King's College London

King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London. It is one of the oldest university-level institutions in England.

King's grew in the late 20th century through a series of mergers and reincorporations, including the reincorporation of its medical and dental school in 1983, mergers with Queen Elizabeth College and Chelsea College of Science and Technology in 1985 and the Institute of Psychiatry in 1997, and the merger of the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals in 1998. Plans for a merger with Cranfield University were announced in May 2026.

King's operates across five main 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, which is where King's information service center is based. The academic activities are organized into nine faculties, which are subdivided into numerous departments, centers, and research divisions. In 2024/25, King's reported total income of £1.377 billion, of which £260.5 million was from research grants and contracts. It has the fourth largest endowment of any university in the UK, and the largest of any in London. King's is the sixth-largest university in the UK by total enrolment and receives over 68,000 undergraduate applications per year.

King's is a member of a range of academic organizations 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. By total enrolment, it is the largest European centre for graduate and post-graduate medical teaching and biomedical research, including the world's first nursing school, the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery. King's is generally regarded as part of the "golden triangle" of universities located in and about Oxford, Cambridge and London. King's has typically enjoyed royal patronage by virtue of its foundation; King Charles III reaffirmed patronage in May 2024.

History

Foundation

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) 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 gained disapproval, indeed, "the storms of opposition which raged around it threatened to crush every spark of vital energy which remained".

The creation of King's College as a rival institution represented a Tory response to reaffirm the educational values of the established order. 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 enjoys the patronage of the monarch, had 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."

Campus

King's is based on five campuses in central London. The main campus area is located on the Strand in the City of Westminster, which includes the Bush House, and the Waterloo Campus is located nearby on the southern side of the River Thames. The Guy's Campus which houses the science-related courses is located near London Bridge, St. Thomas' Campus is located in Lambeth, and the Denmark Hill Campus is in Southwark.

Strand Campus

The Strand Campus is the original campus of King's. The campus is based around the Grade I listed original King's Building constructed 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. 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 and the Maughan Library on Chancery Lane. The nearby Virginia Woolf Building was also part of the Strand Campus area until the lease expired in autumn 2025.

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.

King's College London Students' Union runs the Shack café and the Vault bar in Bush House on the Strand Campus, and has two contact hubs on the campus, also in Bush House.

Guy's Campus

Guy's Campus is close to London Bridge, right next to The Shard, and it is adjacent to Guy's Hospital. It is home to the faculty of life sciences and medicine (also at the Waterloo, St Thomas' and Denmark Hill Campuses), the dental institute, and the institute of psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience (also at the Denmark Hill Campus).

Buildings include: the Henriette Raphael building, the Hodgkin building and Shepherd's House. 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), as well as the Chapel of Thomas Guy. The Students' Union runs Guy's Bar, Guy's Café and a contact hub on the Guy's Campus. The Great Dover Street Apartments and Wolfson House halls of residence are close to the campus.

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. 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. Permanent interpretation was installed in November 2023.

Organisation and administration

Governance

The office of "President and Principal of the University" is established by King's College London royal charter as "the Vice-Chancellor and chief academic and executive officer of the University" 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". The current president and principal, Shitij Kapur, uses the title "Vice-Chancellor and President". The other senior officers of the college include three senior vice presidents, covering the sectors 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.

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 as the student member; seven staff members (including the President and Principal); and 12 lay members who must not be employees of King's. It is supported by a number of standing committees. Christopher Geidt has been the chair of council since 2016.

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". Under the college ordinances, they are the body responsible for the award of degrees and other academic distinctions of the university. 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.

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, and the Choir of King's College London, which includes a number of choral scholarships, and to encourage and foster vocations to the Church of England priesthood. The current dean is Ellen Clark-King. 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.

Academic profile

Admissions

In the 2024/25 academic year, the student body consisted of 40,870 students, composed of 23,200 undergraduates and 17,670 postgraduate students. The university is consistently designated as a 'high-tariff' institution by the Department for Education, with the average undergraduate entrant to the university in recent years amassing between 148 and 151 UCAS Tariff points in their top three pre-university qualifications – the equivalent of AAA to A*AA at A-Level. Based on 2022/23 HESA entry standards data published in domestic league tables, which include a broad range of qualifications beyond the top three exam grades, the average student at King's College London achieved 168 points – the 18th highest in the country. In 2022, the university gave offers of admission to 39.3% of its applicants, the 8th lowest across the country.

Teaching

King's academic year runs from the last Monday in September to the first Friday in June. Different faculties and departments follow different term structures. For example, the academic year of the Mathematics School and the Department of War Studies is divided into three terms (Autumn, Spring and Summer); whilst the Faculty of Arts & Humanities academic year runs over two semesters.

Graduation

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.

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.

After being granted 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 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.

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.

Student life

Students' union

King's College, London Union Society was founded in 1873. 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.

As King's College London Students' Union (KCLSU), it now provides a wide range of activities and services, including more than 50 intramural sports clubs, more than 300 activity groups, 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).

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. 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.

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