By Denise Marray/GT London Correspondent
Canary Wharf Group, a wholly owned joint venture between Brookfield Property Partners and the Qatar Investment Authority, has announced that the world-leading university UCL will base its new School of Management postgraduate programme at Level 38, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf. The presence of the world-class university will complement the wide range of businesses and organisations already at the estate.
UCL, ranked joint fifth in the world’s top 10 universities by the QS World University Rankings (2014), enjoys a strong relationship with Qatar through UCL Qatar created in partnership with Qatar Foundation and Qatar Museums.
UCL Qatar offers four Master’s degree programmes. These include an MSc in Conservation Studies, an MA in Museum and Gallery Practice, and an MA in the Archaeology of the Arab and Islamic World. The programmes have a significant focus on the Gulf and the wider Middle East region, and incorporate extended field placements. They are designed to give students the practical skills required to pursue a career as a leader in the cultural heritage sector.
UCL was the first British university to open a campus in Qatar.
UCL was established in 1826 in order to open up education in England for the first time to students of any race, class or religion. Its founding principles of academic excellence and research aimed at addressing real-world problems inform the university’s ethos to this day.
Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 29 people who are or were students or academics at UCL.
The new School of Management at Canary Wharf replaces the existing Department of Management Science and Innovation. The School will significantly expand UCL’s research and teaching in business and management, with a focus on innovation, technology management, analytics and entrepreneurship. It will occupy the whole of Level 38, or 28,412 sq ft.
One Canada Square offers an ideal environment to support UCL students and staff, delivering best-in-class facilities, networks and recreation as part of an enriched learning experience. UCL students will benefit from proximity to Europe’s biggest fintech accelerator “Level39” which offers its start-up members a strong growth environment, access to large technology corporates, banks and financial services and a carefully curated curriculum and mentor programme.
Level39, a Canary Wharf Group initiative across three floors of One Canada Square, also hosts an extensive events programme which attracts up to 50,000 visitors a year to the space, giving students unrivalled access to entrepreneurs, innovation and thought leadership across the technology sector.
Canary Wharf offers over 300 shops and restaurants. Crossrail’s arrival – an addition to the Jubilee and DLR lines – will double capacity to Canary Wharf and cut journey times into central London and further afield. It will take just 39 minutes to get to Heathrow airport, while the West End will be 11 minutes away.
The UCL School of Management postgraduate premises will open for teaching from September 2016. Undergraduate programmes will be based on the UCL Bloomsbury campus but all students will be able to take advantage of the benefits offered at Canary Wharf.
Canary Wharf Group’s Chairman and CEO, Sir George Iacobescu said:
“We are delighted to be welcoming University College London, one of the world’s top-ranked universities, to Canary Wharf. The agreement between Canary Wharf Group and UCL will enable the brightest postgraduates to benefit from proximity to world-class financial and professional services institutions. These students will be able to experience the unique fusion between business and technology we enjoy here, through access to networks of business people as well as the technology corporates, entrepreneurs and innovators in the 180 start-ups residing in Level39. Spanning three floors, or 80,000 sq ft, “Level39” is Europe’s biggest technology accelerator.”
Professor Anthony Finkelstein, Dean of UCL Engineering, said: “The new UCL School of Management will strengthen relationships between students, businesses and research by providing a fertile environment for sharing knowledge and implementing new ideas. Being based at Canary Wharf and Bloomsbury, students will benefit from all the resources available on campus, but also have access to firms, internships and the opportunity to develop personal relationships with globally important companies in the heart of corporate London.”
Canary Wharf
