University College London (UCL): The UK’s Largest Russell Group University, Bloomsbury’s Academic Quarter, and 200 Years of Liberal Tradition

Published on May 14, 2026

Ranked 9th globally in QS 2026, with the largest undergraduate population in the UK and one of the largest postgraduate populations in Europe, University College London (UCL) is the top UK university that feels least like a traditional UK university. When it was founded in 1826, UCL was the first university in the UK to admit students regardless of religion, gender, or race. At the time, Oxford and Cambridge still admitted only male members of the Church of England. For that reason, UCL was known at the time as "the godless college on Gower Street".

UCL’s character can be summed up in one sentence: liberal, diverse, huge, and practical. It does not have the collegiate system of Oxbridge, the pure STEM focus of Imperial, or the single business-and-management focus of LSE. UCL is a comprehensive Russell Group university with the largest number of departments in the UK. Here, you can study AI, Medicine, Architecture, where the Bartlett ranks in the global top 3, Slavonic Studies, where Eastern European studies are ranked first in Europe, world-class Egyptology, and Statistical Science, the world’s first statistics department.

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