Legal & General & Birkbeck, University of London launch partnership for inclusive, sustainable change

Legal & General and Birkbeck, University of London announce the launch of a three-year partnership combining financial support and corporate-sector expertise with renowned academic research capabilities to:

• Support the expansion and development of Birkbeck’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in environment and sustainability, equipping thousands of students with valuable practical skills and knowledge to help build a more sustainable future. Birkbeck’s longer-term intention is to embed sustainability into other areas of their curriculum across different schools
• Devise and launch a first-of-its-kind accreditation programme that will help to embed benchmarking standards in environmental and sustainability higher education
• Provide vital financial support to allow students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds to access an education at Birkbeck, an institution that has placed social inclusion at the heart of its mission since 1823

The partnership will create opportunities for Legal & General employees to share their knowledge with both the academics developing the new sustainability content, and with Birkbeck students – present and future. This could include providing counsel on the potential business application of the academic theory and content, or guest lecturing.

Behind the partnership is a shared recognition that building a more sustainable future is as much a people challenge as it is a scientific, technical, or economic one. The partnership aims to develop a cohort of leaders who have the skills and capability to mobilise human capital in order to build the sustainable future that the planet needs.

Legal & General has a long history of working with higher education institutions to create social and economic opportunities, including over £5 billion currently committed to science and technology development projects at Oxford and Manchester universities. As of June 2023, Legal & General had invested £1.4bn in clean energy and £8.7bn in social infrastructure.

This philanthropic and purpose-led partnership will build upon Birkbeck’s expertise as an institution that meets the needs of a highly diverse student body and an environment which fosters world-leading research. 40% of Birkbeck students have a household income of less than £25,000 and 60% of Birkbeck’s full-time, young undergraduates are the first in their family to go to university. As an institution that provides research-led education, Birkbeck is proud that 83% of its research was confirmed as world-leading and internationally excellent in the 2021 UK Research Excellence Framework.