UCL has many notable alumni, including the founder of Mauritius, the first prime minister of Japan, one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, and the members of Coldplay.

[23] 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.

In 1828, he did nominate a friend to sit on the council, and in 1827, attempted to have his disciple John Bowring appointed as the first professor of English or History, but on both occasions his candidates were unsuccessful.

[24] However, Bentham is commonly regarded as the "spiritual father" of UCL, as his ideas on education and society were influential with the institution's founders, particularly James Mill (1773–1836) and Henry Brougham (1778–1868).

[43] The first woman to officially enrol in architecture at UCL was Gertrude Leverkus in 1915,[44] although Ethel and Bessie Charles had been allowed to audit classes in the 1890s.

This was achieved by Brian Woledge (Fielden Professor of French at UCL from 1939 to 1971) and David Colquhoun, at that time a young lecturer in pharmacology.

[86] Since 2018, UCL and the University of South Australia have offered joint master's degrees in data science and in energy systems with study in Adelaide and London.

[104] An enquiry found that the organiser, an honorary lecturer, did not correctly follow the room booking procedure, including claiming that no controversial topics would be discussed, leaving the university unaware of the nature of the conference.

[131] The UCL Observatory is in Mill Hill[132] and the Mullard Space Science Laboratory is based in Holmbury St Mary, Surrey.

[142] UCL's new Student Centre, which opened in 2019, was designed to be environmentally friendly and was one of only 320 buildings worldwide (at the time) to be certified outstanding by BREEAM.

[143] This certification requires innovation throughout the design, engineering and construction process, and places the Student Centre among the top 1% of non-domestic buildings in the UK for sustainability.

UCL set a target of reducing waste per person by 20% between 2019 and 2024, while aiming for an 85% recycling rate and the elimination of single-use plastics on campus.

[150] The two main bodies in UCL's governance structure are the council and the academic board, both of which are established by the royal charter and with powers defined by the statutes.

[152] The senior leadership team at UCL includes the visitor, a position in English charity law that oversees the operation of the institution.

[151][160] There are also four vice-presidents, who are also members of the senior management team but whose role and manner of appointment is not specified in the statutes, for strategy, external engagement, advancement and operations.

The report found that in 2018–19, UCL had supported 234 graduate start-ups and 83 spinout companies, with a total turnover of £110 million and employing almost 3,000 people.

[170][171] UCL's motto, "Cuncti adsint meritaeque expectent praemia palmae" is a quotation from Virgil's Aeneid, and translates into English as "Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward".

However, UCL's market share (based on the funding formula) declined from 6.23% following the 2014 REF to 5.34%, despite the overall improvement, reflecting increases in research quality across the sector.

[216] As of December 2024, UCL Press had had more than 13 million downloads of its open access books and journal articles in 242 countries and territories worldwide.

The special collection includes first editions of Isaac Newton's Principia, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species and James Joyce's Ulysses.

[238] UCL is ranked top in the 2023 Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide for American studies, building, information systems and management, liberal arts, and town and country planning.

[251] Admission to UCL is highly selective with an average entry tariff for 2020–21 of 189 UCAS points (approximately equivalent to AAAB at A-level), the 9th highest in the country.

[252] Of UCL's young UK domiciled undergraduates, 32.7% were privately educated in 2019–20, the eighth highest proportion amongst mainstream British universities.

These give participants the opportunity to explore London, to develop skills in their chosen subject, to improve their university applications through personal statement workshops and talks by admissions tutors, and to take part in social activities.

[264] For international students who do not meet the requirements for admission to the college, it runs intensive one-year foundation courses, called Undergraduate Preparatory Certificates, in either sciences or humanities.

[272] From its foundation the college has been deliberately secular; the initial justification for this was that it would enable students of different Christian traditions (specifically Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Nonconformists) to study alongside each other without conflict.

[288][289] UCL has a long-running, mostly friendly rivalry with King's College London, but there were frequent clashes in the interwar period which have historically been known as "rags".

During the same year, an attempt by King's students to capture Phineas led to the "Battle of Gower Street", caught on camera by British Pathé.

[317][318] UCL alumni include Francis Crick (co-discoverer of the structure of DNA),[319] Lord Herschell (Lord Chancellor of Great Britain),[320] William Stanley Jevons (an early pioneer of modern economics),[321] Charles K. Kao ("Godfather of broadband"),[322] Jomo Kenyatta (considered the "Founding Father" of Kenya)[323] and Joseph Lister (pioneer in the use of antiseptics in surgery).

[324] Notable former staff include Hugh Gaitskell (leader of the Labour Party 1955–63),[325] Otto Hahn (pioneer of nuclear chemistry, discoverer of nuclear fusion and Nobel laureate),[326] Peter Higgs (proposer of the Higgs mechanism, which predicted the existence of the Higgs boson, and Nobel laureate),[326] A. E. Housman (classical scholar and poet, who wrote A Shropshire Lad while a professor at UCL),[327] Sir William Ramsay (discoverer of all of the naturally occurring noble gases)[328] and Klaus Roth (mathematician and Field's Medal winner).