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 the Senate [of the University of London] proposes that collegiate education shall no longer be necessary for candidates for degrees in arts and laws, desires to express is disapproval of the proposed change, as one likely to be injurious to the cause of regular and systematic education, and as not only lowering the value, but altering the very meaning, of an English University degree" and "That University College having been pointed out in 1835 by the address of the House of Commons to the Crown, as the future University of London and having chiefly waived its claims to that high