University College London University College London UCL (legally University College London) is a public research university in London, England, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It is the largest university in the United Kingdom by total enrolment, and the largest by postgraduate enrolment. Established in 1826 as London University by founders inspired by the radical ideas of Jeremy Bentham, UCL was the first university institution to be established in London, and the first in England to be entirely secular and to admit students regardless of their religion. UCL also makes the contested claims of being the third-oldest university in
History of University College London Wellcome Foundation, on 1 January 2005. In 2007, Grant separated teaching from research in the Faculty of Life Sciences. In the process UCL's eminent departments of Pharmacology and Physiology vanished (see Department of Pharmacology at University College London, 1905 – 2007. UCL applied to the Privy Council for the power to award degrees in its own right. This was granted in September 2005, and the first degrees were awarded in 2008. History of University College London University College London (UCL) was founded on 11 February 1826, under the name "London University", as a secular alternative to the strictly religious universities