King's College London (informally King's or
KCL) is a public research university located
in London, United Kingdom, and a founding
constituent college of the federal University
of London. King's was established in 1829
by King George IV and Arthur Wellesley, 1st
Duke of Wellington, when it received its first
royal charter (as a university college), and
claims to be the fourth oldest university
institution in England. In 1836, King's became
one of the two founding colleges of the University
of London. 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: its historic Strand
Campus in central London, three other Thames-side
campuses (Guy's, St Thomas' and Waterloo)
and one in Denmark Hill in south London. In
2017/18, King's had a total income of £841.1
million, of which £194.4 million was from
research grants and contracts. It is the 12th
largest university in the United Kingdom by
total enrolment. It has the fifth largest
endowment of any university in the United
Kingdom, and the largest of any in London.
Its academic activities are organised into
nine faculties, which are subdivided into
numerous departments, centres, and research
divisions.
King's is generally considered part of the
'golden triangle' of research-intensive English
universities alongside the University of Oxford,
University of Cambridge, University College
London, Imperial College London, and The London
School of Economics. It is a member of academic
organisations including the Association of
Commonwealth Universities, European University
Association, and the Russell Group. King's
is home to six Medical Research Council centres
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, and includes
the world's first nursing school, the Florence
Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery.Globally,
it was ranked 31st in the 2019 QS World University
Rankings, 36th in the 2018 CWTS Leiden Ranking,
36th in the 2018 The World University Rankings,
and 46th in the 2017 ARWU. King's was ranked
42nd in the world for reputation in the annual
Times Higher Education survey of academics
for 2018. Nationally it was ranked 26th in
the 2019 Complete University Guide, 35th in
the 2019 Times/Sunday Times University Guide,
and 58th in the 2019 Guardian University Guide.King's
alumni and staff include 12 Nobel laureates;
contributors to the discovery of DNA structure,
Hepatitis C 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 and seventeen members of
the current House of Lords; and the recipients
of three Oscars, three Grammys and an Emmy.
== History ==
=== 
Foundation ===
King's College, so named to indicate the patronage
of King George IV, was founded in 1829 in
response to the theological controversy surrounding
the founding of "London University" (which
later became University College, London) in
1826. 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" giving
its nickname, "the godless college in Gower
Street".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. The secular nature of London University
was disapproved by The Establishment, indeed,
"the storms of opposition which raged around
it threatened to crush every spark of vital
energy which remained". Thus, the creation
of a rival institution represented a Tory
response to reassert the educational values
of The Establishment. 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. 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.
==== Duel in Battersea Fields, 21 March 1829
====
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, but this was not Wellington's
intent.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". 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."The result was a duel in Battersea
Fields on 21 March 1829. 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.
Honour was saved and Winchilsea wrote Wellington
an apology. "Duel Day" is still celebrated
on the first Thursday after 21 March every
year, marked by various events throughout
King's, including reenactments.
=== 19th century ===
King's opened in October 1831 with the cleric
William Otter appointed as first principal
and lecturer in divinity. 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".
William Howley: the governors and the professors,
except the linguists, had to be members of
the Church of England but the students did
not, though attendance at chapel was compulsory.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. 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. 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. 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.
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.
The river frontage was completed in April
1835 at a cost of £7,100, its completion
a condition of King's College London securing
the site from the Crown. 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.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).
The first University of London degrees were
awarded to King's College London students
in 1839.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.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;
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.In 1882
the King's College London Act 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. 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.
=== 20th century ===
The King's College London Act 1903, 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 King's College London (Transfer)
Act 1908, losing its legal independence.During
World War I the medical school was opened
to women for the first time. 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.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. 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.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.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.
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.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
of Science and Technology 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 King's College London GKT School
of Medical Education. 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.
=== 2001 to present ===
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. 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. All current students with at least
one year of study remaining were in August
2007 offered the option of choosing to be
awarded a University of London degree or a
King's degree. The first King's degrees were
awarded in summer 2008.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. The Chemistry
department was reopened in 2011 following
its closure in 2003. In February 2012, Her
Majesty The Queen officially opened Somerset
House East Wing.
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. 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'. It was emphasised that there
were no plans to change the legal name of
King's, and that the name 'King's London'
was designed to promote King's and to highlight
the fact that King's is a university in its
own right. King's announced that the rebranding
plans had been dropped in January 2015.On
10 March 2015, King's acquired a 50-year lease
for the Aldwych Quarter site incorporating
the historic grand Bush House building. It
began occupation of the Bush House Building
in September 2016 and will occupy the adjacent
King House and Strand House from 2017 and
Melbourne House from 2025. In October 2016,
King's announced it had also taken a separate
50-year lease on the North-West Block of the
Aldwych Quarter which it will incorporate
from 2018.
== Campus ==
=== Strand Campus ===
The Strand Campus is the founding campus of
King's and is located on the Strand in the
City of Westminster, sharing its frontage
along the River Thames. The original campus
comprises the Grade I listed King's Building
of 1831 designed by Sir Robert Smirke, and
the King's College London Chapel redesigned
in 1864 by Sir George Gilbert Scott, with
the subsequent purchase of much of adjacent
Surrey Street (including the Norfolk and Chesham
Buildings) since the Second World War and
the 1972 Strand Building. The Macadam Building
of 1975 houses the Strand Campus Students'
Union and is named after King's alumnus Sir
Ivison Macadam, first President of the National
Union of Students.
The Strand Campus houses the arts and science
faculties of King's, including the faculties
of Arts & Humanities, Law, Business, Social
Science & Public Policy and Natural & Mathematical
Sciences (formerly Physical Sciences & Engineering).
Since 2010, the campus has expanded rapidly
to incorporate the East Wing of Somerset House
and the Virginia Woolf Building next to LSE
on Kingsway. On 10 March 2015, King's acquired
a 50-year lease for the Aldwych Quarter site
incorporating the historic grand Bush House
building. It began occupation of the Bush
House Building in September 2016 and will
occupy the adjacent King House and Strand
House from 2017 and Melbourne House from 2025.
In October 2016, King's announced it had also
taken a separate 50-year lease on the North-West
Block which it will incorporate from 2018.The
nearest Underground stations are Temple, Charing
Cross and Covent Garden.
=== Guy's Campus ===
Guy's Campus is situated close to London Bridge
and the Shard on the South Bank of the Thames
and is home to the Faculty of Life Sciences
& Medicine and the Dental Institute.The campus
is named for Thomas Guy, the founder and benefactor
of Guy's Hospital established in 1726 in the
London Borough of Southwark. Building include;
the Henriette Raphael building, constructed
in 1902, the Gordon Museum of Pathology, the
Hodgkin building, Shepherd's House and Guy's
Chapel. The Students' Union has extensive
facilities on the Guy's Campus including activity
rooms, meeting rooms alongside a student cafe;
The Shed and student bar; Guy's Bar. Guy's
Campus is located opposite the Old Operating
Theatre Museum, which was part of old St Thomas
Hospital in Southwark.
The nearest Underground stations are London
Bridge and Borough.
=== Waterloo Campus ===
The Waterloo Campus is located across Waterloo
Bridge from the Strand Campus, near the South
Bank Centre in the London Borough of Lambeth
and consists of the James Clerk Maxwell Building
and the Franklin–Wilkins Building.
Cornwall House, now the Franklin-Wilkins Building,
constructed between 1912 and 1915 was originally
the His Majesty's Stationery Office (responsible
for Crown copyright and National Archives),
but was requisitioned for use as a military
hospital in 1915 during World War I. It became
the King George Military Hospital, and accommodated
about 1,800 patients on 63 wards.Now the largest
university building in London, the building
was acquired by King's in the 1980s and underwent
extensive refurbishment in 2000. The building
is named after Rosalind Franklin and Maurice
Wilkins for their major contributions to the
discovery of the structure of DNA. Today it
is home to:
the School of Biomedical Sciences, Diabetes
& Nutritional Sciences Division (part of the
Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine)
the School of Education, Communication & Society
(part of the Faculty of Social Science & Public
Policy)
LonDEC – the London Dental Education Centre
(part of the Dental Institute)The adjacent
James Clerk Maxwell Building houses the Florence
Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery,
much of the central professional services
functions of the College and the President
& Principal's Office. The Building was named
after Scottish mathematical physicist James
Clerk Maxwell, who was the Professor of Natural
Philosophy at King's from 1860 to 1865.The
nearest Underground station is Waterloo.
=== St Thomas's Campus ===
The St Thomas' Campus in the London Borough
of Lambeth, facing the Houses of Parliament
across the Thames, houses parts of the School
of Medicine and the Dental Institute. The
Florence Nightingale Museum is also located
here. The museum is dedicated to Florence
Nightingale, the founder of the Nightingale
Training School of St Thomas' Hospital (now
King's Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing
and Midwifery). St Thomas' Hospital became
part of King's College London School of Medicine
in 1998. The St Thomas' Hospital and Campus
were named after St Thomas Becket. The Department
of Twin Research (TwinsUk), King's College
London is located in St. Thomas' Hospital.
The nearest Underground station is Westminster.
=== Denmark Hill Campus ===
Denmark Hill Campus is situated in south London
near the borders of the London Borough of
Lambeth and the London Borough of Southwark
in Camberwell and is the only campus not situated
on the River Thames. The campus consists of
King's College Hospital, the Maudsley Hospital
and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology
and Neuroscience (IoPPN). In addition to the
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience,
parts of the Dental Institute and School of
Medicine, and a large hall of residence, King's
College Hall, are situated here. Other buildings
include the campus library known as the Weston
Education Centre (WEC), the James Black Centre,
the Rayne Institute (haemato-oncology) and
the Cicely Saunders Institute (palliative
care).The Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience
Institute was opened by the Princess Royal
in 2015 at the Denmark Hill Campus. It is
named after British philanthropist Maurice
Wohl, who had a long association with King’s
and supported many medical projects.The nearest
Overground station is Denmark Hill.
=== Redevelopment programme ===
As of 2016, King's is undergoing a £1 billion
redevelopment programme of its estates. Since
1999 over half of the activities of King's
have been relocated in new and refurbished
buildings. Major completed projects include
a £35 million renovation of the Maughan Library
in 2002, a £40 million renovation of buildings
at the Strand Campus, a £25 million renovation
of Somerset House East Wing, a £30 million
renovation of the Denmark Hill Campus in 2007,
the renovation of the Franklin-Wilkins Library
at the Waterloo Campus and the completion
of the £9 million Cicely Saunders Institute
of Palliative Care in 2010. The College Chapel
at the Strand was also restored in 2001, and
its organ in 2018.The Strand Campus redevelopment
won the Green Gown Award in 2007 for sustainable
construction. The award recognised the "reduced
energy and carbon emissions from a sustainable
refurbishment of the historic South Range
of the King's Building". King's was also the
recipient of the 2003 City Heritage Award
for the conversion of the Grade II* listed
Maughan Library.Current projects include a
£45 million development for the Maurice Wohl
Clinical Neuroscience Institute, £18 million
on modernising King's learning and teaching
environments, a sports pavilion at Honor Oak
Park. In April 2012 a £20 million redevelopment
of the Strand Campus Quad was announced and
will provide an additional 3,700 square metres
of teaching space and student facilities.King's
acquired a lease for the Aldwych Quarter with
initial term of 50 years. King's will occupy
Bush House and Strand House from September
2016, and King House and Melbourne House from
2025. The then-Chairman of King's College
London, Charles Wellesley, 9th Duke of Wellington
said that the King's Strand Campus has had
inadequate and cramped teaching space for
too long, and the acquisition will transform
the original campus of King's which dates
back to 1829.
== Organisation and administration ==
=== Governance ===
The head of King's College London is formally
the Principal, currently held by Ed Byrne.
The office is established by the charter of
King's as "the chief academic and administrative
officer of the College" and King's statutes
require the principal to have the general
responsibility to the council for "ensuring
that the objects of the College are fulfilled
and for maintaining and promoting the efficiency,
discipline and good order of the College".
The charter and statutes granted in 2009 created
the additional position of "president". As
such the full title of the head of King's
College London is the "President and Principal".
Senior officers are called the Principal's
Central Team. Six vice-principals have specific
responsibilities for education; research and
innovation; strategy and development; arts
and sciences; international (developing the
global research networks of King's); and health
(where there is also a deputy vice-principal).
The council is the supreme governing body
of King's College London established under
the charter and statutes, comprising 21 members.
Its membership include the president of King's
College London Students' Union (KCLSU), as
the student member; the principal and president;
up to seven other staff members; and up to
12 lay members who must not be employees of
King's. It is supported by a number of standing
committees. Sir Christopher Geidt succeeded
Charles Wellesley, 9th Duke of Wellington
as Chairman of Council from the beginning
of the 2016 academic year; he subsequently
became Lord Geidt on 3 November 2017.The dean
of King's College is an ordained person, which
is unusual among British universities. The
dean is "responsible for overseeing the spiritual
development and welfare of all students and
staff". The Office of the Dean co-ordinate
the Associateship of King's College programme,
the chaplaincy and the chapel choir, which
includes 25 choir scholarships. One of the
dean's roles is to encourage and foster vocations
to the Church of England priesthood.The Archbishop
of Canterbury is the King's College London's
visitor by right of office owing to the role
of the Church of England in King's foundation.
=== Faculties and departments ===
In the 19th century, King's College London
had five departments: Theological, General
Literature and Science, Applied Sciences,
Medical and Military. The Theological Department
provided studies in ecclesiastical history,
pastoral theology and Exegesis of testaments.
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, and natural
philosophy, geology, mineralogy and arts-related
subjects were taught within the Department
of Applied Sciences.As of 2017, King's comprises
nine academic faculties, which are subdivided
into schools (for Social Science & Public
Policy, Life Sciences & Medicine), departments,
centres and research divisions. The latest
addition was King's Business School, hosted
in Bush House, which opened in August 2017.
==== Faculty of Arts and Humanities ====
The Faculty of Arts and Humanities was formed
in 1989 following the amalgamation of the
faculties of Arts, Music and Theology. The
faculty encompasses traditional disciplinary
subjects, as well as less-common subjects
such as Hellenic, Portuguese and Medieval
Studies, and emerging disciplines such as
Digital Humanities and Queer Studies.The Royal
Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) is administered
through King's, and its students graduate
alongside members of the departments which
form the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. As
RADA does not have degree awarding powers,
its courses are validated by King's.
==== Dental Institute ====
The Dental Institute is the dental school
of King's and focuses on understanding disease,
enhancing health and restoring function. The
institute is the successor of Guy's Hospital
Dental School, King's College Hospital Dental
School, Royal Dental Hospital of London School
of Dental Surgery, and the United Medical
and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas'
Hospitals. It was a part of King's School
of Medicine and Dentistry until 2005, when
the dental school became the Dental Institute.
In 1799 Joseph Fox started to give a series
of lectures on dental surgery at Guy’s Hospital,
and was appointed dental surgeon in the same
year. Thomas Bell succeeded Fox as dental
surgeon either in 1817 or 1825. 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. In December
1888, Guy’s Hospital Dental School was established.
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.
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.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. 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. The school further merged with the
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s
and St Thomas’ Hospitals in 1998.
==== Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine
====
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.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. The faculty
is divided into 7 schools, including Basic
& Medical Biosciences, Biomedical Engineering
& Imaging Sciences, Cancer & Pharmaceutical
Science, Cardiovascular Medicine & Sciences,
Immunology & Microbial Sciences, Life Course
Sciences and Population Health Sciences.
==== Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and
Neuroscience ====
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. The institute is the largest
centre for research and postgraduate education
in psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience
in Europe. 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.
==== The Dickson Poon School of Law ====
The Dickson Poon School of Law is the law
school of King's. Law has been taught at King's
since 1831. The Faculty of Laws was founded
in 1909 and became the School of Law in 1991.The
school includes various research centres and
groups which serve as focal points for research
activity, including the Centre of European
Law (established in 1974), Centre of Medical
Law and Ethics (established in 1978), Centre
of British Constitutional Law and History
(established in 1988), Centre of Construction
Law, Centre for Technology, Ethics and Law
in Society, Centre for Politics, Philosophy
and Law, Transnational Law Institute and Trust
Law Committee.
==== Faculty of Natural and Mathematical Sciences
====
The Faculty of Natural and Mathematical Sciences
was established in 2010, following the reorganisation
of the School of Physical Sciences and Engineering.
The faculty provides education and research
in chemistry, informatics, physics, mathematics
and telecommunications. Physics and Mathematics
has been studied at the university since 1829
and 1830 respectively, and there are six Nobel
laureates who were either students or academic
staff of the faculty.Chemistry has been taught
at King's since its foundation in 1829, and
Copley medallist John Frederic Daniell was
appointed the first professor. The Department
of Chemistry was forced to close in 2003 due
to a decline in student numbers and reduced
funding. In 2012, a new Department of Chemistry
was established and a new undergraduate degree,
Chemistry with Biomedicine, was launched.
The new department covers traditional areas
of chemistry (organic, inorganic, physical
and computational chemistry) and other academic
discipline including cell biology and physics.The
Department of Engineering was established
in 1838, making it arguably the oldest school
of engineering in England. The Department
of Engineering was the largest engineering
school in the UK in 1893. The Division of
Engineering was closed in 2013.
==== Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing
and Midwifery ====
The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing
and Midwifery 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 is the first nursing school in the
world to be continuously connected to a fully
serving hospital and medical school.The Nightingale
Training School was amalgamated in 1996 with
the Olive Haydon School of Midwifery and the
Thomas Guy and Lewisham School of Nursing,
and all staff and students were integrated
at King’s by 1996.
==== Faculty of Social Science and Public
Policy ====
The Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy
was established in 2001, and is one of the
largest university centres focusing on policy-oriented
research in the UK. Following a restructuring
in 2016, it is split into four schools:
School of Politics & Economics (European & International
Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Political
Economy, Russia Institute)
School of Education, Communication & Society
School of Global Affairs (Geography, Global
Health & Medicine, International Development,
Brazil Institute, India Institute, Lau China
Institute)
School of Security Studies (Department of
Defence Studies, Department of War Studies)The
Department of War 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 (KCMHR).Set up in 2002, the King's
Centre for Risk Management (KCRM) holds international
research relating to risk management, governance
and communication, and supports various projects,
conferences and academic fellowships, facilitating
in translating risk research into relevant
and practical policy solutions.The faculty
also houses the African Leadership Centre,
Institute for Contemporary British History,
and London Asia Pacific Centre for Social
Science.
==== King's Business School ====
King's Business School was established in
2017 at Bush House. The School of Management
and Business within the Faculty of Social
Science and Public Policy was reformed to
create King's Business School. It offers programmes
in economics, management, finance, entrepreneurship,
human resource management and marketing.
=== Finances ===
In the financial year ended 31 July 2014,
King's had a total income of £603.67 million
(2012/13 – £586.95 million) and total expenditure
of £605.81 million (2012/13 – £577.38
million). Key sources of income included £201.08
million from tuition fees and education contracts
(2012/13 – £174.58 million), £171.55 million
from research grants and contracts (2012/13
– £164.03 million), £122.43 million from
Funding Council grants (2012/13 – £130.67
million) and £5.77 million from endowment
and investment income (2012/13 – £6.4 million).
During the 2012/13 financial year King's had
a capital expenditure of £105.9 million (2012/13
– £73 million).At 31 July 2014 King's had
total endowments of £162.6 million (31 July
2013 – £154.09 million) and total net assets
of £828.37 million (31 July 2013 – £810.05
million). King's has a credit rating of AA
from Standard & Poor's.In 2013/14, King's
had the seventh-highest total income of any
British university.In October 2010 King's
launched a major fundraising campaign—"World
questions|King's answers"—fronted by former
British Prime Minister John Major, with a
goal to raise £500 million by 2015. This
was surpassed even before 2015 and King's
subsequently increased the target to £600
million. It again met and beat this new target
by raising £610 million.
=== Coat of arms ===
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 sancte
et sapienter. 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 have been used throughout the
history of King's. The current coat of arms
was developed following the mergers with Queen
Elizabeth College and Chelsea College in 1985
and incorporates aspects of their heraldry.
The official coat of arms, in heraldic terminology,
is: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.
==== Coat of arms of the medical schools ====
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.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. 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. 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.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.
=== Affiliations and partnerships ===
King's College London is a constituent college
and was one of the two founding members of
the federal University of London. King's is
a member of Association of Commonwealth Universities
(ACU), European University Association (EUA)
and Universities UK. In 1998, King's joined
the Russell Group, an association of 24 public
research universities established in 1994.
King's is currently the only British member
of the Institutional Network of the Universities
from the Capitals of Europe (UNICA), a network
of major higher education institutions in
the European capital cities.King's is a founding
member of Global Medical Excellence Cluster
(GMEC), the largest life science bio-cluster
in the world established with the Universities
of Cambridge and Oxford, University College
London and Imperial College London. King's
is also the founding partner of FutureLearn,
a massive open online course learning platform
founded in December 2012. 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. In 2016, King's College London,
together with Arizona State University and
University of New South Wales, forms the PLuS
Alliance, an international university alliance
to address global challenges. King's is typically
also regarded as part of the "golden triangle",
a group of elite universities located in the
English cities of Cambridge, Oxford and London,
including the Universities of Cambridge and
Oxford, Imperial College London, London School
of Economics and University College London.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. King's
is a participant and one of the founding members
of the Francis Crick Institute. King's offers
joint degrees with many universities and other
institutions, including Columbia University,
University of Paris I, University of Hong
Kong, National University of Singapore, Royal
Academy of Music, British Library, Tate Modern,
Shakespeare’s Globe, National Gallery, National
Portrait Gallery and British Museum.The university
is also a member of the Screen Studies Group,
London.
== Academics ==
=== Admissions ===
King's had the 17th highest average entry
qualification for undergraduates of any UK
university in 2016, with new students averaging
172 UCAS points, equivalent to between AABB
and ABBB in A-level grades. In 2015, the university
gave offers of admission to 66.7% of its applicants,
the 7th lowest amongst the Russell Group.24.4%
of King's undergraduates are privately educated,
the fourteenth highest proportion amongst
mainstream British universities. In the 2016-17
academic year, the university had a domicile
breakdown of 67:12:20 of UK:EU:non-EU students
respectively with a female to male ratio of
62:37.A freedom-of-information request in
2015 revealed that the university received
31,857 undergraduate applications and made
13,302 offers in 2014–15. This resulted
in an offer rate of 41.8%, a yield rate on
offers of 45.3% and an overall acceptance
rate of 18.9%. The School of Medicine received
1,764 applications, only 39 offers were made
resulting in an offer rate of just 2.2%. Nursery
& Midwifery, Physiotherapy and Clinical Dentistry
had the lowest offer rates of 14%, 16% and
17% respectively.
=== Teaching ===
King's academic year runs from the last Monday
in September to the first Friday in June.
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);
while the Faculty of Arts & Humanities academic
year runs in two semesters.
=== Graduation ===
Graduation ceremonies are held in January
(winter) and June or July (summer), with ceremonies
for students from most faculties held in Europe's
largest arts complex, the Barbican Centre.
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 Dental Institute graduate from Southwark
Cathedral adjacent to Guy's Campus.After being
vested the power to award its own degrees
separately from the University of London in
2006, graduates began wearing King's College
London academic dress in 2008. King's graduates
have since worn gowns designed by Vivienne
Westwood.
=== Research ===
In 2013/14 King's had a total research income
of £171.55 million, of which £47.64 million
was from UK charitable bodies; £38.26 million
from Research Councils; £32.97 million from
UK central government, local authorities,
health and hospital authorities; £21.38 million
from EU government and other bodies; £17.09
million from overseas (excluding EU); £13.11
million from UK industry, commerce and public
corporations; and £1.11 million from other
sources.King's submitted a total of 1,369
staff across 27 units of assessment to the
2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessment
(compared with 1,172 submitted to the 2008
Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008)).
In the REF results 40% of King's submitted
research was classified as 4*, 45% as 3*,
13% as 2* and 2% as 1*, giving an overall
GPA of 3.23. In rankings produced by Times
Higher Education based upon the REF results
King's was ranked 6th overall for research
power and 7th for GPA (compared to 11th and
joint 22nd respectively in the equivalent
rankings for the RAE 2008). The Times Higher
Education described King's as "arguably the
biggest winner" in REF2014 after it rose 15
places on GPA, while submitting about 200
more people.
=== Medicine ===
King's claims to be the largest centre for
healthcare education in Europe. King's College
London School of Medicine has over 2,000 undergraduate
students, over 1,400 teachers, four main teaching
hospitals – Guy's Hospital, King's College
Hospital, St Thomas' Hospital and University
Hospital Lewisham – and 17 associated district
general hospitals. King's College London Dental
Institute is the largest dental school in
Europe. The Florence Nightingale School of
Nursing & Midwifery is the oldest professional
school of nursing in the world.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.
It also is home to six Medical Research Council
centres, and is part of two of the twelve
biomedical research centres established by
the NHS 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.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. In
1997, it became the first International Olympic
Committee accredited laboratory to meet the
ISO/IEC 17025 quality standard. The centre
was the anti-doping facility for the London
2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
=== Libraries ===
King's library facilities are spread across
its campuses. The collections encompass over
one million printed books, as well as thousands
of journals and electronic resources.
==== Maughan Library ====
The Maughan Library is King's largest library
and is housed in the Grade II* listed 19th
century gothic former Public Record Office
building situated on Chancery Lane at the
Strand Campus. The building was designed by
Sir James Pennethorne and is home to the books
and journals of the Schools of Arts & Humanities,
Law, Natural & Mathematical Sciences, and
Social Science & Public Policy. It also houses
the Special Collections and rare books. Inside
the Library is the octagonal Round Reading
Room, inspired by the reading room of the
British Museum, and the former Rolls Chapel
(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 Dr Yonge, Master
of the Rolls, who died in 1516.
==== Other libraries ====
Foyle Special Collections Library: Situated
at Chancery Lane, the library houses a collection
of 180,000 printed works as well as thousands
of maps, slides, sound recordings and some
manuscript material. The collections are built
up by purchase, gift and bequest over centuries,
which cover all subject areas and contain
many special items, including incunabula.
The collections are particularly strong in
European military and diplomatic history,
Jewish and Christian theology, the history
of the British Empire, Greece and the Eastern
Mediterranean, Germany, voyages and travels,
medicine and science.
Tony Arnold Library: Situated at Chancery
Lane, it houses a collection of over 3000
law books and 140 law journals. It was named
after Tony Arnold, the longest serving Secretary
of the Institute of Taxation. The library
was opened on 18 December 1997, and in September
2001, the library became part of the law collection
of King's College London.
Archives Reading Room: Situated at Chancery
Lane, it holds a collection of institutional
and research papers from King's and organisations
merged with or founded by King's (such as
King’s College Hospital, Guy’s and St
Thomas’ medical and dental schools, the
Institute of Psychiatry). The reading room
also houses research papers of former staff
and students, including Sir Charles Wheatstone,
Maurice Wilkins and Eric Mottram.
Franklin-Wilkins Library: Situated at the
Waterloo Campus, the library is home to extensive
management and education holdings, as well
as wide-ranging biomedical, health and life
sciences coverage includes nursing, midwifery,
public health, pharmacy, biological and environmental
sciences, biochemistry and forensic science.
Wills Library and Keats Room: Situated in
the Hodgkin Building at Guy's Campus, it was
originally the main library for the Guy’s
Hospital Medical School. The Wills Library
was a gift in 1903 by the former governor
of Guy's Hospital, the late Sir Frederick
Wills and it was opened as the Medical School
Library. 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, although the library still contains
a collection of books that can be retrieved
by request. The Wills Library also incorporates
the Keats Room named after King's alumni John
Keats, who was a medical student at Guy's
Hospital.
New Hunt's House Library: Situated at Guy's
Campus, the library covers all aspects of
biomedical science, including anatomy, biochemistry,
cell biology, genetics, neuroscience, pharmacology
and physiology. There are also extensive resources
for medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy and
health services.
St Thomas' House Library: Situated at St Thomas'
Campus, its holdings cover all aspects of
basic medical sciences, clinical medicine
and health services research, and particularly
focus on dermatology and paediatrics.
Institute of Psychiatry Library: The library
is largest psychiatric library in Western
Europe, holding 3,000 print journal titles,
550 of which are current subscriptions, as
well as access to over 3,500 electronic journals,
42,000 books, and training materials. The
collections focus on psychiatry, psychology,
neuroscience, neurology, genetics and psychotherapy.
Weston Education Centre Library: Situated
at the Denmark Hill Campus, the library has
particular strengths in the areas of gastroenterology,
liver disease, diabetes, obstetrics, gynaecology,
paediatrics and the history of medicine. The
collection supports the teaching and research
of the GKT School of Medicine and the Dental
Institute, and also the clinical work of the
King's College Hospital and the South London
and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.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. Undergraduate and postgraduate
students also have reference access to libraries
of other University of London institutions
under the University of London Libraries Access
Agreement.
=== Museums, galleries and collections ===
King's currently operates two museums: Gordon
Museum of Pathology and Museum of Life Sciences.
Opened in 1905 at Guy's Campus, the Gordon
Museum is the largest medical museum in the
United Kingdom, and houses a collection of
approximately 8000 pathological specimens,
artefacts, models and paintings, including
Astley Cooper's specimens and Sir Joseph Lister's
antiseptic spray. The Museum of Life Sciences
was founded in 2009 adjacent to the Gordon
Museum, and it houses historic biological
and pharmaceutical collections from the constituent
colleges of the modern King's College London.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
within King's, much of the museum's collections
were transferred on loan to the Science Museum
in London or kept in King's College London
Archives.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, where
anatomical dissections and demonstrations
took place. The Anatomy Museum's collection
includes casts of injuries, leather models,
skins of various animals from Western Australia
donated to the museum in 1846, and casts of
heads of John Bishop and Thomas Williams,
the murderers in the Italian Boy's murder
in 1831. The last dissection in the Anatomy
Theatre was performed in 1997. The Anatomy
Theatre and Museum was renovated and refurbished
in 2009, and is now a facility for teaching,
research and performance at King's.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.
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. Transferred to
King’s in 2007, the FCO Historical Collection
contains over 80,000 items including books,
pamphlets, manuscript, and photographic material.
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.King’s
College London Archives holds the institution's
records, which are among the richest higher
education records in London. King's archives
collections 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. Founded in 1964, the Liddell
Hart Centre for Military Archives holds the
private papers of over 800 senior British
defence personnel who held office since 1900.Science
Gallery London is set to open in 2018 on the
Guy's Campus. It is a public science centre
where 'art and science collide', and is a
part of Global Science Gallery Network. A
flagship project for 'Culture at King’s
College London', Science Gallery will include
2,000 m2 (21,528 sq ft) of public space and
a newly landscaped Georgian courtyard. There
will be exhibition galleries, theatres, meeting
spaces and a café; while unlike other science
centre, it will have no permanent collection.
Daniel Glaser, the former Head of Engaging
Science at Wellcome Trust, is Director of
Science Gallery London.
=== Rankings and reputation ===
Internationally, King's is consistently ranked
among the top universities in the world by
all major global university rankings compilers,
having been placed between 19th by the 2015
QS World University Rankings, 27th by the
world university rankings of the Times Higher
Education and 50th worldwide by the Academic
Ranking of World Universities.
As of 2017, King's is ranked in the top seven
UK universities in all the six major academic
rankings of global universities: QS, Times
Higher Education, ARWU, University Ranking
by Academic Performance, U.S. News & World
Report (Best Global Universities Rankings)
and Center for World University Rankings.King's
was ranked joint 14th overall in The Sunday
Times 10-year (1998–2007) average ranking
of British universities based on consistent
league table performance. In recent years,
however, the university has performed less
well in domestic league tables, being placed
outside of the top 20 in all three major tables
for 2016. The methodologies of these tables
include student satisfaction scores with teaching
and feedback as a significant input. In common
with most other London institutions, King's
performs less well on the National Student
Survey (NSS), ranking 133rd for student satisfaction
(out of 160 institutes) in the 2015 survey.According
to the 2015 Times and Sunday Times University
Guide, their inclusion of student satisfaction
scores, along with international guides including
reputation scores from academics and employers,
explains the disparity between King's ranking
on their (domestic) table and global tables.
They add that when the university is ranked
according to student satisfaction scores from
undergraduates on factors such as academic
support, teaching, assessment and feedback,
"King’s ranks 106 out of 123 institutions",
although "despite the iffy student satisfaction
scores, students continue to apply here in
their droves" with an average of 8.1 applicants
per place available for 2014 entry. However,
although the Complete University Guide has
used the results of the NSS since at least
2011, King's retained a position in their
top 20 until the 2015 tables (published 2014),
managing 19th on the 2014 tables despite ranking
joint 102nd (out of 124) for student satisfaction.According
to the 2017 Complete University Guide, 8 out
of the 30 subjects offered by King's rank
within the top 10 nationally, including Education
(4th), Food Science (4th), Dentistry (5th),
Law (5th), Music (5th), Business & Management
Studies (6th), History (9th), and Classics
& Ancient History (10th). The Guardian University
Guide 2017 ranks King's in the top ten in
8 subjects, including Law (4th), Economics
(6th), Media & film studies (6th), Anatomy
& physiology (8th), Dentistry (8th), Politics
(9th), Classics & ancient history (10th),
and History (10th). King's College London
has had 24 of its subject-areas awarded the
highest rating of 5 or 5* for research quality,
and in 2007 it received a good result in its
audit by the Quality Assurance Agency. It
is in the top tier for research earnings.
The Times Higher Education listed King's College
London as eighth in the list of the top 10
universities in clinical, pre-clinical and
health subjects in its 2016 world rankings.In
September 2010, the Sunday Times selected
King's as the "University of the Year 2010–11".
King's was ranked as the 5th best university
in the UK for the quality of graduates according
to recruiters from the UK's major companies.In
a survey by The New York Times assessing the
most valued graduates by business leaders,
King's College London graduates ranked 22nd
in the world and 5th in the UK. In the 2015
Global Employability University Survey of
international recruiters, King's is ranked
43rd in the world and 7th in the UK. King's
was chosen as the 5th best UK university by
major British employers in 2015.In 2014, King's
ranked 5th amongst multidisciplinary UK universities
for highest graduate starting salaries (i.e.
graduates' average annual salary six months
after graduation). In a big data research
by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, University
of Cambridge and Harvard University, it was
revealed the top 10% of King's male graduates
working in England were the 7th highest earning
students 10 years after graduation in comparison
to graduates of all Higher Education providers
(both multi and uni-disciplinary universities)
in the UK and the top 10% of its female graduates
were the 9th highest earning students 10 years
after graduation in the same study. The Guardian
University Guide 2017 named King's as the
6th best university in the country for graduate
career prospects, with 84.3% of students finding
graduate-level jobs within six months of graduation.
=== Associateship of King's College ===
The Associateship of King's College (AKC)
is the original award of King's College, dating
back to its foundation in 1829 and 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".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".
=== Fellowship of King's College ===
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.The proposal to
establish a fellowship of King's was first
considered in 1847. 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. 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. The
first women fellows were elected in 1904.
Lilian Faithfull, vice-principal of the King’s
Ladies’ Department from 1894 to 1906, was
one of the first women fellows.
== Student life ==
=== 
Students' union ===
Founded in 1873, King's College, London Union
Society which later, in 1908, reorganised
into King's College London Students' Union,
better known by its acronym KCLSU, is the
oldest Students' Union in London (University
College London Union being founded in 1893)
and has a claim to being the oldest Students'
Union in England. Athletic Club was one of
the nineteenth-century student societies at
King's formed in 1884. The Students' Union
provides a wide range of activities and services,
including over 50 sports clubs (which includes
the Boat Club which rows on the River Thames
and the Rifle Club which uses King's College
London's shooting range located at the disused
Aldwych tube station beneath the Strand Campus),
over 200 activity groups, a wide range of
volunteering opportunities, two bars/eateries
(The Waterfront and Guy's Bar), a shop (King's
Shop) and a gym (Kinetic Fitness Club). Between
1992 and 2013 the Students' Union operated
a nightclub, Tutu's, named after alumnus Desmond
Tutu.The former President of KCLSU, Sir Ivison
Macadam, after whom the Students' Union building
on the Strand Campus (Macadam Building) has
since been named, went on to be elected as
the first President of the National Union
of Students."Reggie the Lion" (informally
"Reggie") 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 Macadam Building in the Students' Union
student centre 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. 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.KCLSU owns
and operates several student run social spaces,
including the cafe/coffee shop The Shed, and
the bars Guy's Bar (both on Guy's Campus),
The Waterfront and Philosophy Bar (both on
Strand campus).
=== Student media ===
KCLSU Student Media won Student Media of the
Year 2014 at the Ents Forum awards and came
in the top three student media outlets in
the country at the NUS Awards 2014.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. 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.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. 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.Other King's student
media groups include the student television
station KingsTV, and the photographic society
KCLSU PhotoSoc.
=== Sports ===
There are over 50 sports clubs, many of which
compete in the University of London and British
Universities & Colleges (BUCS) leagues across
the South East. The annual Macadam Cup is
a varsity match played between the sports
teams of King's College London proper (KCL)
and King's College London Medical School (KCLMS).
King's students and staff have played an important
part in the formation of the London Universities
and Colleges Athletics.
Created in January 2013, King’s Sport, a
partnership between King's College London
and KCLSU, manages all the sports activities
and facilities of King's. King’s Sport runs
the King’s Sport Health and Fitness Centre
situated at the Waterloo Campus, which has
been refurbished in 2014 and features an indoor
cycling studio, fixed resistance and free
weights and cardiovascular areas. King’s
Sport also operates 3 sports grounds in New
Malden, Honor Oak Park and Dulwich. There
are also on-campus sports facilities at Guy’s,
St Thomas's and Denmark Hill campuses. 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.
=== Societies and organisations ===
In addition to their sporting societies, King's
College London also boast 300 other societies
and groups in a wide variety of activities.
The Societies can be categorised by twelve
main groups; Academic, Business & Entrepreneurship,
Campaign, Common Interest, Culture, Faith
& Spirituality, Fundraising, Media, Medical,
Music Performance & Creative, Political and
Volunteering.
=== Student-led think tank ===
In February 2011, King's College London students
founded London's first student-led think tank,
the King’s Think Tank (formerly known as
KCL Think Tank). With a membership of more
than 2000, it is the largest organisation
of its kind in Europe. 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 September, it produces
a peer-reviewed journal of policy recommendations
called The Spectrum.
=== Music ===
There are many music societies at King's including
a cappella groups, orchestras, choir, musical
theatre and jazz society. King's has three
orchestras: King's College London Symphony
Orchestra (KCLSO), King's College London Chamber
Orchestra and KCL Concert Orchestra.Founded
in 1945, the Choir of King's College London,
one of the most acclaimed university choirs
in England, consists of around 30 choral scholars.
The choir regularly broadcasts on BBC Radio
3 and Radio 4 and has made recordings mainly
focus on 16th-century English and Spanish
repertoire.All the King's Men (AtKM) is an
all-male a cappella ensemble from King's College
London. Founded in 2009, it has since risen
to prominence in the university, becoming
the first group outside of Oxford and Cambridge
to win The Voice Festival UK.
=== Rivalry with University College London
===
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." In the early twentieth
century, King's College London and UCL rivalry
was centred on their respective mascots. 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.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.
=== Rivalry with the London School of Economics
===
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. The Times
reported that LSE director Howard Davies attended
the fun run event, while LSE claimed that
Davies only attended for a short time. King's
principal, Sir Rick Trainor, deplored the
behaviour, appealed to King's students to
remain calm and called for no retaliation.
The LSE Students' Union later on 6 December
issued a formal apology, condemned the actions,
as well as promising to foot the bill for
the damage repair.
=== Student residences ===
==== Halls of residence ====
King's has a total of thirteen halls of residence
located throughout London. Accommodation is
guaranteed for first year undergraduates and
international postgraduates. Great Dover Street
Apartments, Wolfson House and Iris Brook and
Orchard Lisle are located on Guy's Campus
in London Bridge. Brian Creamer House, which
was named after Dean of St Thomas's Hospital
Medical School Brian Creamer, and the Rectory
are situated in the grounds of Lambeth Palace
near St Thomas' Campus. Stamford Street Apartments
is located opposite Waterloo Campus and within
walking distance of Strand Campus, and Champion
Hill Residence is close to Denmark Hill Campus
in south London. Urbanest Tower Bridge is
located within a walking distance from the
Tower of London and Tower Bridge. There are
two new accommodations for 2018 such as Atlas
and Vauxhall. Angel Lane in Stratford, Ewen
Henderson Court, Julian Markham House in Elephant
and Castle, Moonraker Point in Southwark and
Stratford One are nominated residences run
by the Unite Group. Hampstead Residence was
a residence near the former King's Hampstead
Campus, but was sold by King's College London
and is no longer a King's venue.
==== Intercollegiate halls of residence ====
In addition to halls of residence run by King's,
full-time students are eligible to stay at
one of the Intercollegiate Halls of Residence
offered by the University of London. King's
has the largest number of bedspaces in the
University of London Intercollegiate Halls.
There are a total of eight intercollegiate
halls of the University of London. Canterbury
Hall, College Hall, Commonwealth Hall, Connaught
Hall, Hughes Parry Hall and International
Hall are located near Russell Square in Bloomsbury.
Lillian Penson Hall is situated in Paddington,
and Nutford House is situated in Marble Arch.
Additionally, students can apply to live in
International Students House.
== Notable people ==
=== 
Notable alumni ===
Notable alumni in the sciences include Nobel
laureates Peter Higgs (Physics), Michael Levitt
(Chemistry), Max Theiler (Medicine) and Sir
Frederick Hopkins (Medicine); polymath Sir
Francis Galton; Raymond Gosling who took Photograph
51 which was critical evidence in identifying
the structure of DNA; co-discoverers of Hepatitis
C and of the Hepatitis D genome Michael Houghton
and Qui-Lim Choo; pioneer of in-vitro fertilisation
(IVF) Patrick Steptoe; mammal cloning pioneer
Keith Campbell; pathologist Thomas Hodgkin;
founder of modern hospice philosophy Dame
Cicely Saunders; botanist David Bellamy; Shaw
Prize laureate Sir Richard Doll; Kyoto Prize
laureate Anthony Pawson; Wolf Prize laureates
Michael Fisher (Physics) and Sir James Gowans
(Medicine); Lasker Award winner John Hughes;
Gairdner Foundation International Award winner
R. John Ellis; Beriberi researcher Takaki
Kanehiro; inventor of Kerosene Abraham Pineo
Gesner; inventor of the Seismometer John Milne,
and at least 111 Fellows of the Royal Society.
Notable King's alumni in poetry and literature
include the poet John Keats (Guy's Hospital),
the dramatist Sir W. S. Gilbert, and the writers
Thomas Hardy, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Virginia
Woolf, Alain de Botton, Sir Michael Morpurgo,
W. Somerset Maugham, Charles Kingsley, C.
S. Forester, John Ruskin, Radclyffe Hall,
Susan Hill, Hanif Kureishi, Maureen Duffy,
Khushwant Singh, Sir Leslie Stephen and the
Booker Prize winner Anita Brookner.
King's alumni in religion include the Nobel
Peace Prize laureate and Archbishop Emeritus
of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, former Archbishop
of Canterbury, Lord Carey, former Chief Rabbi
of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth,
Lord Sacks, Primate of All Ireland, Richard
Clarke, Archbishops of Cape Town, Njongonkulu
Ndungane and Joost de Blank, Archbishop of
the West Indies John Holder, Archbishop of
New Zealand Churchill Julius, and the Ethiopian
cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel.
King's has educated numerous foreign Heads
of State and Government including two former
Presidents of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos
and Glafcos Clerides, Prime Minister of Jordan
Marouf al-Bakhit, President of the Seychelles
France-Albert René, Prime Minister of the
Bahamas Sir Lynden Pindling, President of
Uganda Godfrey Binaisa, Prime Minister of
Iraq Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz, Prime Minister
of Grenada Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister
of Saint Kitts and Nevis Sir Lee Moore, Governor
General of Ghana William Hare, 5th Earl of
Listowel, Governor General of Saint Vincent
and the Grenadines Sir Sydney Gun-Munro, Governor
of The British Virgin Islands Augustus Jaspert,
Governors of the Turks and Caicos Islands
Martin Bourke and John Freeman, Governor of
the Falkland Islands Nigel Phillips, and Acting
Prime Minister of Moldova Natalia Gherman.
At ministerial level King's alumni include
Deputy Prime Ministers of Canada (Anne McLellan),
Singapore (S. Rajaratnam) and Egypt (Ziad
Bahaa-Eldin); Vice Presidents of Kenya (Michael
Kijana Wamalwa) and Sierra Leone (Francis
Minah and Abdulai Conteh); Foreign Ministers
of Bulgaria (Nickolay Mladenov, now UN Special
Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process),
Japan (Hayashi Tadasu), Malaysia (Rais Yatim),
Pakistan (Sir Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, later
President of the UN General Assembly and the
International Court of Justice), Ghana (Obed
Asamoah), Kenya (James Nyamweya), Sierra Leone
(J. B. Dauda) and Guyana (Sir Shridath Ramphal,
later Secretary-General of the Commonwealth,
and Frederick Wills); and Irish Finance Minister
Michael Collins.
Notable King's alumni to have held senior
positions in British politics include two
Speakers of the House of Commons (Lord Maybray-King
and Lord Ullswater) and the former Cabinet
ministers Lord Watkinson, Lord Passfield and
Lord Wilmot. As of the current Parliament
there are 19 King's graduates in the House
of Commons, namely Alex Burghart, Nic Dakin,
Mark Francois, John Glen, Dan Jarvis, Phillip
Lee, Brandon Lewis, Sarah Newton, Matthew
Offord, Dan Poulter, Lucy Powell, Bob Seely,
Tulip Siddiq, Keith Simpson, Sir Gary Streeter,
Gareth Thomas, Michael Tomlinson, David Warburton,
and Sarah Wollaston. As of the current Parliament
there are 17 King's graduates in the House
of Lords including Lord Carlile, Lord Clinton-Davis,
Lord Dunlop, Lord Kakkar, Lord MacGregor,
Baroness Morgan, Baroness O'Loan, Lord Owen,
Lord Plant, Lord Rowlands, Baroness Watkins,
and the Lords Spiritual Tim Dakin, Nick Holtam,
and Tim Thornton.King's alumni in the arts
include the impressionist Rory Bremner; Queen
bassist John Deacon; Chief Executive of the
Royal Opera House Alex Beard; Oscar winners
Greer Garson, Edmund Gwenn and Anne Dudley;
Grammy Award winners Boris Karloff, Sir John
Eliot Gardiner and Peter Asher; Emmy Award
winning director Sacha Gervasi, and the Golden
Globe-winning composer Michael Nyman.In law,
King's alumni include the current High Court
judges Sir David Foskett, Dame Geraldine Andrews
and Dame Bobbie Cheema-Grubb; Judge of the
International Court of Justice, Patrick Lipton
Robinson; former Chief Justice of Western
Australia, Wayne Martin and the current Attorneys
General of Jamaica (Marlene Malahoo Forte),
Trinidad and Tobago (Faris Al-Rawi) and Bermuda
(Trevor Moniz).King's alumni in the military
include the current Chairman of the NATO Military
Committee Petr Pavel, Deputy Supreme Allied
Commander Europe Sir Adrian Bradshaw, the
former head of the British Army Lord Harding,
head of the Singapore Armed Forces Neo Kian
Hong, head of the Nigerian Armed Forces Ola
Ibrahim, head of the Maltese Armed Forces
Martin Xuereb, head of the Malaysian Army
Md Hashim bin Hussein, head of the Pakistan
Air Force Sohail Aman, head of the Sri Lankan
Air Force Harsha Abeywickrama and two heads
of the Indian Air Force, Pratap Chandra Lal
and Sir Richard Peirse; three Commandant Generals
of the Royal Marines, Ed Davis, Andy Salmon,
and Sir Robert Fry, 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; oil magnate
and philanthropist Calouste Gulbenkian; journalists
Martin Bashir, Sophie Long, Jane Corbin, Tom
Rogan, Sean Fletcher, Anita Anand and David
Bond; and the Olympic gold medalists Dame
Katherine Grainger, Paul Bennett, and Kieran
West.
=== Nobel laureates ===
There are 12 Nobel laureates who were either
students or academics at King's College London.
=== Notable academics and staff ===
King's has benefited from the services of
academics and staff at the top of their fields,
including Sir Charles Lyell (lawyer and geologist),
Sir Charles Wheatstone (best known for the
Wheatstone bridge), Robert Bentley Todd (best
known for describing Todd's paresis), James
Clerk Maxwell (mathematical physicist), Florence
Nightingale (the founder of modern nursing),
Joseph Lister (pioneer of antiseptic surgery),
Charles Barkla (best known for the study of
X-rays), Sir Charles Sherrington (known for
his work on the functions of neurons), Sir
Edward Appleton (physicist), Sir Owen Richardson
(physicist), Maurice Wilkins (best known for
contributions to the discovery of the structure
of DNA), Rosalind Franklin (best known for
contributions to the discovery of the structure
of DNA), Mario Vargas Llosa (writer), Sir
Roger Penrose (mathematical physicist) and
John Ellis (theoretical physicist).
== In popular culture ==
=== 
Film and television settings ===
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,
Flyboys, and The Duchess.The Maughan Library
has also been the location of some film shoots
of popular movies, most notably Johnny English
(see Maughan Library description), The Imitation
Game and V for Vendetta.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.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.
== Notes
