Advising university on establishing a first-ever overseas campus

University College London (UCL) is London’s leading multidisciplinary university. Among other prestigious rankings, UCL is currently ranked fourth in the world by the Times Higher Education – QS World University Rankings. UCL’s research is considered world leading. 

In 2009 UCL established its first ever overseas campus in the form of the School of Energy and Resources, Australia (SERAus) in Adelaide, South Australia. The SERAus is a research-led academic facility that provides energy and resources education programmes and academic research with an international focus. 

Piper Alderman act as UCL’s Australian legal advisers and have provided a full range of advice on structuring and establishing the SERAus in Australia, including on the raft of State and Federal registrations and approvals, government funding arrangements, tax, employment, and other commercial issues. We continue to provide ongoing advice to UCL on its Australian operations. Our experience in contractual law, corporate governance, employment and labor laws, among other legal components enabled us to assist UCL effectively on the SERAus project. 

What our client said

Ray Waters, Senior Executive SERAus Project

“I have been closely involved with Piper Alderman from the start of the project. We have relied on Piper Alderman, and Simon Venus in particular, to guide us through the various legal issues regarding registering as a foreign company and various other corporate and tax matters. We have been very impressed and very satisfied with the work carried out, in fact in my view the service has been exemplary.”