News: one of London's leading universities, already home to the Bartlett School of Architecture, is set to open a school of design at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
University College London (UCL) today confirmed plans to open a second campus at the site of the London 2012 Olympic Games, following the UK government's pledge to contribute £141 million in funding.
Expected to open in 2018, UCL East will include the new UCL Generator department, which will encompass a new university museum, as well as the University's first design school in its 188-year history.
"The school will offer new taught courses in design alongside research and innovation opportunities," said UCL.
The university is already home to the Bartlett, arguably one of the best architecture schools in the world, and the Slade School of Fine Art, whose alumni include Martin Creed, Richard Hamilton and Eileen Gray.
Located south of the ArcelorMittal Orbit, the 4.5-hectare campus will feature a new department for experimental engineering, set to include large-scale fabrication and prototype development facilities available to staff, students and partnering businesses – a bid to boost industry growth.
There will also be a department for innovation and technology, centred around biology and health.
"UCL East represents the largest ever single expansion of UCL since the university was founded nearly 200 years ago," said UCL vice-provost Stephen Caddick.
"Our new site will be a beacon of how universities should work in decades to come – outward looking, connected to the local community and providing facilities to businesses to work on site to bring new discoveries and inventions out of the lab and into the marketplace."
Other cultural institutions planning to open new outposts at the Olympic Park include the V&A museum, the Smithsonian Institution and Sadler's Wells Theatre. A competition was launched in September to find architects and engineers to work on the design.