan,
diverse and dynamic: over half are women,
about 14% are over the age of 21 on entry,
and students are attracted not only from all
regions of Britain but also from another 136
overseas countries.
UCL flourished throughout the
nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, continuing to be a
beacon of liberal and
enlightened thought, and
influencing profoundly the
development of university
education in Britain.
Described by the Times newspaper as ‘an
intellectual heavyweight by any standard’,
UCL is generally acknowledged to be one of
the best universities in the world for teaching
and research. It is always in the top group in
unofficial league tables of UK universities; the
Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning,
for example, has been voted one of the top
10 architecture schools in the world by
wallpaper* magazine.
Research Assessment
The RAE is carried out by the Higher
Educational Funding Council for England
(HEFCE), and the most recent exercise was
undertaken in 2001. The RAE assesses how
good a department's research is, from 1 (the
lowest) to 5* (the highest) – the higher the
mark, the better the research quality. Overall,
UCL did extremely well – only Oxford or
Cambridge had more 5* and 5-rated
departments than UCL. High quality research
is not only important for the advancement of
knowledge in general, but at UCL it is used
directly to benefit teaching, with the most upto-
date developments and ideas being
incorporated into the undergraduate
programmes. Departmental RAE scores are
given in the Key Facts column on the pages
which follow.
Teaching Quality Assessment
(Subject Review)
In the years between 1993 and 2001 the
Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for Higher
Education carried out Subject Review
assessments which scored universities on their
teaching provision. Early assessments (pre-
1995) graded departments as excellent,
satisfactory or unsatisfactory, and later
assessments awarded points, up to a
maximum of 24 (in each of the six areas
assessed a maximum of 4 could be gained).
The review process has now ended, and UCL's
average score across all departments
assessed was as follows:
Curriculum Design, Content
and Organisation 3.7
Teaching, Learning and Assessment 3.6
Student Progression and Achievement 3.8
Student Support and Guidance 4.0
Learning Resources 3.5
Quality Management and Enhancement 3.5
Total 22.1
This assessment puts UCL's teaching overall
into the excellent category and is one of the
highest in the UK.
You may find that some departmental entries
include their own individual score; however, if
you wish to find out more about the review
process or the specific scores awarded in
different institutions and departments, please
visit the QAA website at www.qaa.ac.uk
UCL today is a vigorous and forward-looking
institution with a formidable reputation for the
qual