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University College London, commonly known as UCL, is a college of the University of London. With 21,800 staff and students, UCL is one of the largest colleges of the university and is larger than most other universities in the United Kingdom. It is a member of the Russell Group of Universities, and a part of the Golden Triangle along with Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, Imperial, and King's College London [2] (the three points consisting of Oxford, Cambridge and London (UCL/LSE/IC/KCL)). UCL consistently ranks among the top five university institutions in the UK league tables and in the top thirty universities across the world. It has an annual turnover of more than £550m, and accounts for more than 40% of the Russell Group's research funding.[3] In 2005 UCL was granted the power to award its own degrees, although it continues to award degrees of the University of London. [4]
Geography and Location
Image:UCL Portico Building.jpg The UCL Main Building Image:UCL Portico Building2.jpg The UCL Main Building at night Image:UCL Portico Building3.jpg The UCL Main Building in snow Image:UCL Bedford Way.jpg UCL Bedford Way — The Psychology Department Image:UCL Frances Gardner House.jpg UCL's Newest Hall of Residence — Frances Gardner House in Clerkenwell Image:UCL Flaxman Gallery and sculpture.jpg The Flaxman Gallery of UCL main library in the Octagon building under UCL's dome Image:UCL Flaxman Gallery and Jeremy Bentham.jpg Jeremy Bentham overseeing the construction of UCL in the Flaxman gallery Image:UCL Gower Street.jpg UCL Entrance on Gower Street and the Cruciform Building Image:UCL Institute of Archaeology.jpg UCL Institute of Archaeology Image:UCL School of Slavonic Studies.jpg UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies The area around UCL is occupied by a constellation of other renowned institutions, including the British Museum, the British Library, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the British Medical Association, and other University of London schools and institutes, including SOAS, Birkbeck College, the Institute of Education and the School of Advanced Study. The nearest London Underground station to the main campus is Euston Square. Other nearby stations are Warren Street, Russell Square and Goodge Street, as well as Euston railway station. HistoryUCL was founded in 1826 under the name "University of London", as a secular alternative to the religious universities of Oxford and Cambridge. [6] It became University College London in 1836 and acquired degree-awarding powers, when it joined with King's College London to create the new University of London. In 1907 the University of London was reconstituted and many of the colleges, including UCL, lost their separate legal existence. This continued until 1977 when a new charter restored UCL's independence. Rankings
International
Famous alumniUCL alumni include legions of the "Great and Good", ranging from Mahatma Gandhi and Alexander Graham Bell to all four members of the band Coldplay. A history bent towards the arts has tended to mean a higher output of authors, including Robert Browning, Raymond Briggs and Trevor Lock, than scientists and engineers, although it still has its fair share, such as Francis Crick, John Ambrose Fleming, Colin Chapman, and the aforementioned Bell. Politicians figure highly in the lists, notably the first prime minister of Japan, Hirobumi Ito, and the founding father of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta. Many leading journalists attended the University including three former editors of The Economist, most notably Walter Bagehot. A number of entertainers feature too, including Ricky Gervais and Jonathan Ross. UCL has the highest number of professors of any university in the UK. Currently among UCL academics there are 35 fellows of the Royal Society, 22 Fellows of the British Academy, and 77 Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences. 19 Nobel prizes have been awarded to UCL academics and students (including 10 in Physiology & medicine) and three Fields Medals. [7] UCL buildingsUCL operates in many separate buildings. Whilst most of the buildings are concentrated in the Bloomsbury area of Central London (near Euston station), others can be found as far away as Old Street. Some of the buildings have been acquired through mergers with other colleges, and others have been newly built. The newest include the Engineering Wing on Malet Place and the Andrew Huxley Building within the Gower Street Site. UCL's newest buildings include the London Centre for Nanotechnology on Gordon Street, aimed for completion in 2006 and a new building for the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (formerly at Senate House) which was opened (by Princess Anne and the President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus) in October 2005 on Taviton Street. The Institute of Ophthalmology opened a new wing in 2005 funded by the Wellcome Trust. The Institute of Cancer Sciences is currently undergoing construction at the site of the disused Nurses' Home on Huntley Street and is due for completion by early 2006. The UCL library is famous in its own right[citation needed], its collection including a first edition of Newton's Principia. The library is divided over several sites, the principles of which are the main library at Gower Street and the science library at Malet Place. Notable buildings:
Museums and collectionsUCL is responsible for several museums and collections in a wide range of fields across the arts and sciences:
UCL is developing a new facility called The Panopticon, which will allow public access to its collections to be greatly improved. UCL Library's Special Collections, which encompass a large and diverse collection of rare books, incunabula and medieval manuscripts, including Jewish Collections of over 15,000 items, will also move into the new building. The Panopticon will feature permanent galleries for the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, galleries devoted to the Art and Library Special Collections, a gallery for temporary exhibitions from the other collections, lecture theatres and study rooms. Planning permission was granted in 2004 and it is scheduled to open in 2009. Campus networkingUCL provides students and staff with wired and wireless internet access at a number of locations on campus, through a service called RoamNet. However, access to this service requires the use of a proprietary Cisco VPN client, which is not supported on handhelds, non-Intel GNU/Linux systems, or other alternative platforms. UCL provides computer "cluster rooms" to provide free internet and computer access for its students, using a managed Windows environment referred to as "WTS" (Windows Terminal Service). An interesting fact is that these student computers are actually part of a large Condor cluster, and when not being used, they may well be running algorithms on behalf of researchers at UCL and elsewhere. From early 2006, UCL has also started to operate a remote login system for students to access WTS from home, called Remote WTS. Similar services had previously been available for some departments (such as Computer Science), but unlike previous systems, Remote WTS allows students to access exactly the same desktop and software from home (or elsewhere) as they can access on campus. UCL user names are seemingly random 7-character codes (e.g. "ucxxxxx") although they follow a pattern based on the user's department, staff/student status, and personal name. Network users in student halls are not allowed to: participate in IRC, network game playing, or chain mail; host services such as HTTP, mail, FTP, NNTP, or telnet; run software that uses RPC-based services (such as NFS) or IP multicast services; connect more than one machine at a time to a single network jack, or attach any device other than their personal workstation to the jack. Plugging a machine into another active port without authorization will cause a security violation, and the port will be disabled. In order to use the Internet in halls of residence, students must purchase an Internet Connection Voucher (available online from Information Systems (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/is/halls) or from the UCL Shop) which enables the Ethernet network sockets in the student's room. There are 3 types of vouchers: 4 weeks (priced at £9, and ONLY available online, starting from the date of activation), 16 weeks (priced at £36, starting from the date of activation), and Annual (priced at £70 per year, and valid until 31 August the following year). Vouchers cannot be refunded (once opened) or issued at any discounted price. Ethical investment policyUCL's ethical investment policies excludes direct investment in tobacco companies. The policies do not exclude investment in arms companies. In 2006 Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) revealed that UCL was the largest known university investor in arms companies in the UK. UCL currently invests £1,591,627 in the companies Cobham plc and the Smiths Group (both of which manufacture components for military aircraft and other weapons systems). This sum amounts to 1.7% of UCL's total investment assets. In December 2006 the campaign “Disarm UCL” was launched by students and staff opposed to this highly controversial investment. [8] UCL Provost Professor Malcolm Grant responded to criticism explaining that the UCL “Investments Sub-Committee now relies upon independent advice from the Ethical Research Investment Service ("EIRIS"). Their advice is that Cobham and Smiths Group are ethically acceptable investments.” In response EIRIS wrote to UCL highlighting this 'inaccurate and misleading' element of the Provost's statement as the company does not make decisions as to whether companies are ethically acceptable or otherwise.[9] UCLU film & televisionUCL Union Film & TV Society, formerly known as BTV, a longtime member of NaSTA, is UCL's student television station. UCLU Film & TV is responsible for broadcasting content over the UCL Union television system, along with content shown by IPTV station SubTV (not to be confused with Finnish SubTV). This represents a viewership of up to 20,000 UCL students, along with students from other colleges of the University of London. UCLU Film & TV produces original content including news, comedy, and drama. This is done both around the campus and at the Bloomsbury Studio, located in the Bloomsbury Building (Gordon Street). Filming at UCLDue to its position within London and the attractiveness of the front quad, UCL has been frequently used as a location for film and television recording. Image:TheMummyRetur.jpg University College London depicting the British Museum in the film The Mummy Returns. Fiction
Non-fiction
Students' accommodationMany UCL students are accommodated in the college's own halls of residence or other accommodation, such as those below:
Most students in college or university accommodation are first-year undergraduates. The majority of second and third-year students and postgraduates find their own accommodation in the private sector. UCL students are also eligible to apply for places in the University of London intercollegiate halls of residence, such as Connaught Hall. There is also limited UCL accommodation available for married students and those with children at Bernard Johnson House, Hawkridge, Neil Sharp House and the University of London's Lilian Penson Hall. Trivia
References
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