Kingston University Information

Kingston University London (abbreviated KUL) is a public research university located within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, in South West London, United Kingdom. The university specialises in the arts, design, fashion, science, engineering, and business. It received university status in 1992, before which the institution was known as Kingston Polytechnic. Its roots, however, go back to the Kingston Technical Institute, founded in 1899. The university has four campuses situated in Kingston and Roehampton.

Kingston University London, is a member of the Association of MBAs, the European University Association and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

Kingston was founded as Kingston Technical Institute in 1899, it offered courses in chemistry, electrical wiring, construction and nursing. In 1917 Gipsy Hill College for teacher training opened, a predecessor of Kingston University. In 1930 the Kingston School of Art separated from the Technical Institute, later to become Kingston College of Art in 1945. In 1946 Gipsy Hill College moved to Kingston Hill. In 1951, the first Penryhn Road campus buildings opened. Kingston was recognised as a Regional College of Technology by the Ministry of Education in 1957. In 1970, the College of Technology merged with the College of Art to become Kingston Polytechnic, offering 34 major courses, of which 17 were at degree level. In 1975, Kingston merged with the Gipsy Hill College of Education, incorporating the Colleges faculty into Kingstons Division of Educational Studies.

Kingston was granted university status under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. In 1993, Kingston opened the Roehampton Vale campus building and in 1995, Kingston acquired Dorich House.

In 2008, the BBC obtained e-mails circulated within Kingstons School of Music, relating to the opinions of an external examiner moderating the BMus course. The messages showed that her final report caused considerable concern within the department. The examiner was persuaded to moderate her criticism following contact from a member of the Universitys staff. The e-mails also detailed a plan to replace her (at the end of her term) with a more experienced and broad-based external examiner, a process which Kingston stressed breaks no rules relating to the appointment of such examiners. In October 2008, Peter Williams, Chief Executive of the UK Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), presented the agencys findings to a Parliamentary Select Committee charged with investigating standards in British higher education. Following an investigation of the allegations by a former University staff member that undue pressure was applied to the School of Musics External Examiner, QAA upheld all charges of wrongdoing, as alleged.

In 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron named and shamed four British universities which gave platforms to allegedly extremist speakers.

Kingstons Vice Chancellor Julius Weinberg defended his decision to allow controversial speakers in the name of free speech.

In 2008, an audio recording obtained by student media included two psychology lecturers asking students to inflate their graded opinions given as part of the National Student Survey. One member of staff was recorded as encouraging students to boost specific satisfaction scores, because "if Kingston comes down the bottom [of the league tables], then the bottom line is that nobody is going to want to employ you because they are going to think your degree is shit". In response, Vice-Chancellor Peter Scott confirmed that the recording was genuine but added that he believed that the incident was an isolated one. In July 2008, the Higher Education Funding Council of England removed the Universitys Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences from the League Tables for the year as its sanction for having fraudulently manipulated the National Student Survey results.

This is the main university campus located close to Kingston town centre. Students based here study: Arts and Social Sciences, Civil Engineering, Computing and Information Systems and Mathematics, Earth Sciences and Geography, Statistics, Biosciences, Pharmacy, Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Science, and Radiography. Development at this site has extended it to the Learning Resources Centre. In 2015, the Union of Kingston Students, moved into the main building. Penrhyn Road also houses the refurbished Fitness Centre.

Kingston Hill mainly caters to Nursing (adult, child, mental health and learning disability), Education, Business, Music and Social Care. Before 1989, this campus was known as Gipsy Hill.

The Business School moved to a new building on the Kingston Hill Campus in 2012.

Located on Grange road, Knights Park campus is home to some of the students frome Kingston School of Art (KSA) - architecture an art and design students. The campus is built on the northern banks of the Hogsmill River and opened in 1939.

A 2019 £12 million refurbishment of workshops, studios and the reception area includes a gallery, a social space and an art shop.

The Roehampton Vale campus was opened in 1993 by Sir William Barlow, the president of the Royal Academy of Engineering. The site is located on Friars Avenue, on the outskirts of Kingston. This campus is purpose-built and completely dedicated to the study of engineering (aerospace, automotive, motor vehicle and mechanical engineering).

Facilities on site include a wind tunnel, engineering workshops, a flight simulator,a range of vehicles, a Learjet 25 plan, plus automotive and aeronautical learning resources.

Former church converted into the Kingston Drama students’ base, the Reg Bailey has two theatres with professional lighting and sound equipment, three rehearsal rooms and a costume room while its annexed Surrey Club is dedicated to Dance students through imposing performance studio with a state-of-the-art LED lighting system and professional sound technology, two rehearsal studios and a body conditioning room, all with fully sprung Harlequin floors. The Reg Bailey has been home to such alumni members as Ben Barnes, Sam Chan, Mandy Takhar, Alphonsia Emmanuel, Jessie Cave, Laura Harling and Trevor Eve.

The University’s 55-acre sports ground houses twelves football pitches, two rugby pitches, three cricket squares, one American football pitch, one lacrosse pitch, two netball courts and three tennis courts.

In addition to the four main campuses are two administration buildings: Cooper House near Penrhyn Road Campus and Hind Court on London Road which is home to the office of the Vice-Chancellor.

In addition art and design studies students from Kingston School of Art are based at River House, on the High Street in Kingston town centre.

Complete article available at this page.