At UCL, candidates for research degrees are required to deposit an electronic copy of their final thesis in UCL’s Research Publications Service (RPS), to be made open access in UCL’s institutional repository, UCL Discovery. Students can choose to restric public access to their thesis, for a variety of reasons like future publication, copyright restriction or sensitive data, but most are made open access immediately, or after a delay period no longer than 12 months.

The requirement to submit an electronic copy of your thesis as a condition of award has been in place at UCL since 2009. In addition to that, we have retrospectively digitised theses from earlier years, as a part of a collaborative project with ProQuest. So far, about 3,500 theses have been made available in UCL Discovery as a part of this collaboration. Theses are also digitised through the British Library’s e-Theses Online Service (EThOS), upon request.

In total, there are over 10,500 theses available in UCL’s institutional repository, dating as far back as 1933. UCL theses are amongst our most-downloaded items! The most popular is a 1990 thesis, Marketing theories and concepts for the international construction industry, available here. Amongst the theses available there are some completed by notable UCL alumni:

Julian Baggini, philosopher and author of popular books on philosophy, including A Short History of Truth, The Pig that Wants to be Eaten and 99 other thought experiments, and most recently How the World Thinks. Baggini completed his PhD in 1996, and his thesis on philopsphy of idnetity was recently made available here: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10057733/

Adam Rutherford, geneticist and author, has produced several science documentaries, and hosts the BBC 4 radio programme Inside Science. He completed his PhD at UCL in 2002, and his thesis on the role of a specific gene (CHX10) on eye development was recently made available in UCL Discovery: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10057801/

Chris Van Tulleken, together with his twin brother and fellow doctor Xand, makes programmes on various aspects of health, most recently Operation Ouch for CBBC. He is also an infectious diseases doctor and MRC Clinical Research Fellow at University College London Hospital, and completed his PhD in 2017. Chris’ thesis is available here: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1567969/