At the end of March, I took up my role as Generation UCL Research Fellow. There is much more information about the project here, but to summarise: UCL celebrates its bicentenary in 2026. In advance of that, this project – led by Dr Georgina Brewis from IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, and John Dubber, the CEO of UCL’s Students’ Union – aims to put student life and culture at the centre of a new history of the institution. UCL has received surprisingly little attention in the wider literature on higher education. This project is about highlighting UCL’s history whilst giving students – much under-represented in the literature, too – greater attention.
One way of doing that is by collecting a range of oral testimonies from former students in the form of recorded interviews. These will be central to the Generation UCL project but they will also act as a resource for future generations of researchers.
The oral history element of the project got off to a flying start a couple of weeks ago, when I interviewed five people, all of whom added something special to ‘the Voices of UCL’ collection.
First up was Lord McNally of Blackpool who, as Tom McNally, was UCL’s Students’ Union President in 1965-66. (Incidentally the SU abolished the President role in 1975). We met in his office in the House of Lords. What really struck me about his testimony was the fact that Tom was a genuine working-class boy from the north-west of England who not only wanted to come to London but, once he got here, embraced everything the metropolis had to offer and never wanted to leave. UCL was part of the experience that made the city his ‘spiritual home’. Just as interestingly, he remembers his student life as being full of other such working-class young people from parts of the country, who also had regional accents. To an extent, this would have been true. A combination of the post-war grammar school system, a recovering economy in the 1950s and, most importantly, a shift in central government policy towards universities meant that these years did witness a more diverse range of people from a variety of social backgrounds coming to study at places like UCL.
For Lord McNally, student life taught him much about the wider world of politics that he would later enter. He won the SU Presidency (in his view) by taking a strong line on a financial rebate for the athletics union, winning the support of influential people like the men’s football captain in the process. It is clear that he has nothing but fondness for his time at ‘UC’. The joy conveyed by his testimony, however, always makes oral historians like me cautious of the role nostalgia plays in forming people’s memories. It is something we must at least be aware of.
The next day, I was scheduled to meet someone who I was both excited and nervous about seeing. A week before, I discovered that a former alumnus communicates with UCL’s Alumni Relations department by letter. She is about to turn 102 and studied Fine Art at the Slade in the early 1940s. I was incredibly eager to meet her and this was arranged via her family. Her name is Diana Armfield. Tube cancellations nearly derailed our meeting but quick thinking by a colleague who accompanied me, and lots of running, meant we arrived only five minutes late.
Diana was the most remarkable woman: still painting, still travelling back and forth to Wales, and still incredibly sharp. Before the interview began properly, we drank proper loose-leaf tea out of beautiful cups and ate a ginger cake whose taste I am still savouring weeks later.
Once my colleague had left, we spoke in Diana’s studio, surrounded by her incredible work. She told me about studying in Oxford. This was where the Slade was evacuated to during the Second World War. Diana has so many memories about the people and places where she spent her time. Most movingly for me, however, was her memories of first meeting her future husband when their eyes met whilst they were both focusing on a sculpture that they had to draw.
I have always loved meeting older people and know people in their 70s, 80s and even 90s who I would call friends. Such people are a window onto a world that even the best historians sometimes struggle to capture the essence of. It’s the greatest pleasure of a job like mine to get to meet people like Diana and learn from them. I finished our interview promising that we would meet again.
Earlier that day I had also interviewed Frank Penter, who many people had told me I had to speak with. Frank was a student at the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies (SSEES) in the early 2000s. He was a Sabbatical Officer when a student, and later a member of staff, including being a Halls of Residence Warden. He rose to become the Theatre Manager at UCL and is also in charge of a wide range of its cultural offering. Frank is the kind of person who is an oral historian’s dream: simply by having such a deep well of knowledge, he can help provide the details that someone like me, still new to UCL, needs. His memory is amazing, but he also has an eye and an ear for an anecdote. When I did a similar project before coming to UCL, the first people I interviewed were people like Frank: those with amazing memories who were embedded into an institution they loved.
My other two interviewees, Rodney Hornstein and Stuart Richman, were from very similar backgrounds, although I interviewed them separately and they did not refer to one another. They were born in the very early 1940s and raised in London (with stints elsewhere as evacuees) and both were both from Jewish backgrounds. All of this made for fascinating discussion points. In their cases, it was especially interesting to hear how living at home – and not in ‘digs’ or in halls of residence – impacted on their university life. In Stuart’s case, his family home in Hampstead become somewhat of a social hub for his friendship groups, where his mother cooked for groups of students who she then became fond of and attached to.
These alumni studied maths, and economics and social anthropology respectively, but they were also heavily involved in UCL’s Drama Society and I got to hear much about the traditions of managing, producing and staging plays. It was especially interesting to hear how the Dram Soc. revived some lesser-known or out of fashion plays, rekindling interest that led to the plays being staged in national theatres again.
Four of these interviews were conducted in or around London. Rodney came to me and I think the process of conducting the interview at UCL itself – in the main Wilkins Building – added something to the experience. However, we are determined that this project is not London-centric, despite it inevitably focusing on London. We want to hear voices from around the country – and, indeed, from around the world – which reflects how UCL drew so many different people to it. Hence, the final interview I conducted in my series of five required travelling to Liverpool – easily one of my favourite English cities. After a long period of working from home and Covid-era caution, to jump on a train to go and do some research in a great city, and meet someone fascinating, felt like a great gift.
This project has only just started. We want to hear from a wide range of people. Already, hundreds have expressed an interest in taking part and it is a great shame that we will not get to speak to everyone. However, we always want to hear from more people. If you are a UCL alumnus, or you know someone who is, and you are interested in being a part of the research, please fill out this form and we will try and be in touch soon.
And watch this space for lots more exciting news about the Generation UCL project!