UCL seeks to further expand by raising £600M

Source: Wikimedia Commons

POST-BREXIT UCL SEEKS TO RAISE £600 MILLION IN FUNDING TO SUPPORT UCL EAST AND MAINTAIN UCL’S “GLOBAL VISION”.

UCL has launched an ambitious £600m fundraising project that aims to revamp the university, pouring capital into development and research.

Launched on September 15, UCL “It’s All Academic — The Campaign for UCL” project had already raised £253m before going public, and now seeks a further £350m that would then be invested into “UCL East [a campus in the Olympic Park], funding for critical mass thinking in the Institute of Advanced Studies, and a new home for its dementia research community.”

UCL’s Provost, Professor Michael Arthur, is trying to rally as much support behind the £600m-project, arguing that, post-Brexit, it will be one of the only ways to maintain UCL’s “global vision and global impact”.

The project has been advertised around the UCL campus with posters stating “Rebels with a cause” and “Kicking up a think”.

One of the critical fonts of donations of the project is its alumni, 200,000 of which are hope to contribute substantially.

It has also spread its presence to shops and supermarkets such as Iceland, which recently awarded UCL the “Charity of the Year” award.

Part of the collected donations will go into the infrastructural development of the Stratford site, where they plan to construct an 11 acre campus in the former Olympic Park.

This constitutes a further attempt on behalf of UCL to expand its reach and visibility, having unsuccessfully attempted in the past also to acquire another important London university, Imperial College.

The level of donations it wishes to raise places UCL below only Oxford and Cambridge universities in terms of fundraising, who aim to reach £3b and £2b respectively.