University College London UCL as alumni, faculty or researchers. UCL was founded on 11 February 1826 under the name London University, as an alternative to the Anglican universities of Oxford and Cambridge. London University's first Warden was Leonard Horner, who was the first scientist to head a British university. Despite the commonly held belief that the philosopher Jeremy Bentham was the founder of UCL, his direct involvement was limited to the purchase of share No. 633, at a cost of £100 paid in nine instalments between December 1826 and January 1830. In 1828 he did nominate a friend to sit on the council,
University College London in the country and 3rd in London. UCL was one of the first universities in the UK to make use of the A* grade at A-Level (introduced in 2010) for admissions to courses including Economics, European Social and Political Studies, Law, Mathematics, Medicine, Theoretical Physics and Psychology. The university gave offers of admission to 62.9% of its applicants in 2017, and had the 6th lowest offer rate in the Russell Group in 2015. For 2017 entry, the university was one of only a few mainstream universities (along with Cambridge, Imperial College London, LSE, Oxford, St Andrews, and Warwick) to have