The principal of the proposed college was also to act as the Professor of the Theory, History and Practice of Education at the university.

[6][7] Its first principal was Sir John Adams, who had previously been the Professor of Education at University of Glasgow.

[9] Gradually the institute expanded its activities and began to train secondary school teachers and offered higher degrees.

It also moved into specific areas of research with its Child Development Department, administered by Susan Sutherland Isaacs and the training of teachers for the colonial service.

At the outbreak of World War II, the institute was temporarily transferred to the University of Nottingham.

The IOE and UCL formed a strategic alliance in October 2012, including co-operation in teaching, research and the development of the London schools system.

It moved again in its second year to the Northampton Technical Institute in Finsbury and the College of Preceptors building in Bloomsbury Square.

[6] After World War II, the Senate House complex became unworkable due to a sharp increase in numbers of students.

The institute began to expand into other buildings in the neighbouring area, including four houses on Bedford Way which were leased as a residential hall for students in 1946, a building on Tavistock Square as home of the music department in 1958, and a few "huts" on Malet Street (formerly belonging to the University of London Student Union) where the library was transferred.

[24] The archives are open to both internal and external researchers by appointment only, and form part of University College London's Special Collections.

A study of working mothers and early child development was influential in making the argument for increased maternity leave.

Another study on the impact of assets, such as savings and investments on future life chances, played a major part in the development of assets-based welfare policy, including the much-debated "Baby Bond".