It was late in the afternoon on a cold and dark Tuesday, and I had about an hour to kill before my next event of the day. I had thought about messaging some friends to see if they were free for a quick chat or coffee, but I had resolved the situation by concluding there would be no guarantee that people would be free on campus to meet right now. Why is this the case? I was suddenly reminded of when someone said to me ‘I can’t imagine what it’s like to study in London’. This moment prompted me to reflect on why it is such a different and unique experience to study at a London university.
Unlike other smaller university towns, London definitely does not revolve around the activities and movements of the students. Rather, it feels as though the university students blend in with and are forced to keep up with London’s constant motion. Of course, there is a tangible sense of campus atmosphere when you walk down Tottenham Court Road during term time, or see Dillons Cafe in Waterstones on Gower Street overflowing with students catching-up with each other or working. But as a Londoner myself, I have particularly noticed the obvious difference between term time when these areas are dominated by an apparent student presence, and summertime when the students leave and Fitzrovia just becomes a different area of London.
In the case of UCL and some other London universities, the idea of a campus doesn’t particularly exist. Even though there are certain buildings and areas that students associate themselves with more, the university campus is spread across the city from the Bloomsbury Campus to the newly established UCL East. It is worth noting that UCL is an incredibly large university. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, in 2020/21, UCL had the highest number of students enrolments in the UK besides the Open University. So the thought of constantly and consistently bumping into people you know feels quite unlikely. (This is a completely different experience to that of my Erasmus host university where the campus was so small it felt impossible to not bump into people you knew!) The student body at UCL weaves through various locations and is in perpetual movement. Overall, the different student areas are just pockets within the city, rather than fully contained, dedicated, and demarcated spaces.
I was discussing how the London student experience is different with someone who went to a university outside of London. Immediately, they mentioned the scale of the city. Although many students have the opportunity in first year to live in halls that are near the unis, thus providing a more ‘classic’ university lifestyle, students in later years end up living in completely different parts of the city from Wimbolden and Wembley to nearby Warren Street. Unlike many other university towns where the facilities, halls etc. are closely located to each other, every London student relies on and takes public transport. Whether it’s for commuting to classes or going to an event, the necessity of travelling across a large city plays a central role in the university experience.
A friend who went to a non-London campus university suggested that students in London don’t have a quintessentially British campus university experience mainly because we are in a vibrant and global capital city filled with people from all walks of life. London students are enveloped in a bubble. For instance, given the extremely high costs of living in London, it feels as though it is a much more common occurrence for students to live at home (myself included!) in comparison to other universities across the country. Moreover, statistics published by UCL itself reveal that 53% of the student population is made up of international students, and looking at the data presented by the Complete University Guide, UCL has the highest international student population in the country. UCL is highly representative of London’s wonderful multicultural identity. At UCL and other London universities, you have the chance to meet students from all over the world. You are not necessarily immersed in a British experience, but rather in a global one.
It is difficult to assess your own university experience objectively if it is your only point of reference. Nonetheless, it seems evident from several discussions and moments of reflection that university students in London are far removed from the feeling of being immersed in a true British campus bubble. The chance to study in London can potentially be overwhelming, but it is never, most certainly, boring nor stagnant.