UCL’s new East campus is opening in September

UCL East, UCL’s brand new campus, is set to open one of its buildings in September 2022, with the other opening in September 2023.

Located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at East Bank, this campus will host around 60 new UCL degree courses and research. It also promises to provide accommodation for over 500 students.

The opening of this campus is “the largest expansion in our history”, and part of the Mayor of London’s East Bank education and cultural development plan.

UCL is currently expanding to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at East Bank, with the new UCL East campus opening at Pool Street West this September. The second larger building, at Marshgate, will be opening its doors in September 2023. This new campus will consist of state of the art research labs, accommodation for over 500 students, fabrication workshops, as well as a shop, cinema, unique urban room, cafes and public art installations.

UCL East in numbers

UCL East will be easily accessible from UCL’s Bloomsbury campus, with high-speed trains running from Stratford International and London St Pancras. The location also puts UCL at the centre of the ‘UK’s newest and biggest innovation district’ (SHIFT), along with the BBC, V&A, UAL and Sadler’s Wells.

When fully open, the UCL East campus will host 3,600 students and 260 staff members. Students there will have access to ‘cutting-edge new research centres’, to conduct research, in innovative fields such as architecture, finance, business, robotics and AI, biodiversity, decarbonising transport, manufacturing, sport science and technology, media, health, heritage and culture, and disability and accessibility. Students will also be able to study around 60 new degree courses, created by business and industry experts with the aim of tackling some of the world’s biggest issues. Common prioritised themes throughout the new courses and research include transformative technology, sustainable cities, global health, human wellbeing, justice and equality, and cultural understanding.

The Mayor of London’s East Bank development plan aims to deliver an economic value of £1.5 billion to the local area, an estimated 2,500 jobs, and 1.5 million additional annual visitors to the Park.

The opening of this campus will build on UCL’s collaborative, disruptive and innovative reputation, and will ‘help turn UCL’s excellence in research, teaching and learning into an even greater number of practical applications that deliver economic and social value to London and the world’.

Speaking about the new campus, UCL Vice-Provost Professor Anthony Smith said:

“Since UCL was founded in 1826, we have gained a reputation for doing things differently to create a better world. We were the first university in England to welcome students of all faiths or no faith, and the first to teach women on an equal footing with men. Innovating for a fairer society is what we do.

“This is the largest expansion in our history. Along with our East Bank partners, we are driving the most ambitious education and cultural development in the UK since the Great Exhibition gave rise to the Kensington museums in London in 1861, but with all the added benefits that the Olympic Park brings.

“Studying or working at UCL East will provide our students and staff with unprecedented opportunities to be at the forefront of new knowledge, make an impact in our communities and build diverse professional and social networks that will last a lifetime and change lives. There is no better time to be at UCL as we enter this extraordinary new chapter in our history.”

Professor Paola Lettieri (FREng), the UCL East director, has said:

“I can’t wait to welcome students, staff and the public onto what I believe will be the most exciting university campus in the world. Not only are we in the Olympic Park, itself a living testbed for technology and innovation – whether hydrogen powered vehicles or the latest wheelchair technology – but we also have a campus and ways of working that have discovery, sustainability and biodiversity at their core. We can guarantee that studying, working or living at UCL East will be your chance to change the world.

“The issues facing people and the planet have never been more complex or more urgent. The increased scale and space that UCL East will give us, on a campus where departments and faculties are all coming together to problem solve under the same roof, will accelerate breakthroughs and the disruptive discoveries UCL is known for around the world.

“Just as importantly, the challenges around public health, inequality, economic development, social justice and sustainability that UCL has long worked to address, all impact on lives in east London. Our programmes at UCL East include work with our local community and surrounding boroughs to design research opportunities that ensure our staff and students have an immediate impact beyond the lab or lecture theatre. We will be working on the issues local people say are important to them. I look forward to welcoming you to UCL East in September.”

To find out more about UCL East, check out their twitter page.

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