UCL agrees £280m European Investment Bank loan for campus developments

UCL has agreed a £280 million loan with the European Investment Bank to develop its Bloomsbury and UCL East campuses, the largest sum ever lent by the bank to a university. The 30-year loan will provide funding for UCL's Bloomsbury campus in central London which is undergoing an ambitious programme to upgrade and expand its historic buildings as well as finance for the building of UCL East, the university's new site at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London. UCL is investing £1.25 billion over 10 years to implement its Transforming UCL programme, which includes developing the two campuses as well as other projects across London, to support growth in its world-leading teaching and research and create a more vibrant, student-focused environment. It is the largest capital investment programme UCL has undertaken since the building of its original campus, and is one of the biggest being carried out in the higher education sector in the UK. Projects in Bloomsbury include the refurbishment and expansion of the prestigious Bartlett School of Architecture which will house nearly 1,000 staff and students and the building of a new student centre, on which construction started this year. Investment in the Bloomsbury campus is expected to be around £740 million. When the Transforming UCL programme was published five years ago, it was clear that further growth in Bloomsbury would be constrained.