King's College London
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King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="charter2009">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1836, King's became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London.<ref name=":8">Template:Cite web</ref> It is one of the oldest university-level institutions in England.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":9">Template:Cite news</ref> In the late 20th century, King's grew through a series of mergers, including with Queen Elizabeth College and Chelsea College of Science and Technology (in 1985), the Institute of Psychiatry (in 1997), the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals and the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery (in 1998).
King's has five campuses: the historic Strand Campus in central London, three other Thames-side campuses (Guy's, St Thomas' and Waterloo) nearby, and a campus in Denmark Hill in south London. It also has a presence in Shrivenham, Oxfordshire, for professional military education, and in Newquay, Cornwall, where the King's information service centre is based. The academic activities are organised into nine faculties, which are subdivided into numerous departments, centres, and research divisions. In 2023/24, King's had a total income of £1.271 billion, of which £256.9 million was from research grants and contracts.<ref name="KCL 2023/24" /> It has the fourth largest endowment of any university in the United Kingdom, and the largest of any in London. King's is the sixth-largest university in the United Kingdom by total enrolment <ref name="HESAStudents">Template:Cite web</ref> and receives over 68,000 undergraduate applications per year.
King's is a member of many academic organisations including the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the European University Association, and the Russell Group. King's is home to the Medical Research Council's MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders and is a founding member of the King's Health Partners academic health sciences centre, Francis Crick Institute and MedCity. It is the largest European centre for graduate and post-graduate medical teaching and biomedical research, by number of students,<ref name="kingspartnersfacts" /> and includes the world's first nursing school, the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery.<ref name=":10">Template:Cite journal</ref> King's is generally regarded as part of the "golden triangle" of universities located in and about Oxford, Cambridge and London.<ref name=":11">Template:Cite book</ref> King's has usually had royal patronage by virtue of its foundation; King Charles III reaffirmed patronage in May 2024.<ref name=":12">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":13">Template:Cite web</ref>
King's alumni and staff include 14 Nobel laureates; contributors to the discovery of DNA structure, Hepatitis C, the Hepatitis D genome, and the Higgs boson; pioneers of in-vitro fertilisation, stem cell/mammal cloning and the modern hospice movement; and key researchers advancing radar, radio, television and mobile phones. Alumni also include heads of states, governments and intergovernmental organisations; nineteen members of the current House of Commons, two Speakers of the House of Commons and thirteen members of the current House of Lords; and the recipients of three Oscars, three Grammys, one Emmy, one Golden Globe, and one Booker Prize.
History
[edit]Foundation
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King's College, so named in recognition of the patronage of King George IV, was founded in 1829 (though the roots of King's medical school, St. Thomas, date back to the 16th century with recorded first teaching in 1561)<ref name="kings medical" /> in response to the theological controversy surrounding the founding of "London University" (which later became University College, London) in 1826.<ref name="HIST">Cockburn, King, McDonnell (1969), pp. 345–359</ref><ref name="Foundation">Template:Cite web</ref> London University was founded, with the backing of Utilitarians, Jews and Nonconformists, as a secular institution, intended to educate "the youth of our middling rich people between the ages of 15 or 16 and 20 or later"<ref>Hearnshaw (1929), p. 38</ref> giving its nickname, "the godless college in Gower Street".<ref name=":2">Hibbert, Weinreb, Keay, Keay (2008), p. 958</ref> The need for such an institution was a result of the religious and social nature of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which then educated solely the sons of wealthy Anglicans.<ref name="victorianweb.org">Template:Cite web</ref> The secular nature of London University gained disapproval, indeed, "the storms of opposition which raged around it threatened to crush every spark of vital energy which remained".<ref name=":3">MacIlwraith (1884), p. 32</ref>
The creation of King's College as a rival institution represented a Tory response to reassert the educational values of the established order.<ref name="Thompson5">Thompson (1990), p. 5</ref> More widely, King's was one of the first of a series of institutions which came about in the early nineteenth century as a result of the Industrial Revolution and great social changes in England following the Napoleonic Wars.<ref name="somersethousebooklet">Template:Citation</ref> By virtue of its foundation King's has enjoyed the patronage of the monarch, the Archbishop of Canterbury as its visitor and during the nineteenth century counted among its official governors the Lord Chancellor, Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Mayor of London.<ref name="somersethousebooklet" />
Duel in Battersea Fields, 21 March 1829
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The simultaneous support of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (who was also Prime Minister of the United Kingdom then), for an Anglican King's College London and the Roman Catholic Relief Act, which was to lead to the granting of almost full civil rights to Catholics, was challenged by George Finch-Hatton, 10th Earl of Winchilsea, in early 1829. Winchilsea and his supporters wished for King's to be subject to the Test Acts, like the universities of Oxford, where only members of the Church of England could matriculate, and Cambridge, where non-Anglicans could matriculate but not graduate,<ref name=":4">Template:Cite web "Londoners who did study, for example in Oxford or Cambridge, had to be quite rich and also members of the Anglican Church."</ref> but this was not Wellington's intent.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite web</ref>
Winchilsea and about 150 other contributors withdrew their support of King's College London in response to Wellington's support of Catholic emancipation. In a letter to Wellington, he accused the Duke to have in mind "insidious designs for the infringement of our liberty and the introduction of Popery into every department of the State".<ref name="Holmes275">Holmes (2002), p. 275</ref> The letter provoked a furious exchange of correspondence and Wellington accused Winchilsea of imputing him with "disgraceful and criminal motives" in setting up King's College London. When Winchilsea refused to retract the remarks, Wellington – by his own admission, "no advocate of duelling" and a virgin duellist – demanded satisfaction in a contest of arms: "I now call upon your lordship to give me that satisfaction for your conduct which a gentleman has a right to require, and which a gentleman never refuses to give."<ref name="duelexhibtion">Template:Cite web</ref>
The result was a duel in Battersea Fields on 21 March 1829.<ref name="Foundation" /><ref name="dueldayqa">Template:Cite web</ref> Winchilsea did not fire, a plan he and his second almost certainly decided upon before the duel; Wellington took aim and fired wide to the right. Accounts differ as to whether Wellington missed on purpose. Wellington, noted for his poor aim, claimed he did, other reports more sympathetic to Winchilsea claimed he had aimed to kill.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Honour was saved and Winchilsea wrote Wellington an apology.<ref name="Holmes275" /> "Duel Day" is still celebrated on the first Thursday after 21 March every year, marked by various events throughout King's, including reenactments.<ref name="dueldayqa" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
19th century
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King's opened in October 1831 with the cleric William Otter appointed as first principal and lecturer in divinity.<ref name="HIST" /> The Archbishop of Canterbury presided over the opening ceremony, in which a sermon was given in the chapel by Charles James Blomfield, the Bishop of London, on the subject of combining religious instruction with intellectual culture. Despite the attempts to make King's Anglican-only, the initial prospectus permitted, "nonconformists of all sorts to enter the college freely".<ref name="Hearnshaw">Hearnshaw (1929), p. 80</ref> William Howley: the governors and the professors, except the linguists, had to be members of the Church of England but the students did not,<ref name="Hibbert">Hibbert, Weinreb, Keay, Keay (2008), p. 462</ref> though attendance at chapel was compulsory.<ref name=":6">Prospectus of King's College, London: academical year 1854–55, p. 7</ref>
King's was divided into a senior department and a junior department, also known as King's College School, which was originally situated in the basement of the Strand Campus.<ref name="HIST" /> The Junior department started with 85 pupils and only three teachers, but quickly grew to 500 by 1841, outgrowing its facilities and leading it to relocate to Wimbledon in 1897 where it remains today, though it is no longer associated with King's College London.<ref name="Hibbert" /> Within the Senior department teaching was divided into three courses: a general course comprised divinity, classical languages, mathematics, English literature and history; a medical course; and miscellaneous subjects, such as law, political economy and modern languages, which were not related to any systematic course of study at the time and depended for their continuance on the supply of occasional students.<ref name="HIST" /> In 1833 the general course was reorganised leading to the award of the Associate of King's College (AKC), the first qualification issued by King's.<ref name="HIST" /> The course, which concerns questions of ethics and theology, is still awarded today to students and staff who take an optional three-year course alongside their studies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The river frontage was completed in April 1835 at a cost of £7,100,<ref name=":7">Thompson (1986), p. 6</ref> its completion a condition of King's College London securing the site from the Crown.<ref name="HIST" /> Unlike those in the school, student numbers in the Senior department remained almost stationary during King's first five years of existence. During this time the medical school was blighted by inefficiency and the divided loyalties of the staff leading to a steady decline in attendance. One of the most important appointments was that of Charles Wheatstone as professor of Experimental Philosophy.<ref name="HIST" />
At this time neither King's, "London University", nor the medical schools at the London hospitals could confer degrees. In 1835 the government announced that it would establish an examining board to grant degrees, with "London University" and King's both becoming affiliated colleges. This became the University of London in 1836, the former "London University" becoming University College, London (UCL).<ref name="victorianweb.org" /> The first University of London degrees were awarded to King's College London students in 1839.<ref name="historyandtoday">Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1840, King's opened its own hospital on Portugal Street near Lincoln's Inn Fields, an area composed of overcrowded rookeries characterised by poverty and disease. The governance of King's College Hospital was later transferred to the corporation of the hospital established by the King's College Hospital Act 1851. The hospital moved to new premises in Denmark Hill, Camberwell in 1913. The appointment in 1877 of Joseph Lister as professor of clinical surgery greatly benefited the medical school, and the introduction of Lister's antiseptic surgical methods gained the hospital an international reputation.<ref name="HIST" />
In 1845 King's established a Military Department to train officers for the Army and the British East India Company, and in 1846 a Theological Department to train Anglican priests. In 1855, King's pioneered evening classes in London;<ref name="Hibbert" /> that King's granted students at the evening classes certificates of college attendance to enable them to sit University of London degree exams was cited as an example of the worthlessness of these certificates in the decision by the University of London to end the affiliated colleges system in 1858 and open their examinations to everyone.<ref>Template:Cite periodical</ref>
Template:Infobox UK legislation The Template:Visible anchor (45 & 46 Vict. c. xiii) amended the constitution. The act removed the proprietorial nature of King's, changing the name of the corporation from "The Governors and Proprietors of King's College, London" to "King's College London" and annulling the 1829 charter (although King's remained incorporated under that charter). The act also changed King's College London from a (technically) for-profit corporation to a non-profit one (no dividends had ever been paid in over 50 years of operation) and extended the objects of King's to include the education of women.<ref name="HIST" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Ladies' Department of King's College London was opened in Kensington Square in 1885, which later in 1902 became King's College Women's Department.<ref name="historyandtoday" />
20th century
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Template:Infobox UK legislation Template:Infobox UK legislation The Template:Visible anchor (3 Edw. 7. c. xcii) abolished all remaining religious tests for staff, except within the Theological department. In 1910, King's was (with the exception of the Theological department) merged into the University of London under the Template:Visible anchor (8 Edw. 7. c. xxxix), losing its legal independence.<ref name="UoL Hist Rec">Template:Cite book</ref>
During the First World War, the medical school was opened to women for the first time.<ref name="HIST" /> From 1916 to 1921, the college's Department of Italian was headed by a woman, Linetta de Castelvecchio.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The end of the war saw an influx of students, which strained existing facilities to the point where some classes were held in the Principal's house.<ref name="HIST" />
In World War II, the buildings of King's College London were used by the Auxiliary Fire Service with a number of King's staff, mainly those then known as college servants, serving as firewatchers. Parts of the Strand building, the quadrangle, and the roof of apse and stained glass windows of the chapel suffered bomb damage in the Blitz.<ref>Heulin (1979), p. 2</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> During the post-war reconstruction, the vaults beneath the quadrangle were replaced by a two-storey laboratory, which opened in 1952, for the departments of Physics and Civil and Electrical Engineering.<ref name="HIST" />
One of the most famous pieces of scientific research performed at King's were the crucial contributions to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA in 1953 by Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin, together with Raymond Gosling, Alex Stokes, Herbert Wilson, and other colleagues at the Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics at King's.<ref>Maddox (2002), p. 124</ref><ref name="Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="King's, DNA & the continuing story">Template:Cite web</ref>
Major reconstruction of King's began in 1966 following the publication of the Robbins Report on Higher Education. A new block facing the Strand designed by E. D. Jefferiss Mathews was opened in 1972.<ref name="Hibbert" /> In 1980 King's regained its legal independence under a new Royal Charter. In 1993 King's, along with other large University of London colleges, gained direct access to government funding (which had previously been through the university) and the right to confer University of London degrees itself. This contributed to King's and the other large colleges being regarded as de facto universities in their own right.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
King's College London underwent several mergers with other institutions in the late 20th century. These including the reincorporation in 1983 of the King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry, which had become independent of King's College Hospital at the foundation of the National Health Service in 1948, mergers with Queen Elizabeth College and Chelsea College in 1985, and the Institute of Psychiatry in 1997. In 1998 the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals merged with King's to form the GKT School of Medical Education.<ref name="Hibbert" /><ref name="historyandtoday" /><ref name="Dates">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="kingsdental" /> Also in 1998 Florence Nightingale's original training school for nurses merged with the King's Department of Nursing Studies as the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery. The same year King's acquired the former Public Record Office building on Chancery Lane and converted it at a cost of £35 million into the Maughan Library, which opened in 2002.<ref name="Hibbert" />
21st century
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In July 2006, King's College London was granted degree-awarding powers in its own right, as opposed to through the University of London, by the Privy Council.<ref name="Kings Governance">Template:Cite web</ref> This power remained unexercised until 2007, when King's announced that all students starting courses from September 2007 onwards would be awarded degrees conferred by King's itself, rather than by the University of London. The new certificates however still make reference to the fact that King's is a constituent college of the University of London.<ref name="edguar">Template:Cite web</ref> The first King's degrees were awarded in summer 2008.<ref name="THE KCL degrees">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
In April 2011, King's became a founding partner in the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation, subsequently renamed the Francis Crick Institute, committing £40 million to the project.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The Chemistry department was reopened in 2011 following its closure in 2003.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In February 2012, the Queen officially opened Somerset House East Wing.<ref name="Queen opens Bush House">Template:Cite web</ref>
In September 2014, King's College London opened King's College London Mathematics School, a free school sixth form located in Lambeth that specialises in mathematics.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In October 2014, Ed Byrne replaced Rick Trainor as Principal of King's College London, the latter having served for 10 years. In December 2014, King's announced its plans to rebrand its name to 'King's London'. After concerns were raised by the students' union,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a statement from the college later in December emphasised that there were no plans to change the legal name of King's, and said that the branding of 'King's London' was "designed to promote King's and its place in London and also the fact that we are one of the world's great universities in our own right".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> King's announced that the rebranding plans had been dropped in January 2015.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
In 2015, King's acquired a 50-year lease for the Aldwych Quarter site incorporating the historic Bush House. It has been occupied since 2017.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Bush House was opened as part of the Strand Campus by the Queen in 2019.<ref name="Queen opens Bush House" />
Campus
[edit]King's is based on five campuses in central London.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Strand Campus
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The Strand Campus is the original campus of King's and is located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The campus is based around the Grade I listed original King's Building built for the college in 1831, designed by Sir Robert Smirke, adjacent to Somerset House and sharing its frontage along the River Thames, including the King's College London Chapel, redesigned in 1864 by Sir George Gilbert Scott.<ref>Template:National Heritage List for England</ref> The campus also includes buildings along the adjacent Surrey Street, the Strand Building and the east wing of Somerset House. Beyond this contiguous complex of buildings, the campus also includes Bush House on the opposite side of the Strand, the Virginia Woolf Building on Kingsway, and the Maughan Library and etc.venues on Chancery Lane.<ref name=Strand>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Strand Campus houses the arts and science faculties of King's, including the faculties of arts and humanities, law, natural and mathematical sciences, social science and public policy, and business, as well as the King's Foundation.<ref name=Strand/> The students' union runs the Shack café and the Vault bar in Bush House on the Strand Campus,<ref name=Shack>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Vault>Template:Cite web</ref> and has two contact hubs on the campus, also in Bush House.<ref name="KCLSU hubs">Template:Cite web</ref>
Guy's Campus
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Guy's Campus is close to London Bridge on the South Bank of the Thames and is adjacent to Guy's Hospital. It is home to the faculty of life sciences and medicine (also at the Waterloo Campus), the dental institute, and the institute of psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience (also at the Denmark Hill Campus).<ref name=Guys>Template:Cite web</ref>
Buildings include: the Henriette Raphael building,<ref name=Guys/> the Hodgkin building<ref name=Guys/> and Shepherd's House.<ref name=Guys/> The campus is also home to the Gordon Museum of Pathology and the Museum of Life Sciences (neither of which is open to the public),<ref name="Gordon Museum">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Life Sciences Museum">Template:Cite web</ref> as well as the Chapel of Thomas Guy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Students' Union runs Guy's Bar, Guy's Café and a contact hub on the Guy's Campus.<ref name="KCLSU hubs" /><ref name="Guys Bar">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Guys Cafe">Template:Cite web</ref> The Great Dover Street Apartments and Wolfson House halls of residence are close to the campus.<ref name=Guys/>
The hospital and the campus are named after Thomas Guy, who established the hospital with money from his investments in the slave-trading South Sea Company.<ref>Template:Cite report</ref> A statue of Thomas Guy, installed in 1734 and owned by the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation, stands outside the hospital, on the grounds of the university campus. This was boarded up in 2020, following the George Floyd protests, it was de-boarded for conservation work, with temporary interpretation added, in November 2022.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Permanent interpretation was installed in November 2023.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Waterloo Campus
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The Waterloo Campus is in Lambeth, across Waterloo Bridge from the Strand Campus and adjacent to the Southbank Centre. It has three main buildings: the James Clerk Maxwell Building, the Franklin–Wilkins Building (one of the largest university buildings in London) and the Stamford Street Apartments (student accommodation).<ref name=Waterloo>Template:Cite web</ref>
The campus is home to the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery and parts of the faculty of life sciences and medicine (also on Guy's Campus); the faculty of social science and public policy (also on the Strand Campus); and the London Dental Education Centre, part of the Dental Institute (also on the Guy's and Denmark Hill campuses).<ref name=Waterloo/> The students' union has a contact hub in the Franlin-Wilkins Building.<ref name="KCLSU hubs" />
St Thomas' Campus
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The St Thomas' Campus is located at St Thomas' Hospital, named after St Thomas Becket, in Lambeth, facing the Houses of Parliament across the Thames. It carries out continuing medical and dental training as well as housing the Florence Nightingale Museum, an independent charity.<ref name="St Thomas' Campus">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Denmark Hill Campus
[edit]The Denmark Hill Campus is situated in Camberwell in Southwark. It is the home of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) and also houses parts of the dental institute and the faculty of medicine and life sciences.<ref name="Denmark Hill Campus">Template:Cite web</ref> The students' union has a contact hub in the IoPPN.<ref name="KCLSU hubs" />
Other sites
[edit]Halls of residence
[edit]King's has halls of residence across central London. With the exception of the Stamford Street Apartments on the Waterloo Campus, these are separate sites from the college's campuses.<ref name=Waterloo/><ref name="halls">Template:Cite web</ref>
Sports grounds
[edit]The college has two sports grounds, at New Malden and Honor Oak Park in London.<ref name="sports grounds">Template:Cite web</ref>
Shrivenham
[edit]Whilst not a formal campus, King's retains an academic presence and estate at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom in Shrivenham, Oxfordshire. Through its Defence Studies Department, King's has delivered professional military training to much of the UK armed services through the Joint Services Command and Staff College since 2000 under contract to the Ministry of Defence.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>
Newquay
[edit]The King's Service Centre, established in 2015 to provide professional services and IT support to the university, is located in Newquay, Cornwall.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Organisation and administration
[edit]Governance
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Template:See also The office of "President and Principal of the University" is established by King's royal charter as "the Vice-Chancellor and chief academic and executive officer of the University"<ref name="charter">Template:Cite web</ref> and the statutes require the president and principal to have the general responsibility to the council for "ensuring that the objects of the University are fulfilled and for maintaining and promoting the efficiency, discipline and good order of the University".<ref name="statutes">Template:Cite web</ref> The current president and principal, Shitij Kapur, uses the title "Vice-Chancellor and President".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The other senior officers of the college include three senior vice presidents, covering the areas of: academic; health and life science; and operations. There are also five vice presidents covering the areas of: finance (also the college's chief financial officer); education and student success; international, engagement and service; research and innovation; and people and talent.<ref name=SeniorOfficers>Template:Cite web</ref>
The council is the supreme governing body of King's College London established under the charter and statutes, comprising up to 20 members. Its membership includes the President of King's College London Students' Union (KCLSU) as the student member; seven staff members (including the President and Principal); and 12 lay members who must not be employees of King's.<ref name="charter" /><ref name="statutes" /> It is supported by a number of standing committees.<ref name="councilstructure">Template:Cite web</ref> Christopher Geidt has been the chair of council since 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The academic board is established under the charter as "the body responsible under delegated authority from the Council for the regulation of the academic work of the University in teaching and examining and in research".<ref name="charter" /> Under the college ordinances, they are the body responsible for the award of degrees and other academic distinctions of the university.<ref name="ordinances">Template:Cite web</ref> The academic board is chaired by the vice-chancellor and president with ex officio members being the senior vice presidents, vice presidents, executive deans, the president and education vice presidents of the students' union, the dean for doctoral studies, and the Dean of King's College; 45 academic staff elected by the faculties; 3 teaching staff elected from the Centre for International Education & Languages; three members elected from the professional staff; and an elected student representative from each faculty.<ref name="ordinances" />
The Dean of King's College London is established by the ordinances as being "responsible for ensuring that the College builds upon the Anglican tradition associated with its foundation and, in recognition of the multiethnic and international nature of its community, encourages and supports all its members of all beliefs and backgrounds" and has to be an ordained minister of the Church of England. They are also responsible for the academic direction of the Associateship of King's College and coordinate the college chaplaincy,<ref name="ordinances" /> and the Choir of King's College London, which includes a number of choral scholarships,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and of encourage and foster vocations to the Church of England priesthood.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The current dean is Ellen Clark-King.<ref name=SeniorOfficers/> That the dean is an ordained person is unusual among British universities, but reflects King's foundation in the tradition of the Church of England in 1829.<ref name="dean">Template:Cite web</ref>
The Archbishop of Canterbury was previously King's College London's visitor by right of office owing to the Anglican foundation of King's.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Under the 2023 royal charter, the visitor is appointed by the monarch on the representation of the council of the university.<ref name="charter" />
Faculties and departments
[edit]In the 19th century, King's College London had five departments: theological, general literature and science, applied sciences, medical, and military.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Calendar1857">Template:Cite book</ref> The theological department provided studies in ecclesiastical history, pastoral theology and exegesis of the Bible.<ref name="Calendar1857" /> Languages and literature, history, law and jurisprudence, political economy, commerce, fencing, mathematics, zoology and natural history were taught within the department of general literature and science,<ref name="Calendar1857" /> and natural philosophy, geology, mineralogy and engineering-related subjects were taught within the department of applied sciences.<ref name="Calendar1857" />
Template:As of, King's comprises nine academic faculties: arts and humanities; business; dentistry, oral and craniofacial sciences; law; life sciences and medicine; natural, mathematical and engineering sciences; nursing, midwifery and palliative care; psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience; and social science and public policy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Faculty of arts and humanities
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Template:Main The faculty of arts and humanities is based on the Strand Campus in the heart of central London, in the vicinity of many cultural institutions, and has established collaborations with many of these, including Shakespeare's Globe, the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Royal Academy of Music.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The faculty was formed in 1989 by the amalgamation of the faculties of arts, music and theology.<ref name="art&human">Template:Cite web</ref>
Faculty of dentistry, oral and craniofacial Sciences
[edit]The faculty of dentistry, oral and craniofacial sciences (formerly the dental institute) is the dental school of King's and focuses on understanding disease, enhancing health and restoring function.<ref name="dental">Template:Cite web</ref> It is the successor of education carried out at Guy's Dental Hospital, the Royal Dental Hospital's London School of Dental Surgery, and King's College Hospital Dental School. These became a single institution in 1998 with the merger of the united medical and dental schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals with King's school of medicine and dentistry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The history of dentistry education at the institutions that would eventually become the faculty started in 1799, when Joseph Fox gave a series of lectures on dental surgery at Guy's Hospital and was appointed dental surgeon in the same year.<ref name="guysdental">Template:Cite web</ref> Thomas Bell succeeded Fox as dental surgeon either in 1817 or 1825.<ref name="guysdental" /> Frederick Newland-Pedley, who was appointed assistant dental surgeon at Guy's Hospital in 1885, advocated the establishment of a dental school within the hospital, and he flooded the two dental schools in London, the Metropolitan School of Dental Science and the London School of Dental Surgery, with patients to prove that a further hospital was needed.<ref name="guysdental" /> In December 1888, Guy's Hospital Dental School was established.<ref name="guysdental" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Guy's Hospital Dental School was recognised as a school of the University of London in 1901. In the 1970s, since there was a decline in the demand for dental services, the Department of Health of the UK suggested that there should be a decrease in the number of dental undergraduate students as well as the duration of all courses.<ref name="guysdental" /> In response to the recommendations, Royal Dental Hospital of London School of Dental Surgery amalgamated with the Guy's Hospital Dental School of the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals on 1 August 1983.<ref name="guysdental" />
The establishment of King's College Hospital Dental School was proposed by Viscount Hambleden at a Hospital Management Committee meeting on 12 April 1923. The dental school was opened on 12 November 1923 in King's College Hospital.<ref name="kingsdental">Template:Cite web</ref> Under the 1948 National Health Act, King's Medical and Dental School split from King's and became an independent school, but the school remerged with King's in 1983.<ref name="kingsdental" /> The school further merged with the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals in 1998.<ref name="kingsdental" />
Faculty of life sciences and medicine
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The faculty of life sciences and medicine was created as a result of the merger of the school of medicine with the school of biomedical sciences in 2014.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
There are two schools of education in the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine: the GKT School of Medical Education is responsible for the medical education and training of students on the MBBS programme, and the school of bioscience education is responsible for the biomedical and health professions education and training.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The faculty is divided into schools of basic and medical biosciences; biomedical engineering and imaging sciences; cancer and pharmaceutical science, cardiovascular medicine and sciences; immunology and microbial sciences; life course sciences; and population health sciences.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience
[edit]Template:Main The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a faculty and a research institution dedicated to discovering what causes mental illness and diseases of the brain, and to help identify new treatments of the diseases.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The institute is the largest centre for research and postgraduate education in psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience in Europe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Originally established in 1924 as the Maudsley Hospital Medical School, the institute changed its name to the Institute of Psychiatry in 1948, merged with King's College London in 1997, and was renamed IoPPN in 2014.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Dickson Poon School of Law
[edit]Template:Main The Dickson Poon School of Law is the law school of King's. Law has been taught at King's since 1831 and the faculty of laws was founded (in association with the London School of Economics) in 1909, becoming the school of law in 1991.<ref name="law">Template:Cite web</ref> The school includes various research centres and groups which serve as focal points for research activity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Faculty of natural, mathematical and engineering sciences
[edit]The faculty includes the departments of chemistry, engineering, informatics, mathematics, and physics.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The teaching of experimental physics at King's was the first in England and professors of experimental physics have included James Clerk Maxwell, Harold A. Wilson, Charles Glover Barkla, Sir Owen Richardson, Sir Edward Appleton and Sir Charles Ellis, three of whom became Nobel laureates.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
John Frederic Daniell was the first professor of chemistry at King's and established the first chemical laboratory in 1834. Chemistry was originally part of the medical department and became a separate department in 1958; this closed in 2003 due to a decline in student numbers and reduced funding. The department was reestablished in 2012.<ref name="chem">Template:Cite web</ref>
Teaching of engineering at King's was established in 1838, a year after Durham, making it the second school of engineering established in the United Kingdom.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The department of engineering was the largest engineering school in the UK in 1893.<ref name="kclengineering">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The division of engineering was closed in 2013, with the current department of engineering being established in 2019.<ref name="kclengineering" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care
[edit]
The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care is a school for nurses and midwives. It also carries out nursing research and provides continuing professional development and postgraduate programmes. Formerly known as the Nightingale Training School and Home for Nurses, the faculty was established by Florence Nightingale in 1860, and was the first nursing school in the world to be continuously connected to a fully serving hospital and medical school.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The Nightingale Training School amalgamated with the Olive Haydon School of Midwifery and the Thomas Guy and Lewisham School of Nursing between 1991 and 1993 to form the Nightingale College of Health, which became part of King's in 1993. In 2017 it merged with the Cicely Saunders Institute, a centre for research and education in palliative care, to become the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Faculty of social science and public policy
[edit]The faculty of social science and public policy contains the schools of politics and economics; education, communication and society; global affairs; security studies; the international school for government; and the policy institute.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The department of war studies, within the school of security studies, is unique in the UK and is supported by research facilities such as the King's Centre for Strategic Communications, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives and the King's Centre for Military Health Research.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
King's Business School
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King's Business School was established in 1989. In 2017 it became a faculty of the college as King's Business School and moved into Bush House.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> From 2023, it has held triple accreditation from the Association of MBAs, the EFMD Quality Improvement System and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Finances
[edit]In the financial year ending 31 July 2024, King's had a total income of £1.271 billion (2022/23 – £1.230 million) and total expenditure of £944 million (2022/23 – £1.102 billion).<ref name="KCL 2023/24" /> Key sources of income included £630.5 million from tuition fees and education contracts (2022/23 – £607.8 million), £144.9 million from funding body grants (2022/23 – £148.3 million), £256.9 million from research grants and contracts (2022/23 – £236.3 million), £26.7 million from investment income (2022/23 – £18 million) and £23.7 million from donations and endowments (2022/23 – £28.9 million).<ref name="KCL 2023/24" />
At year end, King's had endowments of £324.8 million (2022/23 – £301 million) and total net assets of £1.671 billion (2022/23 – £1.323 billion).<ref name="KCL 2023/24" /> It holds the fourth-largest endowment of any university in the UK behind only Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh.<ref>From annual financial reports of UK universities; links for these can be found at List of UK universities by endowment</ref>
Coat of arms
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The coat of arms displayed on the King's College London charter is that of George IV. The shield depicts the royal coat of arms together with an inescutcheon of the House of Hanover, while the supporters embody King's motto of Template:Lang. No correspondence is believed to have survived regarding the choice of this coat of arms, either in King's archives or at the College of Arms, and a variety of unofficial adaptations were used. The college was fined by London County Council in 1911 for using these arms without a licence. The current arms came into use in October 1989 but were not formally granted until 1995.<ref name=QEC>Template:Cite magazine</ref> These were developed following the mergers with Queen Elizabeth College and Chelsea College in 1985 and incorporate aspects of their heraldry.<ref name="Branding Essentials" /> The official coat of arms, in heraldic terminology, is:<ref name="coatofarms">Template:Citation</ref>
Arms:
Or on a Pale Azure between two Lions rampant respectant Gules an Anchor Gold ensigned by a Royal Crown proper on a Chief Argent an Ancient Lamp proper inflamed Gold between two Blazing Hearths also proper.
The crest and supporters:
On a Helm with a Wreath Or and Azure Upon a Book proper rising from a Coronet Or the rim set with jewels two Azure (one manifest) four Vert (two manifest) and two Gules a demi Lion Gules holding a Rod of Dexter a female figure habited Azure the cloak lined coif and sleeves Argent holding in the exterior hand a Lond Cross botony Gold and sinister a male figure the Long Coat Azure trimmed with Sable proper shirt Argent holding in the interior hand a Book proper.
Coats of arms of the medical schools
[edit]
Although the St Thomas's Hospital Medical School and Guy's Medical School became legal bodies separate from St Thomas' Hospital and Guy's Hospital in 1948, the tradition of using the hospitals' shields and coat of arms continues today.<ref name="basics">Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref>
In 1949, St Thomas's Hospital Medical School was granted its own coat of arms. However, the St Thomas' Hospital coat of arms has still been used.<ref name="basics" /> Guy's Medical School proposed to apply for its own coat of arms after separating from Guy's Hospital, yet the school decided to continue to use Guy's Hospital's arms in 1954.<ref name="basics" /> The two medical schools merged in 1982 and became the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals (UMDS). Simon Argles, secretary of UMDS, said that because of the name of the medical school it was more appropriate to use the hospital's coat of arms.<ref name="basics" />
UMDS merged with King's College Hospital to become Guy's, King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine in 1998. The shields of Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals are used in conjunction with King's shield in the medical schools' publications and graduation materials.<ref name="basics" />
Affiliations and partnerships
[edit]King's College London is a member institution and was one of the two founding colleges of the federal University of London.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1998, King's joined the Russell Group, an association of 24 public research universities established in 1994.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> King's is also a member of the Institutional Network of the Universities from the Capitals of Europe (UNICA), a network of higher education institutions based in European capital cities,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities,<ref name=Networks>Template:Cite web</ref> the Circle U European University alliance,<ref name=Networks/> the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the European University Association (EUA)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Universities UK.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
King's is typically regarded as part of the "golden triangle", a grouping of research universities located in the English cities of Cambridge, Oxford and London that generally also includes the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, Imperial College London, the London School of Economics, and University College London.Template:Refn
King's College London is also a part of King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre comprises Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London itself.<ref name="heartop">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="evnstan">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> King's is a participant and one of the founding members of the Francis Crick Institute.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Furthermore, launched in 2014, MedCity is the collaboration between King's and the other two main science universities in London, Imperial College and University College London.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2016, King's College London, together with Arizona State University and University of New South Wales, formed the PLuS Alliance, an international university alliance to address global challenges.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> King's was also a founding member of FutureLearn, a massive open online course platform established in December 2012.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
King's offers joint degrees with many universities and other institutions, including Columbia University,<ref name="Joint Degrees">Template:Cite web</ref> University of Paris I,<ref name="Joint Degrees" /> University of Hong Kong,<ref name="Joint Degrees" /> National University of Singapore,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Royal Academy of Music,<ref name="cultural partners">Template:Cite web</ref> British Library,<ref name="cultural partners" /> Tate Modern,<ref name="cultural partners" /> Shakespeare's Globe,<ref name="cultural partners" /> National Gallery,<ref name="cultural partners" /> National Portrait Gallery<ref name="cultural partners" /> and British Museum.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In the field of mathematics, King's College London has a joint venture with Imperial College London and University College London running the London School of Geometry and Number Theory (LSGNT), which is an EPSRC-funded Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT). The LSGNT offers a wide range of 4-year PhD research projects in different aspects of number theory, geometry and topology.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Another partnership King's College London has with both Imperial College London and University College London is the field of Nanotechnology where all 3 universities jointly run the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN). LCN is a multidisciplinary research centre in physical and biomedical nanotechnology focused on exploitation and commercialisation of research generated in the relevant fields, established in 2003, which King's joined in 2018.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
King's College London joined the SES engineering and physical sciences research alliance in 2016, which includes the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Southampton, Imperial College London, Queen Mary University of London, and University College London as members.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> King's College London is also a member of the Thomas Young Centre, an alliance of London research groups working on the theory and simulation of materials, along with Imperial College London, University College London and Queen Mary University of London.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The university is also a member of the University of London Screen Studies Group with other institutions from the University of London.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Academic profile
[edit]Admissions
[edit]
|
| Domicile<ref name="Table 1">Template:Cite web</ref> and Ethnicity<ref name="HESA ethnicity">Template:Cite web</ref> | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| British WhiteTemplate:Efn | Template:Bartable | ||
| British Ethnic MinoritiesTemplate:Efn | Template:Bartable | ||
| International EU | Template:Bartable | ||
| International Non-EU | Template:Bartable | ||
| Undergraduate Widening Participation Indicators<ref name="Table 1"/><ref name="Times25">Template:Cite web</ref> | |||
| Female | Template:Bartable | ||
| Independent School | Template:Bartable | ||
| Low Participation AreasTemplate:Efn | Template:Bartable | ||
King's had the 13th highest average entry qualification for undergraduates of any UK university in 2018, with new students averaging 171 UCAS points.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2022, the university gave offers of admission to 39.3% of its applicants, the 8th lowest across the country.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Teaching
[edit]King's academic year runs from the last Monday in September to the first Friday in June.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Different faculties and departments adopt different academic term structures. For example, the academic year of the Mathematics School and Department of War Studies is divided into three terms (Autumn, Spring and Summer terms);<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> while the Faculty of Arts & Humanities academic year runs in two semesters.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Graduation
[edit]
Graduation ceremonies are held in January (winter) and June or July (summer), with ceremonies for non-medical students held at the Royal Festival Hall in the Southbank Centre, near the Waterloo Campus. Ceremonies were held at the Royal Albert Hall until 1992 and then at the Barbican Centre until 2018.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Owing to St Thomas's Medical School roots that could be traced to St Mary Overie Priory, students from the GKT School of Medical Education and Faculty of Dental, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences graduate from Southwark Cathedral adjacent to Guy's Campus.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
After being granted the power to award its own degrees separately from the University of London in 2006,<ref name="Kings Governance" /> graduates began wearing King's College London academic dress in 2008. King's graduates have since worn gowns designed by Vivienne Westwood.<ref name="Westwood">Template:Cite news</ref>
Research
[edit]In 2023/24 King's had a total research income of £256.9 million, of which £69.5 million came from research councils; £57.2 million from the UK central government; £14.6 million from UK industry; £58.1 million from UK charitable bodies; £25.3 million from EU sources; £32.2 million from other sources.<ref name="KCL 2023/24" />
Following the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), which assessed the quality of research in UK higher education institutions, King's was ranked 9th by GPA and 6th for research power by Times Higher Education.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Medicine
[edit]Medical research at King's College London is spread across multiple faculties, particularly the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care, and the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
King's claims to be the largest centre for healthcare education in Europe.<ref name="kingspartnersfacts">Template:Cite web</ref> The Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine has three main teaching hospitals – Guy's Hospital, King's College Hospital and St Thomas' Hospital<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – and a branch campus in Portsmouth run in collaboration with the University of Portsmouth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> King's College London Dental Institute was the largest dental school in Europe Template:As of.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery, which became part of King's in 1993, is the oldest professional school of nursing in the world.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
King's is a major centre for biomedical research. It is a founding member of King's Health Partners, one of the largest academic health sciences centres in Europe with a turnover of over £2 billion and approximately 25,000 employees.<ref name="kingspartnersfacts" /> It also is home to the Medical Research Council's MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders,<ref name="unitscentres">Template:Cite web</ref> and is part of two of the twelve biomedical research centres established by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) in England – the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Drug Control Centre at King's was established in 1978 and is the only WADA accredited anti-doping laboratory in the UK and holds the official UK contract for running doping tests on UK athletes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1997, it became the first International Olympic Committee accredited laboratory to meet the ISO/IEC 17025 quality standard.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The centre was the anti-doping facility for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Libraries
[edit]Maughan Library
[edit]
Template:Main The Maughan Library is King's largest library and is housed in the Grade II* listed 19th century gothic revival former Public Record Office building designed by Sir James Pennethorne, situated on Chancery Lane near the Strand Campus.<ref>Template:National Heritage List for England</ref> The building is home to collections supporting humanities, law and science.<ref name=Maughan>Template:Cite web</ref> It also houses the special collections and rare books within the Foyle Library (see below).<ref name="specialcollections" /> Inside the library is the dodecagonal Round Reading Room, inspired by the reading room of the British Museum (now home to the humanities reference collection),<ref name=Maughan/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the former Chapel of the Masters of the Rolls (renamed the Weston Room following a donation from the Garfield Weston Foundation) with its stained glass windows, mosaic floor and monuments, including a Renaissance terracotta figure by Pietro Torrigiano of John Yonge, Master of the Rolls, who died in 1516.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Other libraries
[edit]- Foyle Special Collections Library: Situated inside the Maughan Library, the special collections library houses a collection of 200,000 printed works as well as maps, slides, sound recordings and manuscript material, including 17 incunabula.<ref name="specialcollections">Template:Cite web</ref> The Foyle Special Collections Library also houses a number of special collections, range in date from the 15th century to present, and in subject from human anatomy to Modern Greek poetry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Historical Collection is the largest collection contains material from the former FCO Library. The collection was a working tool used by the British government to inform and influence foreign and colonial policy.<ref name="fco">Template:Cite web</ref> Transferred to King's in 2007, the FCO Historical Collection contains over 80,000 items including books, pamphlets, manuscript, and photographic material.<ref name="fco" /> The Medical Collection include the historical library collections of the constituent medical schools and institutes of King's. The Rare Books Collection holds 12,000 printed books, including a 1483 Venice printing of Silius Italicus's Punica, first editions of Charles Dickens' novels, and the 1937 (first) edition of George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Archives Reading Room: Situated in the King's Building on the Strand campus,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> this includes the college archives and the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives.<ref name="arr">Template:Cite web</ref> The college archives include institutional archives of King's since 1828, archives of institutions and schools that were created by or have merged with King's, and records relating to the history of medicine.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, established in 1964, holds the private papers of over 800 senior British defence personnel who held office since 1900.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Franklin-Wilkins Library: Situated on the Waterloo Campus, the library supports nursing and midwifery students and law students, with holdings on management, bioscience and education.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Wills Library: Situated in the Hodgkin Building at Guy's Campus, it was originally the main library for the Guy's Hospital Medical School.<ref name="wills">Template:Cite web</ref> The Wills Library was a gift in 1903 by the former governor of Guy's Hospital, the late Sir Frederick Wills<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and it was opened as the Medical School Library.<ref name=Gunga>Template:Cite book</ref> Many books, archives and documents that were kept in the Wills Library, such as Guy's committee minute books, have been moved to the King's College London Archives in 2004,<ref name=Gunga /> although the library still contains a collection of books in locked cabinets that can be retrieved by request.<ref name="wills" />
- New Hunt's House Library: Situated on the Guy's Campus, the library covers all aspects of biomedical science.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- St Thomas' House Library: Situated at St Thomas' Campus, the library has resources on complimentary clinical healthcare and a variety of study spaces.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience Library: Situated on the Denmark Hill Campus, the IoPPN library is one of the largest psychiatric libraries in Western Europe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Weston Education Centre Library: Situated on the Denmark Hill Campus, the library supports teaching and research in the faculties of medicine and dentistry. It also supports clinical work and research in the King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.<ref name="weclibrary">Template:Cite web</ref>
Additionally, King's students and staff have full access to Senate House Library, the central library for the University of London and the School of Advanced Study.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Undergraduate and postgraduate students also have reference access to libraries of other University of London institutions under the University of London Libraries Access Agreement.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Museums, galleries and collections
[edit]
King's operates two museums: the Gordon Museum of Pathology and the Museum of Life Sciences, neither of which are open to the public. The Gordon Museum collection dates back to the opening of the medical school at Guy's Hospital in 1826; the current museum was opened by the hospital in 1905.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Gordon Museum says it is the largest medical museum in the United Kingdom, with a collection of approximately 8,000 pathological specimens, artefacts, models and paintings, including Astley Cooper's specimens and Sir Joseph Lister's antiseptic spray.<ref name="Gordon Museum" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Museum of Life Sciences was founded in 2009 adjacent to the Gordon Museum, and holds historic biological and pharmaceutical collections from the colleges that are now part of King's College London.<ref name="Life Sciences Museum" />
Between 1843 and 1927, the King George III Museum was a museum within King's College London which housed the collections of scientific instruments of George III and eminent nineteenth-century scientists (including Sir Charles Wheatstone and Charles Babbage). Due to space constraints, much of the museum's collections were transferred on loan to the Science Museum in London or kept in King's College London Archives.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Anatomy Museum was a museum situated on the 6th floor of the King's Building at the Strand Campus. The Anatomy Theatre was built next door to the museum in 1927,<ref name="Anatomy-Museum">Template:Cite web</ref> where anatomical dissections and demonstrations took place. The Anatomy Museum's collection includes casts of injuries, leather models, skins of animals from Western Australia donated to the museum in 1846,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and casts of heads of John Bishop and Thomas Williams, the murderers in the Italian Boy's murder in 1831.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The last dissection in the Anatomy Theatre was performed in 1997.<ref name="Anatomy-Museum" /> The Anatomy Theatre and Museum was renovated and refurbished in 2009, and is now a facility for teaching, research and performance at King's.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Science Gallery London is a public science centre on the Guy's Campus. Admission to exhibitions and events at the centre is free.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Reputation and ranking
[edit]Template:Infobox UK university rankings
King's was Sunday Times University of the Year for 2010 to 2011.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
According to the 2025 Complete University Guide, 16 subjects offered by King's rank within the top 10 nationally, including Health Studies (1st), Social Policy (2nd), Business & Management Studies (3rd), Anthropology (4th), Law (5th), Music (6th), Classics (6th), Economics (8th), Politics (8th), Communication & Media Studies (8th), Food Science (9th), Philosophy (9th), Dentistry (9th), Biological Sciences (10th), History (10th), and Computer Science (10th).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Guardian University Guide 2021 ranks King's in the top ten in 6 subjects, including Psychology (2nd), Politics (5th), Law (6th), Anatomy & physiology (8th), Media & film studies (9th), and Philosophy (9th). The Times Higher Education ranks King's College London the top 20 universities in the world for Psychology (11th), and Clinical, pre-clinical & health (16th) in the 2021 World University Rankings by subject.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Among global university rankings, King's is ranked 40th equal by the 2025 QS World University Rankings,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 36th equal by the 2025 world university rankings of the Times Higher Education,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 36th equal by the 2024 U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities Rankings,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 53rd by the 2024 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
King's was ranked 7th in the UK for Graduate Employability in the Times Higher Education's Global Employability University Ranking 2023.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> King's was further recognised by the High Fliers' Graduate Market Report 2024 as one of the top universities targeted by leading UK employers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This was reaffirmed by the Teaching Excellence Framework (2023) which gave King's a gold rating for student outcomes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Associateship of King's College
[edit]The Associateship of King's College (AKC) dates to its foundation in 1829 and was first awarded in 1835. It was designed to reflect the twin objectives of King's College's 1829 royal charter to maintain the connection between "sound religion and useful learning" and to teach the "doctrines and duties of Christianity".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Today, the AKC is a modern tradition that offers an inclusive, research-led programme of lectures that gives students the opportunities to engage with religious, philosophical and ethical issues alongside their main degree course. Graduates of King's College London may be eligible to be elected as 'Associates' of King's College by the authority of King's College London council, delegated to the academic board. After election, they are entitled to use the post-nominal letters "AKC".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Fellowship of King's College
[edit]The Fellowship of King's College (FKC) is the highest award that can be bestowed upon an individual by King's College London. The award of the fellowship is governed by a statute of King's College London and reflects distinguished service to King's by a member of staff, conspicuous service to King's, or the achievement of distinction by those who were at one time closely associated with King's College London.<ref name="Fellowships FKCs">Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref>
The proposal to establish a fellowship of King's was first considered in 1847.<ref name="fkc">Template:Cite web</ref> John Allen, a former chaplain of King's, was the first FKC. Each fellow had to pay two guineas for the fellowship privilege initially, but the fee was ceased from 1850.<ref name="fkc" /> A wide variety of people were elected as fellows of King's, including former principal Alfred Barry, former King's student then professor Thorold Rogers, architect William Burges and ornithologist Robert Swinhoe.<ref name="fkc" /> The first women fellows were elected in 1904.<ref name="fkc" /> Lilian Faithfull, vice-principal of the King's Ladies' Department from 1894 to 1906, was one of the first women fellows.<ref name="fkc" />
Student life
[edit]Students' union
[edit]
_Logo.png){kind=link}
King's College, London Union Society was founded in 1873.<ref name="kclsudates">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1905, this was reorganised, providing common rooms, student clubs and entertainment, with a further reorganisation in 1908 seeing it take over the athletics club (established in 1884) and other social activities, and becoming a students' union.<ref name="KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: Union of Students">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
As King's College London Students' Union (KCLSU), it now provides a wide range of activities and services, including over 50 intramural sports clubs,<ref name="KCLSU Sports Clubs">Template:Cite web</ref> over 300 activity groups,<ref name="ActivityGroups">Template:Cite web</ref> and bars and cafes (the Shack and the Vault in Bush House on the Strand Campus, and Guy's Café and Guy's Bar on Guy's Campus).<ref name=Shack/><ref name=Vault/><ref name="Guys Bar" /><ref name="Guys Cafe" />
Reggie the Lion is the official mascot of the students' union. In total there are four Reggies in existence. The original can be found on display in the undercroft of the Union's Bush House base at the Strand Campus. A papier-mâché Reggie lives outside the Great Hall at the Strand Campus. The third Reggie, given as a gift by alumnus Willie Kwan, guards the entrance of Willies Common Room in Somerset House East Wing.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A small sterling silver incarnation is displayed during graduation ceremonies, which was presented to King's by former Halliburton Professor of Physiology, Robert John Stewart McDowall, in 1959.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Student media
[edit]KCLSU Student Media won Student Media of the Year 2014 at the Ents Forum awards<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and came in the top three student media outlets in the country at the NUS Awards 2014.<ref name="roar">Template:Cite web</ref>
Roar News is a tabloid newspaper for students at King's which is owned and funded by KCLSU. It is editorially independent of both the university and the students' union and its award-winning website is read by tens of thousands of people per month in over 100 countries.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2014 it had a successful awards season, scooping several national awards and commendations, including a Mind Media Award and Student Media of the Year.<ref name="roar" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The radio station of KCLSU, KCL Radio, was founded in 2009 as a podcast producer. The first live broadcast of KCL Radio was in 2011 at the London Varsity.<ref name="sra" /> In 2013, KCL Radio relaunched as a live station with more than 45 hours of live programming a week. The schedule of the radio station includes news, music, entertainment, debate, sport and live performance.<ref name="sra">Template:Cite web</ref>
Other King's student media groups include the King's College London Film Society, student television station KingsTV, and the photographic society KCLSU PhotoSoc.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Sports
[edit]
There are over 60 sports clubs, many of which compete in the University of London and British Universities & Colleges (BUCS) leagues across the South East.<ref name="KCLSU Sports Clubs" /> The annual Macadam Cup, named after Sir Ivison Macadam, a KCL alumnus and first president of the National Union of Students, is a varsity match that has been played between the sports teams of King's College London proper and the Guy's, King's and St. Thomas' School of Medicine since 2005.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
King's Sport, a partnership between King's College London and KCLSU, manages all the sports activities and facilities of King's since 2013.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> King's Sport runs three fitness centres at the Waterloo, Guy's and Strand Campuses which include various studio spaces. King's Sport also operates two sports grounds, in New Malden and Honor Oak.<ref name="sports grounds" /> Honor Oak Park Sports Ground has a floodlit 3G field hockey pitch and a floodlit 2G football/multi-sport pitch, as well as a grass football pitch, a grass rugby pitch and a netball or tennis court.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> New Malden Sports Ground has four football pitches, two rugby pitches, a lacrosse pitch, and two all-weather netball or tennis courts, with a cricket ground being set up in the summer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> There are also on-campus sports facilities at Guy's, St Thomas's and Denmark Hill campuses.<ref name="On-Campus">Template:Cite web</ref> King's students and staff can utilize Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust's fitness centre and swimming pool based within the Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals.<ref name="On-Campus" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Societies and organisations
[edit]In addition to sporting clubs, King's College London Students' Union also has around 300 other societies and groups in a wide variety of activities.<ref name="ActivityGroups" />
Student-led think tank
[edit]Following the 2010 student demonstrations against increased tuition fees, King's College London students founded London's first student-led think tank, King's Think Tank (formerly known as KCL Think Tank).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> With a membership of more than 2000,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> it is the largest organisation of its kind in Europe.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This student initiative organises lectures and discussions in seven different policy areas, and assists students in lobbying politicians, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other policymakers with their ideas. Every May, it produces a peer-reviewed journal of policy recommendations called The Spectrum.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Music
[edit]There are many music societies at King's including a cappella groups, orchestras, choir, musical theatre and jazz society.<ref name="music">Template:Cite web</ref> King's has three orchestras: King's College London Symphony Orchestra (KCLSO), King's College London Chamber Orchestra and KCL Concert Orchestra.<ref name="music" />
Founded in 1945, the Choir of King's College London consists of around 30 choral scholars.<ref name="choir">Template:Cite web</ref> The choir regularly broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 and has made recordings mainly focus on 16th-century English and Spanish repertoire.<ref name="choir" />
All the King's Men is an all-male a cappella ensemble from King's College London. Founded in 2009, it become the first group outside of Oxford and Cambridge to win The Voice Festival UK in 2012.<ref name="ATKM">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="ATKM2">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Better source needed
American rock band Foo Fighters played their first UK gig at King's College London Students Union in 1995.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Pop singer Taylor Swift played her first UK gig at the Strand Campus in 2008.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Rivalry with University College London
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Competition within the University of London is most intense between King's and University College London, the two oldest institutions. Indeed, the University of London when it was established has been described as "an umbrella organisation designed to disguise the rivalry between UCL and KCL."<ref name="Thompson7">Thompson (1990), p. 7</ref> In the early twentieth century, King's College London and UCL rivalry was centred on their respective mascots.<ref name="varsity">Template:Cite web</ref> University College's was Phineas Maclino, a wooden tobacconist's sign of a kilted Jacobite Highlander purloined from outside a shop in Tottenham Court Road during the celebrations of the relief of Ladysmith in 1900. King's later addition was a giant beer bottle representing "bottled youth". In 1923 it was replaced by a new mascot to rival Phineas – Reggie the Lion, who made his debut at a King's–UCL sporting rag in December 1923, protected by a lifeguard of engineering students armed with T-squares. Thereafter, Reggie formed the centrepiece of annual freshers' processions by King's students around Aldwych in which new students were typically flour bombed.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Although riots between respective college students occurred in central London well into the 1950s, rivalry is now limited to the rugby union pitch and skulduggery over mascots, with the annual London Varsity series culminating in the historic match between King's College London RFC and University College London RFC.<ref name="varsity" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Rivalry with the London School of Economics
[edit]On 2 December 2005, tensions between King's and the London School of Economics (LSE) were ignited when at least 200 students from LSE (located in Aldwych near the Strand Campus) diverted off from the annual "barrel run" and caused an estimated £32,000 of damage to the English department at King's.<ref name="rampage">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>The Beaver. LSESU. 26 September 2006.</ref> King's principal, Sir Rick Trainor, deplored the behaviour and called for no retaliation.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=LSEapologises>Template:Cite news</ref> The LSE Students' Union on 6 December issued a formal apology and promised to pay for the damage repair.<ref name="AUBarellStatement">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=LSEapologises />
Student residences
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King's has 14 halls of residence in central London.<ref name="halls" /> The university guarantees accommodation for new first-year undergraduate or foundation year students who make a firm acceptance of their offer and apply for accommodation by a defined date,<ref name="ugrad accommodation">Template:Cite web</ref> and to postgraduates who make a firm acceptance of their offer and apply for accommodation by a different defined date.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Accommodation is also guaranteed for care-experienced students, and students who are under 18 on move-in day.<ref name="ugrad accommodation" /> The university also has a scheme, King's Affordable Accommodation Scheme (KAAS) which enables undergraduate students to access accommodation priced at below market levels, provided applicants for the scheme meet the eligibility criteria. There is a limited quota for KAAS rooms in a number of King's residences.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
There are also five intercollegiate halls shared with the constituent colleges of the University of London, which full-time students at King's are eligible to live in.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The university's Champion Hill residence has been empty since 2020, following the discovery of fire safety concerns and subsequent relocation of students and staff. A university spokesperson stated in March 2024, "We are working to refurbish these buildings with the aim to have them available as student accommodation as soon as work is completed, and it is safe to do so."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
King's newest residence opened in Battersea, in September 2024, and contains 452 rooms. A number of affordable rooms have been secured under the KAAS scheme.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Notable people
[edit]Notable alumni
[edit]There are 14 Nobel laureates who were associated with either King's College London or one of the institutions that have since merged with it.<ref name="nobelpr">Template:Cite web</ref> Notable alumni in the sciences include Nobel laureates Peter Higgs (Physics),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Sir Michael Houghton (Medicine)<ref name="nobelpr" /> and Michael Levitt (Chemistry).<ref name="nobelpr" /> Others include Sir Francis Galton, polymath and pioneer of eugenics.<ref>'GALTON, Sir Francis', Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014</ref> Alumni in performing arts include impressionist Rory Bremner;<ref name="oldnotable">Template:Cite web</ref> Queen bassist John Deacon;<ref name="oldnotable" /> and Oscar winners Greer Garson,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Edmund Gwenn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Anne Dudley.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In law, alumni include Karim Ahmad Khan, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Patrick Lipton Robinson, a judge of the International Court of Justice.<ref name="ICJ">Template:Cite web</ref> In literature, alumni include the dramatist Sir W. S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan,<ref>Jane W. Stedman, 'Gilbert, Sir William Schwenck (1836–1911)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004</ref> and the writers Thomas Hardy,<ref name=Notable-alumni>Template:Cite web</ref> Sir Arthur C. Clarke<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Virginia Woolf.<ref name=Notable-alumni/>
Notable King's alumni to have held senior positions in British politics include two Speakers of the House of Commons (Horace King<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and James Lowther),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and one Foreign Secretary (David Owen). King's has also educated numerous foreign heads of state and government including two presidents of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos<ref name="phileleftheros 1">Template:Cite news</ref> and Glafcos Clerides;<ref name="Glafkos Ioannou Clerides">Template:Cite web</ref> Marouf al-Bakhit, Prime Minister of Jordan;<ref name="Biography of Marouf al-Bakhit">Template:Cite webTemplate:Subscription required</ref> France-Albert René, President of the Seychelles;<ref name="France-Albert Rene">Template:Cite book</ref> Sir Lynden Pindling, Prime Minister of the Bahamas;<ref name="Sir Lynden Pindling">Template:Cite book</ref> Godfrey Binaisa, President of Uganda;<ref name="autogenerated204">Template:Cite book</ref> Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz, Prime Minister of Iraq;<ref name="al-bazzaz">Template:Cite book</ref> Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada; and Sir Lee Moore, Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis.<ref name="Biography of Sir Lee Moore">Template:Cite web</ref>
King's alumni in religion include Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Archbishop of Cape Town;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. While in the military, alumni include Sir Tony Radakin, Chief of the Defence Staff; Lord Harding, Chief of the Imperial General Staff; Sir Michael Wigston, Chief of the Air Staff; and two recipients of the Victoria Cross, Ferdinand Le Quesne and Mark Sever Bell. King's is also the alma mater of the founder of Bentley Motors, Walter Bentley;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> oil magnate and philanthropist Calouste Gulbenkian, and Olympic gold medalists Dame Katherine Grainger,<ref name=Notable-alumni /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Paul Bennett<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Kieran West.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Notable academics and staff
[edit]Notable academics at King's have included Sir Charles Lyell (geologist and author of Principles of Geology),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Sir Charles Wheatstone (best known for the Wheatstone bridge),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> James Clerk Maxwell (mathematical physicist known for Maxwell's equations describing the motion of light as an electro-magnetic wave),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Joseph Lister (pioneer of antiseptic surgery),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Charles Barkla (winner of the 1917 Nobel Prize in Physics),<ref name="nobelpr" /> Sir Owen Richardson (winner of the 1928 Nobel Prize in Physics),<ref name="nobelpr" /> Sir Edward Appleton (winner of the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physics),<ref name="nobelpr" /> Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin (both known for their contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA, for which Wilkins won the 1962 Nobel Prize for Medicine after Franklin's death),<ref name="nobelpr" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Mario Vargas Llosa (writer and winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature),<ref name="nobelpr" /> and Sir Roger Penrose (winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics).<ref name="nobelpr" />
In popular culture
[edit]Film and television settings
[edit]The neoclassical facade of King's, with the passage which connects the Strand to the Somerset House terrace, has been utilised to reproduce the late Victorian Strand in the opening scenes of Oliver Parker's 2002 film The Importance of Being Earnest. The East Wing of King's appears, as a part of Somerset House, in a number of other productions, such as Wilde and The Duchess.<ref name="films">Template:Cite web</ref>
The Maughan Library has also been the location of some film shoots of popular movies and TV series, most notably Johnny English, The Imitation Game and V for Vendetta.<ref name="films" />
Part of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code was set in the Round Reading Room of the Maughan Library, although no part of the film adaption was filmed there.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In September 1979, The Greenwood Theatre at Guy's Medical School (now King's GKT Medical School) became the first home for the BBC's Question Time programme. In December 2018, Question Time returned to the Greenwood Theatre for David Dimbleby's last programme as host.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
[edit]Notes
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References
[edit]- Bibliography
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- Comment – quarterly newsletter of King's College London, edited by the Public Relations Department.
- Profile Template:Webarchive – annual publication of King's College London.
- Report – annual publication of King's College London.
Further reading
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- Huelin, G. (1978) King's College London, 1828–1978.
- Jones, C. K. (2004) King's College London: In the service of society.
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- Template:Cite web (Includes King's students who matriculated in or graduated from the University of London)
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External links
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