UCL in bold bid to control landmark student venue

UCL has launched a bid to take over ULU’s flagship headquarters for its own student union in a move that could provide a massive boost for UCL students - but risks slamming the door on those from other colleges.

For years UCL students have been forced to put up with a cramped and dishevelled student union building, with the college itself failing to provide improved premises in the hope it could one day get its hands on ULU’s HQ and turn it into a social hub for UCL students.

And with the University of London (UL) - which has had enough of bankrolling ULU’s spiralling costs - now asking colleges to submit expressions of interest in taking over ULU’s Malet Street building as part of a cost-cutting drive, UCL has seized its chance.

UCL wants to take a long-term lease of the whole building and hand over management of it to UCL Union, with ULU renting back space for its sports and societies, London Student, and limited representation services. The only rival bid to UCL’s is from ULU itself, which is proposing to carry on running the building and redevelop its shops.

UCL’s proposal claims it intends to make the building available for use by all UL students, with UCL’s existing student advice centres and job service moved into the building for use by students at other colleges “on a contribution basis”.

But asked by London Student how this contribution would be calculated, UCL finance chief Jack Foster said he didn’t know - and couldn’t give assurances that they would be affordable to small and specialist colleges.

Foster also admitted that UCL might not even offer these services to students from other colleges at all if it meant reducing the levels of service for its own students.
UCL’s proposal also includes providing medical and dental surgeries, a range of retail offerings, and the current level of extensive social space - but not the swimming pool, an expensive facility which is one of few in Central London. UCL is not prepared to foot the bill, insisting it must be covered by the colleges.

“A much stronger argument, on financial and usage grounds, might be made for the incorporation of this space into the fitness centre,” the bid states with regard to the pool.
Foster admitted he had “no idea at all” how much it would cost to implement UCL’s proposals. He told London Student it would “run into millions”.

“We’re at a very early stage, if we get some positive feedback, then we can get some professional advice on costings. We know we can afford it, because we’re delivering most of those services at the moment. It’s an extension of that.”

UL officials also defended the absence of cost analysis in the bid. Director of Estates Martin Burchett said: “All we were after at this stage was an expression of interest, and clearly there’s a lot of work that still needs to be done.

“We were genuinely after just an expression of interest, in general terms, what you want to do. We’ll obviously have to talk about the financial deal in due course.”

Although no guarantees have been given that the new services UCL might bring to the Malet Street building would be available to non-UCL students, Burchett stressed that existing ULU services would be open to all. “UCL have made it absolutely clear - and they’re explicit about this - that there will be space there for whatever ULU is doing, the residual ULU function, that can be accommodated within the building. There’s no question about that. They’re not going to be turfed out on the street or anything.”

UCL Union’s premises have been a running sore for students. The union is currently housed in Gordon Street, a moment’s walk from ULU. When it moved into its current HQ, UCL Union was told it was a temporary move before a new student union building was established. That was more than 50 years ago.

The intervening decades have seen consistent under-investment in the Gordon Street premises, while demands for a new building have been constantly ignored. Fire safety regulations introduced in 2005 drastically cut the number of students allowed to be inside the building at any one time, wreaking havoc with UCL Union events before they were eventually transferred to venues around London.

A source close to UCL Union said: “It makes sense for UCL to take over responsibility for commercial activities in the building like bars and the gym, as ULU doesn’t have enough cash to give facilities the makeover they deserve.

“But I can’t say that UCL’s bid is its best possible - none of the students at the union have been involved in the proposals, which seems odd when it’s UCL students who’ll be using the facilities if the bid is successful.”

Asked about UCL’s lack of cost assessment, the source added: “I have reservations about that - it has the potential to be really good for UCLU and UL students, and the potential to be really bad for UCLU if it’s not properly funded.”

UCL Provost Malcolm Grant declined to comment on the report. “I don’t want a right of reply” he told London Student.

“I’m dismayed that you’ve got a copy of this commercial in confidence document. All we want is to provide better facilities for students in London.”

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