London is a global business capital with a world-leading position in finance, accountancy, legal services and business consultancy. From the headquarters of global firms to a vibrant tech start-up scene, London offers exciting opportunities. See how our students have benefited from UCL’s central London location and the city’s rich resources and networks.
I came to UCL because I wanted to explore a more commercial side of engineering. My degree and related work experience helped me to do that. I got to build a strong network through guest lecturers and voluntary work I did in tech accelerators through helping my professor.
I ended up starting my own business right after my degree. Being a student at UCL was very beneficial, not just because of what I had learnt in my degree, or the contacts I had made, but also because of the support from UCL Innovation and Enterprise. This included gaining a Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur Visa and winning the UCL Bright Ideas award. Our UCL connections also got us our first trial store and got us involved with Cisco, who championed us into IDEALondon - a start-up incubator, which is also partly run by UCL. I also used UCL’s makespace in the Institute of Making, which is amazing for prototyping new inventions.
My degree involved a plethora of guest speakers from the industry, which really provided us with insights into the world of telecommunications companies (and not just telecommunications companies). We had a lot of interaction with these people and many of us ended up interviewing them as part of our research projects. I received a lot of support from the department and found that London offered easier access to big companies for interviews.
London is also much better connected to home if you are an international student. There are all sorts of events going on in London (e.g. lectures, startup events, etc.). Make sure you get the most out of it.
The Technology Entrepreneurship MSc programme has changed my life! We have been connected with many mentors through the programme and I have developed a network of connections, which led me and two classmates from the programme to start our company, doctorfocused. It would have been absolutely impossible to make this happen without the support and guidance offered by UCL. For example, UCL partially sponsored our study trip to Silicon valley, where we met Google, Cisco, Vungle (founded by another UCL Technology Entrepreneurship MSc alumnus), Thumbrock and Stanford.
London is amazing. I have experienced different cultures, food and met the smartest people in the world. I’ve built a massive network here in just a year. I’d recommend that students hustle everyday. Do more faster. Put a bit more effort than others into everything you do. Don't forget to balance out hard work with quality rest time.
I currently organise the largest private Japanese speakers’ event in London, connecting Japanese and non-Japanese students who speak Japanese from universities such as UCL, LSE, Imperial College London, SOAS, KCL, Queen Mary, City and more. During the first two terms of my degree I was able to reach out to over 150 students, all from leading universities in London. UCL’s location in the centre of London really helped. I have already acquired third-party sponsors and am going to expand outside of London next year, targeting all universities in the UK. I will build the largest Japanese students’ networking community in the UK, all made possible by the strong brand of UCL.
London has a cluster of leading universities and it is very easy to network. People run the world, so know the people who do.
These case studies reflect the experience and opinion of the individual concerned and are provided to give a general illustration of some benefits that may be available to UCL graduate students. The actual opportunities available will depend on what is available at any given time and will vary between students, faculties and departments. These experiences should not necessarily be considered as representative of opportunities for all UCL students and not all activity mentioned forms a part of any taught syllabus or was organised through UCL.
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