# BeaverCheck Audit Report — https://ucl.ac.uk

**Date:** April 21, 2026  
**URL:** https://ucl.ac.uk  
**Overall Grade:** C (76/100)  
**Report:** https://beavercheck.com/results/e9ad77e5-52d3-4fe2-845b-57d8a0e66ede

## Top Findings

1. **[CRITICAL]** Content-Security-Policy header is missing — Security > Security Headers
2. **[CRITICAL]** HSTS header is missing — Security > Security Headers
3. **[CRITICAL]** No Content-Security-Policy header found — Security > Content Security Policy
4. **[WARNING]** 86 third-party resources (100% of weight) — Performance > Page Weight Inventory
5. **[WARNING]** Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy header is missing — Security > Security Headers

---

## Lighthouse Scores

| Category | Score |
|----------|-------|
| Performance | 72 |
| Accessibility | 96 |
| Best Practices | 100 |
| SEO | 100 |

---

## Security

### Security Headers (F — 5/100)

*1 of 10 headers properly configured*

- **[CRITICAL]** HSTS header is missing — Strict-Transport-Security forces browsers to use HTTPS, preventing downgrade attacks. Add the header with a max-age of at least 1 year.
- **[WARNING]** X-Content-Type-Options header is missing — This header prevents MIME-type sniffing, which can lead to XSS attacks. Set it to 'nosniff'.
- **[WARNING]** X-Frame-Options header is missing — This header prevents clickjacking by controlling who can embed your page in a frame. Set it to DENY or SAMEORIGIN.
- **[WARNING]** Referrer-Policy header is missing — Controls how much referrer information is sent with requests. Set to 'strict-origin-when-cross-origin' or stricter.
- **[WARNING]** Permissions-Policy header is missing — Controls which browser features (camera, microphone, geolocation) are allowed. Set it to restrict unused features.
- **[CRITICAL]** Content-Security-Policy header is missing — CSP is the most important header for preventing XSS attacks. See the CSP section for detailed analysis.
- **[WARNING]** Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy header is missing — COOP isolates your browsing context, preventing cross-origin side-channel attacks. Set to 'same-origin'.
- **[WARNING]** Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy header is missing — COEP prevents loading cross-origin resources without explicit permission. Required for SharedArrayBuffer and high-resolution timers.
- **[PASS]** X-Powered-By header is not present
- **[WARNING]** Server header reveals version information — The Server header discloses the software version, aiding attackers in targeting known vulnerabilities. Remove the version number.

### Content Security Policy (F — 0/100)

*No enforcing CSP policy found*

- **[CRITICAL]** No Content-Security-Policy header found — CSP is the most effective defense against XSS attacks. Add a Content-Security-Policy header to restrict resource loading.

### TLS & Certificates (A+ — 100/100)

*TLS 1.2, 7 checks passed*

- **[PASS]** TLS 1.2 is used
- **[INFO]** TLS 1.3 is not negotiated — TLS 1.3 offers improved performance and security. Consider enabling it.
- **[PASS]** Strong cipher suite is used
- **[INFO]** HTTP/2 is not negotiated — HTTP/2 provides multiplexing and header compression for better performance.
- **[PASS]** Certificate is valid (expires in 207 days)
- **[PASS]** Certificate chain has 4 certificates
- **[PASS]** Certificate uses modern signature algorithm
- **[PASS]** Certificate covers 2 domain(s)
- **[PASS]** Certificate is issued by a trusted CA

### Cookie Security (A+ — 100/100)

*No cookies set — no cookie security risks*

- **[PASS]** No cookies set — no cookie security risks

---

## Advanced Security

### Subresource Integrity (F — 20/100)

*0 of 2 external resources have SRI*

- **[WARNING]** External script from cookie-consent.ucl.ac.uk lacks integrity attribute — Without SRI, if this CDN is compromised, attackers could inject malicious code.
- **[WARNING]** External script from cookie-consent.ucl.ac.uk lacks integrity attribute — Without SRI, if this CDN is compromised, attackers could inject malicious code.

### JS Library Vulnerabilities (A+ — 100/100)

*No known vulnerabilities*

- **[PASS]** No known JavaScript library vulnerabilities detected

### Information Leakage (A+ — 100/100)

*No exposures*

- **[INFO]** No security.txt found — Consider adding a security.txt at /.well-known/security.txt.
- **[PASS]** No sensitive files exposed

### Email Security (D — 50/100)

*DMARC: none*

- **[WARNING]** DMARC policy is none — monitoring only — This only monitors, it doesn't block spoofed emails. Change to p=quarantine or p=reject.

### Permissions-Policy (D — 40/100)

*No header set*

- **[WARNING]** No Permissions-Policy header — Consider adding a Permissions-Policy header to restrict browser feature access from embedded content.

### CORS Configuration (B — 80/100)

*No CORS headers*

- **[PASS]** No CORS headers present — secure default

---

## Performance

### Page Weight Budget (A — 93/100)

*775 KB transferred, 87 requests*

- **[PASS]** Page weighs 2.0 MB (775 KB transferred)
- **[INFO]** 87 HTTP requests
- **[INFO]** Estimated 0.16 g CO2 per page load

### Third-Party Impact (D — 50/100)

*100% third-party, 0 ms blocking*

- **[WARNING]** Third-party code accounts for 100% of page weight (774.2 KiB of 774.5 KiB)
- **[PASS]** Third-party blocking time is low (0 ms)

### Text Compression (A+ — 100/100)

*All text resources are compressed*

- **[PASS]** All text resources are compressed

### Image Optimization (B — 80/100)

*10 images, 0 KB saveable*

- **[PASS]** All images are well-optimized

### JS Execution Cost (D — 40/100)

*2030ms total JS execution*

- **[WARNING]** https://www.ucl.ac.uk/: 999ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** Unattributable: 643ms CPU time
- **[INFO]** https://cookie-consent.ucl.ac.uk/dist/ucl-consent....: 118ms CPU time
- **[INFO]** https://www.ucl.ac.uk/home/core/misc/drupal.init.j...: 113ms CPU time
- **[INFO]** https://cookie-consent.ucl.ac.uk/dist/ucl-consent....: 87ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** Third-party scripts: 2030ms (100% of total)

### Font Loading (A+ — 100/100)

*1 fonts (91 KB)*

- **[INFO]** 1 font(s) use font-display: swap (FOUT risk but functional)

### JS Bundles (B — 80/100)

*31 scripts, 25 KB unused*

- **[WARNING]** https://www.ucl.ac.uk/home/core/assets/vendor/jque...: 25 KB unused (76%) — Consider code splitting or tree shaking to reduce unused code.
- **[WARNING]** https://www.ucl.ac.uk/home/core/misc/ajax.js?v=10....: unminified — 14 KB could be saved
- **[WARNING]** https://www.ucl.ac.uk/home/core/misc/tabbingmanage...: unminified — 3 KB could be saved
- **[INFO]** Total unused JavaScript: 25 KB

### Resource Caching (A+ — 100/100)

*All resources properly cached*

- **[PASS]** No caching issues found

### Critical Rendering Path (A+ — 100/100)

*No render-blocking resources*

- **[PASS]** No render-blocking resources detected

### Resource Hints (A+ — 100/100)

*No optimization needed*

- **[PASS]** No resource hint issues

### Page Weight Inventory (A — 85/100)

*87 resources · 775 KB · 25 KB savings available*

- **[PASS]** Within 1MB page-weight target
- **[WARNING]** 86 third-party resources (100% of weight)

### Render-Blocking Resources (A+ — 100/100)

*No render-blocking resources detected*

- **[PASS]** No render-blocking resources detected in <head>

### Third-Party Resources (A+ — 100/100)

*No third-party resources detected*


---

## Content Quality

### Links (A — 95/100)

*200 links checked, 199 healthy, 1 broken*

- **[WARNING]** 199 of 200 links are healthy
- **[CRITICAL]** Broken link: https://www.linkedin.com/school/university-college-london/ — Found in <a href>. Returns HTTP 999.

### Mixed Content (A+ — 100/100)

*No mixed content detected — all resources use HTTPS.*

- **[PASS]** No mixed content detected — all resources use HTTPS

### Open Graph (A — 90/100)

*Open Graph tags are well configured for social sharing.*

- **[CRITICAL]** og:image is not reachable — The og:image URL could not be fetched. Social platforms won't be able to display it.
- **[INFO]** og:title is short (14 characters) — Ideal length is 25–60 characters for social sharing previews.

### Structured Data (C — 40/100)

*No structured data (JSON-LD) found.*

- **[INFO]** No structured data (JSON-LD) found — Adding structured data helps search engines understand your content and can enable rich results.

---

## Infrastructure

### DNS Records (A+ — 95/100)

*1 A records, 58 ms lookup*

- **[PASS]** Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
- **[INFO]** Single A record — no DNS redundancy — Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
- **[INFO]** No IPv6 (AAAA) records
- **[PASS]** 3 nameserver(s) configured
- **[PASS]** 1 mail exchanger(s) configured
- **[INFO]** CAA records not checked — CAA record lookup requires a specialized DNS resolver. This check will be available in a future update.
- **[PASS]** SPF record present in TXT
- **[PASS]** DNS resolution time: 58 ms

### Redirect Chain (A — 90/100)

*1 redirect(s), 258 ms total*

- **[PASS]** Single redirect
- **[INFO]** WWW normalization redirect

### IPv6 Readiness (C — 60/100)

*No IPv6 support*

- **[INFO]** No IPv6 (AAAA) records found — IPv6 support is increasingly important for global accessibility. About 40% of internet users have IPv6 connectivity.

### Crawlability (B — 70/100)

*robots.txt present, sitemap with 0 URLs*

- **[PASS]** robots.txt is present
- **[PASS]** sitemap.xml is present
- **[WARNING]** sitemap.xml contains invalid XML — Search engines may not be able to parse the sitemap. Fix XML validation errors.
- **[WARNING]** sitemap.xml is empty — no URLs found — An empty sitemap provides no value. Add <url> entries for your pages.
- **[PASS]** robots.txt references sitemap

### URL Variants (D — 50/100)

*www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS*

- **[CRITICAL]** Both www and non-www versions serve content
- **[CRITICAL]** HTTP version does not redirect to HTTPS

### Domain Intelligence (A+ — 100/100)

*ucl.ac.uk — via No registrar listed.  This domain is directly registered with Nominet., hosted on JANET Jisc Services Limited, GB*

- **[PASS]** Registrar: No registrar listed.  This domain is directly registered with Nominet.
- **[WARNING]** Registrar lock is NOT enabled — The domain can be transferred without an unlock step. Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) in your registrar's control panel to protect against unauthorized or accidental transfers.
- **[PASS]** Hosting: JANET Jisc Services Limited, GB

---

## Compliance

### WCAG Compliance (A+ — 100/100)

*No testable criteria*


### Cookie Consent & Privacy (B — 80/100)

*No consent signals detected*

- **[WARNING]** No privacy policy link detected — A privacy policy page is recommended for transparency and may be legally required.
- **[INFO]** No terms of service link detected
- **[INFO]** No cookie consent banner detected
- **[INFO]** This is an automated check, not legal advice — BeaverCheck detects technical indicators of consent management. This does not constitute a legal compliance assessment. Consult a privacy professional for GDPR/CCPA compliance.

### Language & i18n (A — 90/100)

*Lang attribute present*

- **[PASS]** <html lang> attribute is present
- **[PASS]** <html lang> value is valid
- **[INFO]** No Content-Language HTTP header
- **[INFO]** Language signals are inconsistent — The <html lang> attribute and Content-Language header should agree.

### Readability & Typography (A+ — 100/100)

*Font sizes and tap targets checked*


### Viewport Configuration (A+ — 100/100)

*Viewport properly configured*

- **[PASS]** Viewport meta tag is present
- **[PASS]** width=device-width is set
- **[PASS]** User zooming is allowed

### Third-Party Trackers (C — 55/100)

*3 trackers detected*

- **[INFO]** 3 third-party trackers detected — Found 2 analytics, 0 advertising, 0 marketing, 1 tag manager trackers.
- **[WARNING]** Trackers detected but no cookie policy found — This page loads 3 trackers but no cookie policy was detected. GDPR requires disclosure when using tracking cookies.
- **[WARNING]** Trackers detected but no privacy policy found — Most data protection regulations require a privacy policy when collecting user data via trackers.

### Cookie & Tracker Inventory (A+ — 100/100)

*0 cookies · 3 trackers · 0 pre-consent*

- **[INFO]** 3 third-party tracker(s) detected on page

---

## Legal

### Legal Page Ecosystem (A — 85/100)

*4 of 7 expected legal pages detected*

- **[PASS]** Privacy Policy detected — Found at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/legal-services/privacy, linked from footer.
- **[PASS]** Terms of Service detected — Found at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/legal-services/disclaimer, linked from footer.
- **[PASS]** Cookie Policy detected — Found at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/home/cookies, linked from footer.
- **[PASS]** Accessibility Statement detected — Found at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/accessibility, linked from footer.
- **[INFO]** DMCA / Copyright Notice not detected — No link matching common DMCA / Copyright Notice URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a DMCA / Copyright Notice, especially those collecting user data.
- **[INFO]** Refund / Returns Policy not detected — No link matching common Refund / Returns Policy URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a Refund / Returns Policy, especially those collecting user data.
- **[INFO]** Acceptable Use Policy not detected — No link matching common Acceptable Use Policy URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a Acceptable Use Policy, especially those collecting user data.

### Copyright Notice (A+ — 100/100)

*© 2026 UCL Privacy & Cookie Settings We use cookies and s*

- **[PASS]** Copyright notice is up to date — Copyright notice is up to date: © 2026 UCL Privacy & Cookie Settings We use cookies and s
- **[PASS]** Copyright holder: UCL Privacy & Cookie Settings We use cookies and s

### Regulatory Indicators

*2 regulatory indicator(s) detected*

- **[INFO]** This is a technical scan, not a legal assessment — BeaverCheck detects technical indicators that may suggest regulatory relevance. This is not a compliance audit and should not be relied upon for legal decisions. Consult qualified legal counsel for compliance assessments.
- **[INFO]** GDPR indicators detected (moderate confidence) — Indicators suggesting GDPR may be relevant: Privacy policy page found. EU General Data Protection Regulation — governs collection and processing of personal data of EU residents.
- **[INFO]** ADA indicators detected (moderate confidence) — Indicators suggesting ADA may be relevant: Accessibility statement page found. Americans with Disabilities Act / Section 508 — requires digital accessibility for people with disabilities.

### Third-Party Data Sharing

*0 third-party service(s) detected*

- **[INFO]** Data inventory for transparency purposes — This inventory identifies third-party services that receive data from your site visitors. Under regulations like GDPR (Article 30), maintaining records of data processing activities is commonly considered a best practice. This automated scan provides a starting point — it may not capture all data flows.
- **[INFO]** No recognized third-party data-sharing services detected — This page does not appear to load external tracking, analytics, or advertising scripts.

### Compliance Badges (C — 55/100)

*0 compliance badge(s) detected*

- **[INFO]** No compliance badges detected — No recognized compliance certification badges or seals were found. This is common — many sites do not display compliance badges.

---

## Availability

### CDN & Delivery (D — 50/100)

*No CDN detected*

- **[WARNING]** No CDN detected — A CDN can significantly improve load times for users around the world by caching content at edge nodes closer to them.

### HTTP Caching (F — 30/100)

*No cache headers*

- **[WARNING]** No Cache-Control header found — Browsers will use heuristic caching, which can be unpredictable. Set explicit cache headers.

### Transport Security (B — 75/100)

*HTTP/3, HSTS, and TLS version analysis*

- **[INFO]** HTTP/3 (QUIC) not advertised — HTTP/3 eliminates head-of-line blocking. If your CDN supports it, consider enabling it.
- **[WARNING]** Missing Strict-Transport-Security header — HSTS tells browsers to only use HTTPS, preventing SSL stripping attacks.

---

## Accessibility

### Landmark Structure (A — 90/100)

*9 landmarks*

- **[PASS]** <main> landmark present
- **[WARNING]** No <nav> landmark found
- **[PASS]** Skip navigation link present

### Heading Hierarchy (A — 85/100)

*53 headings*

- **[PASS]** Single H1 present
- **[WARNING]** 3 empty heading(s) — Empty headings appear in the document outline but provide no information.

### Alt Text Quality (A+ — 100/100)

*All 31 images OK*

- **[PASS]** 31 image(s) with good alt text

### Form Accessibility (A+ — 100/100)

*All 5 controls labeled*

- **[PASS]** 5 control(s) properly labeled

### Link & Button Quality (A — 91/100)

*115 links, 27 buttons — all OK*

- **[WARNING]** 3 link(s) open in new tab without warning — Add '(opens in new tab)' to link text or aria-label.
- **[PASS]** 112 link(s) with descriptive text

---

## UX

### 404 Error Page (F — 0/100)

*HTTP 502, bare page*

- **[WARNING]** Unexpected status code: HTTP 502 — Expected HTTP 404 but received 502. This may confuse search engine crawlers.
- **[WARNING]** Bare server default 404 page — The 404 page has no custom styling. Users hitting a broken link see a generic error with no way to navigate back. Add a custom 404 page with your site navigation and a search bar.

### Favicon & Branding (A — 90/100)

*30 icon(s) detected*

- **[PASS]** favicon.ico present at site root
- **[PASS]** HTML icon links detected
- **[PASS]** Apple touch icon present
- **[PASS]** SVG favicon detected — scales perfectly to any size
- **[PASS]** Multiple icon sizes detected

### Web Manifest (B — 80/100)

*Valid manifest*

- **[PASS]** Name present: UCL
- **[PASS]** 192x192 icon present
- **[PASS]** 512x512 icon present
- **[PASS]** Display mode: standalone

### Dark Mode Support (D — 40/100)

*No dark mode signals*

- **[INFO]** No dark mode signals detected — Consider adding CSS with @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) and <meta name='color-scheme' content='light dark'>.
- **[INFO]** Detection limited to meta tags and inline styles — External CSS files may contain prefers-color-scheme rules not visible to this scan.

### Print Stylesheet (D — 40/100)

*No print styles*

- **[INFO]** No print-specific styles detected — When users print this page, they get the screen layout including navigation and non-essential elements. Add @media print rules to hide navigation and optimize layout for paper.

### Navigation UX (F — 20/100)

*1 navigation pattern(s)*

- **[PASS]** Skip navigation link detected
- **[PASS]** Hamburger menu detected (responsive design)

---

## SEO

### Canonical URL (B — 75/100)

*Minor issues*

- **[PASS]** Canonical tag present
- **[WARNING]** Canonical does not match final URL (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/)
- **[PASS]** Canonical target returns 200
- **[WARNING]** Canonical URL redirects — A canonical URL that redirects sends mixed signals to search engines.
- **[INFO]** Canonical points to a different domain

### Meta Tags (A+ — 100/100)

*Title optimized*

- **[PASS]** Page title is set
- **[PASS]** Title length (42 chars) is optimal
- **[PASS]** Title and H1 are well-aligned

### Content Depth (A+ — 100/100)

*1782 words, Very Difficult*

- **[PASS]** Page has 1782 words — good depth for search engines
- **[INFO]** Reading level: Very Difficult (grade 19)

### Internal Links (A+ — 100/100)

*3 internal, 112 external*

- **[PASS]** 3 internal links (3%)
- **[PASS]** 100% of links use descriptive anchor text
- **[INFO]** 3 internal / 112 external links

### Image SEO (A+ — 100/100)

*31 images, 31 descriptive filenames*

- **[PASS]** All images have descriptive filenames

### Hreflang

*0 hreflang tags*


---

## Sustainability

### CO2 Per Page Load (A — 85/100)

*0.21g CO2 per view*

- **[PASS]** 0.21g CO2 per page view — This page transfers 0.8 MB, producing an estimated 0.21g of CO2 per visit using the Sustainable Web Design model (v4). Breakdown: data center 0.04g, network 0.04g, end-user device 0.14g.
- **[INFO]** At 10,000 monthly views: 25.7 kg CO2/year — With 10,000 page views per month, this page would generate approximately 25.7 kg of CO2 annually — equivalent to charging 3212 smartphones.

### Green Hosting (D — 40/100)

*Not green*

- **[INFO]** No confirmed renewable energy commitment detected — Consider providers like Cloudflare, Google Cloud, or Vercel that match 100% of their energy use with renewables.
- **[INFO]** Green hosting status based on known provider commitments — Green hosting detection uses a curated database of provider renewable energy commitments. This is not a real-time verification. For authoritative checks, visit thegreenwebfoundation.org.

### Repeat Visit Weight (A+ — 100/100)

*97% cached*

- **[PASS]** 97% reduction on repeat visits — Returning visitors download only 21 KB (vs 774 KB first visit). 86 of 87 resources are served from browser cache, saving 0.21g CO2 per repeat visit.
- **[INFO]** Repeat visit: 0.01g CO2 (first visit: 0.21g)

### Carbon Budget (A — 85/100)

*11th percentile*

- **[PASS]** 0.21g CO2 — below the sustainability target of 0.50g — Cleaner than an estimated 89% of websites analyzed. This page meets the Web Sustainability Guidelines target.
- **[INFO]** Estimated 11th percentile — Compared to: top 10% = 0.20g, target = 0.50g, median = 0.60g per page view.

### Transfer Efficiency (A+ — 100/100)

*97% efficient*

- **[PASS]** Transfer efficiency: 97% — Only 25 KB of potential savings identified. Your page is well-optimized for size.

---

---

*Generated by [BeaverCheck](https://beavercheck.com) — https://beavercheck.com/results/e9ad77e5-52d3-4fe2-845b-57d8a0e66ede*
