King's College London

The Ranking of King's College London, UK

www.kcl.ac.uk

King's College London is a British higher education institution and co-founding constituent college of the University of London. Founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, its royal charter is predated, in England, only by those of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. King's has a strong academic reputation, and in 2008 was ranked 5th in the UK, 5th in Europe and 22nd in the world by The Times Higher Education Supplement. Its degree courses in History, Politics, Philosophy, Classics, Music, Dentistry and Law are especially strong, often ranking in the top 5 of national academic league tables. King's is a founding member of the Russell Group, constitutes the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe, and houses six Medical Research Council Centres, more than anywhere else in the world, and over one quarter of the UK's total. Today, King's is arranged into nine Schools of Study, spread across four Thames-side campuses in Central London and one in Denmark Hill, South London.

History

King's College London was founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington (then Prime Minister) in 1829 as a university college in the tradition of the Church of England. It now welcomes staff and students of all faiths and beliefs.
King's professors played a major part in nineteenth-century science, and in extending higher education to women, working men and through evening classes.

The College has grown and developed through mergers with several institutions who have their own distinguished histories. These include the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals; Chelsea College, Queen Elizabeth College, and the Institute of Psychiatry.

Financial Endowment

According to The Sutton Trust, in 2002 King's had the fifth largest financial endowment among UK universities, the fourth largest endowment per student, and the third largest endowment in England, surpassed only by Oxford and Cambridge. King's has an annual turnover of in excess of £400 million, and has credit ratings of AA-/Stable/A-1 (Standard & Poor's). It is also in the top group of universities for research earnings with an income of £101 million (2004-05) from grants and contracts.

Campus

The Strand Campus is the founding campus of King's. Located next to Somerset House and sharing its frontage along the River Thames, most of the Schools of Humanities, Law, Social Science & Public Policy and Physical Sciences & Engineering are housed here. The Campus combines the Grade I listed King's Building of 1831 designed by Sir Robert Smirke, and the Byzantine Gothic College Chapel, redesigned in 1864 by Sir George Gilbert Scott with the more modern Strand Building, completed in 1972.

Guy's Hospital, established in 1726, houses parts of the Dental Institute, School of Medicine and School of Biomedical & Health Sciences. The founder and benefactor of the hospital, Thomas Guy, was a wealthy bookseller and a governor of St Thomas' Hospital. He lies buried in the vault beneath the 18th-century chapel at Guy's. Silk-merchant William Hunt was a later benefactor who gave money in the early nineteenth century to build Hunt's House. Today this is the site of New Hunt's House.

Waterloo Campus Across Waterloo Bridge from the Strand Campus, the Waterloo Campus near the South Bank Centre consists of the James Clerk Maxwell Building and the Franklin-Wilkins Building, which was originally constructed as His Majesty's Stationery Office. King's acquired the building in the 1980s.

The St Thomas' Campus, 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. (Nearest underground station: Westminster)

Denmark Hill campus Further south in central London, King's College Hospital, the Maudsley Hospital and the Institute of Psychiatry form the Denmark Hill Campus in Camberwell, the only campus not situated on the River Thames. As well as the IoP, parts of the Dental Institute and School of Medicine, and a large hall of residence, King's College Hall, are housed here. The KCL library for this campus is on-site, known as the Weston Education Centre (WEC).

Library

King's library facilities are spread across its five campuses; the College's estate also includes the library at Bethlem Royal Hospital. The collections encompass over one million printed books, as well as thousands of journals and electronic resources. Apart from that, there are many libraries such as he Foyle Special Collections Library, The Tony Arnold Library , The Franklin-Wilkins Information Services Centre, The New Hunt's House Information Services Centre , The Weston Education Centre , The St Thomas' House Information Services Centre, The Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) Library and The Bethlem Royal Hospital Library.

Research

King’s College London has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life. The College enjoys a global reputation for research excellence that attracts the highest calibre students and some of the world's leading academics who pursue and achieve research excellence across the entire range of academic disciplines.

Academic Reputation

King’s has a strong academic reputation. According to The Guardian newspaper, King's College London, the London School of Economics, Imperial College London and University College London, each 'have international reputations that in this country only Oxbridge can beat'. In 2008 The Times newspaper ranked King's 10th in the UK, while in the same year King's ranked 12th in The Sunday Times, 12th in The Guardian, 5th in The Times Higher Education Supplement, 17th in The Telegraph, and 15th in The Independent. Internationally, The Times Higher Education Supplement QS World University Rankings places King's 22nd in the World, while The G-Factor World Rankings puts King's 32nd in the world, and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Academic Ranking of World Universities places King's 81st in the world. According to the 2009 Times Good University Guide, several subjects taught at King’s, including Law, History, Politics, Classics, Spanish, Portuguese, Music, Dentistry, Nursing and Food Science are among the top five in the country. The Dental Institute has been known as the "Oxbridge Dentistry" as Cambridge University and Oxford University do not offer Dentistry as a course of study. The College has had 24 of its subject-areas awarded the highest rating of 5 or 5* for research quality, demonstrating excellence at an international level, 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.

Schools and Departments

King's College London is one of the oldest and most prestigious UK university institutions. It has over 19,500 students. There are nine Schools of Study, which offer around 200 undergraduate programmes, over 230 postgraduate taught programmes and an extensive range of research opportunities.

• Arts & Humanities
• Biomedical & Health Sciences
• Dental Institute
• Institute of Psychiatry
• Law
• Medicine
• Nursing & Midwifery
• Physical Sciences & Engineering
• Social Science & Public Policy

King's College London was ranked 22nd in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking.