A Degree of Excellence - London
One
third of Britain's total workforce is involved in the financial and business
sectors of London, and the University of London is one of the capital's largest
employers. It looks after some 120,000 UK and international students who come
annually to study in one of the fifty or so colleges, institutes and medical
schools of the federal university.
Scholars benefit from the diverse academic, cultural and leisure activities that London offers, while the influx of student numbers adds considerably to the city's economy.
Besides its economic influence, the University affects many other areas of life in London ranging from accommodation through medical and disaster support to transport issues.
Lord Beveridge, formerly Director of the LSE (1919-37) and Vice Chancellor of the University of London (1926-8), recognised the vitality of the University's link with London: in his lecture of 1928 entitled 'The Physical Relation of a University to a City'. He remarked:
'The University of London is at once civic and national and international, federal and collegiate, though not residential, a poor man's University in a city of boundless wealth.' (ULC 26/22(i))
