Case Study: UCL achieves expanded teaching beyond campus and simplified remote access with Citrix Virtual Desktops

UCL expands teaching with Excellent Systems strategy

University College London (UCL), a top‑20 global university with 38,000 students from 150 countries, was constrained by limited central London campus space and growing student expectations. Students arriving with personal devices often couldn’t run licensed course software or access centrally stored files off‑campus, forcing reliance on a limited number of on‑campus PCs and creating peak‑time capacity problems.

UCL deployed Citrix Virtual Desktops to provide a near‑identical campus PC experience anywhere: users log in via a web portal with UCL credentials (no VPN), access central files, run Windows apps on Macs, and IT can quickly provision temporary desktops and thin clients for demand spikes. The solution simplified remote access, increased device flexibility, scaled compute capacity during busy periods, and delivered a consistent, reliable desktop experience that supports UCL’s 2034 strategy.

UCL

Anthony Peacock

Head of Windows Infrastructure Services