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Kingston University (informally Kingston) is a public research university located in Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, United Kingdom. It was originally founded in 1899 as Kingston Technical Institute, a polytechnic, and became a university in 1992.

Campuses are located in Kingston and Roehampton. There is a range of undergraduate and postgraduate work spread across seven faculties, as well as some further education provisions.

History

The Kingston Technical Institute opened in 1899. A School of Art in Kingston was founded in the 1890s. In 1970 the two institutions were merged in Kingston Polytechnic, which was granted university status under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.

Campuses

Penrhyn Road

This is the main university campus located close to Kingston town centre. In addition to teaching facilities, it features a library, health centre and canteen. Students based here study; Arts and Social Sciences, Civil Engineering, Computing and Information Systems and Mathematics, Earth Sciences and Geography, Statistics, Science, and Radiography. Across the road is the Reg Bailey Theatre which houses a stage area used by drama and dance students. Recent developments on this site has seen the opening of the John Galsworthy Building, providing extra teaching and office space.

The site also features Kingston University Students' Union (KUSU), which, next door to is Penrhyn road's Student Union bar, The Space Bar. Penrhyn Road also houses the recently refurbished Fitness Centre. A short walk from the campus is Cooper House, also known as the Student Information and Advice Centre, which houses a number of student services and administration departments as well as the credit control department who collect tuition and other fees.

There are the usual facilities on the main campus for printing, health and fitness, shops and cafes. A free bus service for students runs between the campuses and Kingston town centre.

Kingston Hill

This campus underwent a major redevelopment in 1997. With its own halls and numerous car parks (including the main seven storey car park) Kingston Hill mainly caters to Nursing, Law, Education, Business, Music, Health and Social Sciences. Located near the top of Kingston Hill, it connects to the other campus sites by use of a free University Bus service. Recent development at this site has seen an extension to the current Learning Resources Centre. Massive construction projects took place and recently a new modern building in memory on John Galsworthy was finished. Prior to 1989, this campus was known as Gipsy Hill.

The music department is situated in Coombehurst House, which was once owned by Florence Nightingale's aunt and uncle. Nightingale was a frequent visitor to the house and indeed the new Learning Resource Centre on Kingston Hill was named the Nightingale Centre after her.

Knights Park

This campus, located on Grange Road, close to Penrhyn Road, is the home of the University's Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, and provides undergraduate courses in Architecture, Art & Design History, Interior Design, Product & Furniture, Graphic Design, Photography, Illustration & Animation, Fine Art and Fashion amongst others. The facility also features a student bar, café and arts library. The building is on the River Hogsmill (the banks of which were immortalised in the Pre-Raphaelite painting of Ophelia (painting) by John Everett Millais). The 'Middle Mill' hall of residence is situated across from the campus, close to the University's Stanley Picker Gallery.

Roehampton Vale

The Roehampton Vale campus is based on Friars Avenue, on the outskirts of Kingston. Students studying all Engineering courses (except for Civil Engineering) are based here. Facilities on site include a wind tunnel, engineering workshops, flight simulator, a flying condition Learjet-200 plus automotive and aeronautical learning resources. Recent development at this site has seen the opening of the Hawker Wing, providing further teaching space.

Other locations

In addition to the four main campuses are three administration buildings: Cooper House near the Penrhyn Road Campus, Millennium House and River House in Kingston town centre – the latter is so named as it is overlooks the River Thames and includes the office of the Vice-Chancellor.

Halls of residence

The University has six halls of residence. Chancellors' and Walkden are based at the Kingston Hill campus. Middle Mill is adjacent to Knights Park campus, while Clayhill and Seething Wells are on opposite sides of Surbiton. Finally, there is Kingston Bridge House which is situated on the edge of Bushy Park at the Hampton Wick end of Kingston Bridge, London.

There are also contracted out halls of residence which are not owned by the university but licensed by them. IQ Wave halls were contracted due to Rennie being demolished to make way for a new education building at Kingston Hill.

The university operates a "headed tenancy" scheme in which the university sublets local properties to students from landlords.

Academic profile

Teaching and research are organised in seven faculties.

Art, Design and Architecture

Based at the Knights Park campus, the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture can be traced back to the original School of Art in Kingston which was founded in the 1890s. The Dean of Faculty is Dr Simon Ofield.

The faculty delivers both Undergraduate and Postgraduate programmes of study across the following schools – Architecture & Landscape, Art & Design History, Fine Art, Surveying & Planning, 3D Design and Communication Design. The Faculty also has a school of Foundation Studies which delivers the BTEC Foundation in Art and Design which prepares undergraduate students for entry into honours degree Art and Design programmes.

Galleries

The Stanley Picker Gallery is the Faculty's exhibition space which is now used to present a variety of research-based projects, fellowships and exhibitions.

In 2003, the Stanley Picker Gallery gave birth to transitstation, which was created/curated by Stanley Picker Fellow Dagmar Glausnitzer-Smith, and the then gallery curator Charles Ryder.

In 2003, The Director of Foundation Studies in Art and Design, Paul Stafford, converted a run-down public convenience in Kingston town centre into The Toilet Gallery.

Kingston University also runs Dorich House which houses a huge collection of sculptor Dora Gordine's work, plus fine examples of Russian Imperial art and furniture. Dorich House is also used as meeting and conference venue.

Arts & Social Sciences

Primarily based at the Penrhyn Road campus, although as part of a restructure in 2005, the faculty also incorporates the now former School of Music and the School of Education which are both based at the Kingston Hill Campus. The faculty offers a 15-credit (30 for special studies and dissertations) modular degree system for undergraduate courses, and a range of taught and research postgraduate programmes of study.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Masters by Research (MA) degrees can be undertaken in any of the following areas – Drama, Dance, Creative Writing, Criminology, Economics, Education, English Literature, European Studies, Film Studies, History, Human Rights, Journalism, Linguistics and Languages, Media, Music, Politics, Psychology, Sociology.

Business & Law

Based at the Kingston Hill campus and incorporating the Kingston University Business School and Kingston Law School. The dean is Professor Jean-Noël Ezingeard. The Faculty is home to almost 5,000 students.

The Faculty of Business and Law offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses as well as executive education in the five following groupings: Law, Accounting and Finance, Informatics and Operations Management / Business, Information Technology, Leadership, Human Resources and Organisation and Strategy, Marketing and Entrepreneurship.

The faculty also offers PhD and DBA research degrees in addition to its MBA programme. The Business School was the first in the world to receive AMBA accreditation for its MBA, DBA and Masters in Business Management. Other accreditations include the Law Society, the Bar Council, CIMA, CIPD.

Computing, Information Systems & Mathematics

Formerly part of the Faculty of Technology, a university restructure in 2005 led to this new faculty being created. The Dean of the Faculty is Professor Tim Ellis and it is based at the Penrhyn Road campus.

The Faculty's teaching is split between undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Undergraduate teaching centres on computer science, software engineering, information systems, cybersecurity and computer forensics, web development, mathematics, actuarial mathematics and statistics. Postgraduate teaching at a master’s level relates to networking, security, software engineering, usability, web development and information technology.

Engineering

Also formerly part of the Faculty of Technology, this new faculty is based at the Roehampton Vale campus, although civil engineering is taught at Penrhyn Road.

The faculty offers professionally orientated undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Aerospace, Civil and Mechanical Engineering. Students benefit from extensive facilities at the Roehampton Vale campus including a Learjet 25, flight simulator, wind tunnel and automotive workshops including a range of vehicles and testing facilities.

Health & Social Care Sciences

A collaboration with St George's, University of London (SGUL), the faculty is based at St. George's Hospital in Tooting, and Kingston Hill (KH) and Penrhyn Road (PR) at Kingston University. Subjects offered include all branches of Nursing (KH), Midwifery (KH), Paramedic Sciences (SGUL), Physiotherapy (SGUL), Diagnostic Radiography (PR), Therapeutic Radiography (PR) and Social Work (KH), along with postgraduate and Continuing Professional Development courses for those already employed in the healthcare profession.

Degrees within the Faculty of Health and Social Care are awarded by either Kingston University (Nursing, Social Work, Midwifery) or the University of London (Radiography and Physiotherapy)

Science

Based at the Penrhyn Road Campus, fields offered at undergraduate level include Biology, Biochemistry, Biomedical Science, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Forensic Science, Geography, Nutrition, Pharmaceutical Science, Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Sports Science.

Research

The Faculty of Arts & Design runs a number of research centres:

• Contemporary Art Research Centre ("CARC")
• Colour Design Research Centre
• Screen Design Research Centre
• Modern Interiors Research Design
• Sustainable Design Research Centre
• Centre for the Contemporary Visual & Material Culture
• Curating Contemporary Design Research Group
• Real Estate Research Group
• Fashion Industry Research Centre

The Faculty of Business & Law has a number of specialist research units which cover the principal business disciplines. It achieved the highest grade point average of all post-1992 University Business Schools in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. These research units include: Asia Business Research Centre, Business-to-Business Marketing Research Centre, Centre for Insolvency Law and Policy, Centre for Working Life Research, Consumer Research Unit, Marketing in New Contexts Group, Small Business Research Centre, Centre for Research in Employment, Skills & Society, Institute of Leadership & Management in Health.

The Faculty of Computing, Information Systems & Mathematics' research interests are spread across a wide range of topics, from emerging wireless and network technologies for healthcare, computationally intensive computer vision to computer-based learning technologies, networking and mathematics. Research activities are organised into smaller research groups and larger research centres. The three current research centres are:

• Digital Imaging Research Centre (DIRC)
• Mobile Information Networking Technologies (MINT)
• The Mobile Information Engineering and E-Med Systems group, is part of the MINT Research centre. It conducts research in the areas of bio-information systems and the application of emerging mobile and network technologies for health care systems. The group is active both nationally and internationally. The group brings together clinicians, engineers, and scientists in information and communication technologies for medicine and solutions to health care problems.

The Faculty of Engineering places emphasis on commercially useful research with significant funding from external bodies. The faculty has 3 research centres –

• Aerospace Research Centre
• Applied Engineering Research Centre
• Sustainable Technology Research Centre

Controversies

National Student Survey exaggeration

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 , 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 University's 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.

External examiner controversy

In 2008, the BBC obtained e-mails circulated within Kingston's 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 University's 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 agency's 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 Music's External Examiner, QAA upheld all charges of wrongdoing, as alleged.

Abrupt Increase Of Tuition Fees

In April 2011, Kingston University announced that it would be raising tuition rates to the maximum allowable ₤9000 per annum. This is a 150% increase from the government's recommendation of an average rate below ₤6000 per year

Due to the developing situation, local members of parliament Edward Davey and Zac Goldsmith met with Vice Chancellor Julius Weinberg in early July. Davey Stated: "I am clear it would be better if the fees were lower". He asserted that with the current enrollment levels, the fees are too high. Weinberg indicated that higher fees would make it "extremely unlikely that student numbers will exceed that necessary for the university to be sustainable." He also stated: "The university needs to generate sufficient income to be sustainable – we set our fees to do that.” Student Union President Chris Dingle stated: "it's not a fair level of fees". He also stated that he believes the university's position was unfairly voted against in the house of commons.

Complicating matters further was the revelation that several universities including kingston University "featured in the bottom 10 institutions in terms of employment", yet "all" of them "are planning to "charge up to £9,000 annual tuition fees."

Students' Union

Kingston University Students' Union (KUSU) is a charitable organisation in place primarily to represent the student body and provide services and activities beneficial to that body. They are a student union in the mearning of the term given in the Education Act 1994 and whilst independent of the university are funded by a compulsory block grant from them.

The main offices are housed on the Penrhyn Road campus along with the 'Space' bar and the Penrhyn Road Students' Union shop. From their head office Kingston University Students' Union represents student views to the University through membership on university committees and the board of governors.

They also support students to enhance their experience at university through sports, societies and volunteering. Over 30 sports clubs and 70 societies are operated by KUSU and the volunteering department is the largest supplier of volunteers for the Royal Borough of Kingston. KUSU also offers independent advice (including Citizens' Advice) and representation through their Student Support services. They can advise on a range of issues from Housing to Academic Misconduct. This department also delivers a course rep system to the university's 26,000

KUSU runs 3 bars and 2 shops and the money is reinvested in the student benefit. Hannafords bar is located on Kingston Hill along with the Kingston Hill shop. Penrhyn Road is host to the space bar, KUSU's largest venue and the penrhyn road shop. Knights Park boasts a popular bar set on the bank of the Hogsmill river.

The Students' Union is run by an executive committee composed of mostly part time officers. The four full time elected officers take a sabbatical year to work full time for the Students' Union as President, Vice President Education, Vice President Activities and Vice President Communications.

Elections are held every year to elect a new executive committee and KUSU is in the process of registering as a charity.

Notable people

Faculty

• Henry Bond, Senior Lecturer in Photography
• Scott Bradfield, Lecturer in Literature
• Brian Brivati, Visiting Professor
• Brycchan Carey, Reader in English Literature
• Peter J. Conradi, Professor Emeritus
• Alex Ellery, Senior Lecturer in Astronautics and Space Systems
• Philippa Gregory, Fellow
• Todd Swift, Lecturer in Creative Writing
• Robert Istepanian, Professor of Data Communications
• Catherine McDermott, Professor of Design
• Jane Manning, Visiting Professor
• Peter Osborne, Professor of Philosophy
• Paul Andrew Williams, Film studies lecturer.

Alumni

• Aphex Twin, musician Richard David James (did not graduate)
• Richard Archer, musician, singer and songwriter, Hard-Fi
• Glenda Bailey, journalist, Editor in Chief, Harper's Bazaar
• Tony Ball, marketer, former Chief Executive of BSkyB
• Fiona Banner, artist, Turner Prize nominee
• Felipe Oliveira Baptista, fashion designer
• Ben Barnes, actor
• David Chipperfield, architect
• Andrew Witty, chief executive officer of GlaxoSmithKline
• John Bratby, artist
• Sam Chan, actor
• Eason Chan, singer (did not graduate)
• Eric Clapton, musician (did not graduate)
• Lawrence Dallaglio, rugby union player
• Gail Emms, badminton player, Commonwealth Gold and Olympic Silver medallist
• Trevor Eve, actor (did not graduate)
• Lavinia Greenlaw, poet and novelist
• Karen Hall, illustrator
• Jim Holdaway, illustrator
• Stewart Home, artist and novelist
• Nick Hornby, novelist
• Laura Harling, actor
• James Dyson, Inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner
• Charles Ingram, British novelist, made famous by cheating on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
• James Irvine, product designer
• Just Jack, musician
• Graeme Le Saux, footballer
• Ed McKeever, Kayak World Champion
• Jasper Morrison, product designer
• Laura Noble, art writer and gallerist
• Keith Relf, lead singer of The Yardbirds
• John Richmond, fashion designer
• Fletcher Sibthorp, artist
• Francis Yeoh, businessman, Chief Executive Officer of YTL Corporation

References

1. http://www.kingston.ac.uk/aboutkingstonuniversity/factsandfigures/financialstatements/documents/accounts_0708.pdf
2. Vice Chancellor's Office - kingston.ac.uk
3. ^ "Table 0a – All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2006/07" (Microsoft Excel spreadsheet). Higher Education Statistics Agency. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
4. http://www.kingston.ac.uk/aboutkingstonuniversity/factsandfigures/ourhistory/documents/history-of-kingston-text.pdf
5. http://www.kingston.ac.uk/campusplanning/includes/docs/Communicate%20KH%20June%202007.pdf
6. ^ http://www.stanleypickergallery.org
7. http://www.transitstation.de
8. http://www.dagmarglausnitzer.de
9. http://www.kunstwirkstoff.de
10. http://www.frari.co.uk
11. http://www.toiletgallery.org/
12. http://www.kingston.ac.uk/dorich/
13. http://cism.kingston.ac.uk/
14. http://www.kingston.ac.uk/design/MIRC/
15. http://www.kingston.ac.uk/design/research/sustainable.html
16. http://cism.kingston.ac.uk/research/DIRC/index.php?CentreID=2
17. http://mint.kingston.ac.uk/
18. http://cism.kingston.ac.uk/momed/index.htm
19. ^ Coughlin, Sean (2008-05-13). "University staff faking survey". BBC. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
20. Mostrous, Alexi (2008-05-14). "Kingston University students told to lie to boost college's rank in government poll". The Times. Retrieved 2008-06-28.
21. "Statement in response to National Student Survey complaint". Kingston University Press Office. 2008-05-14. Retrieved 2008-07-02.
22. Coughlin, Sean (2008-07-26). "Faculty in league table expulsion". BBC. Retrieved 2008-07-26.
23. ^ Coughlan, Sean (2008-06-24). "Examiner dropped course criticism". BBC. Retrieved 2008-06-25.
24. http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.com/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmdius/905/8071710.htm
25. http://www.qaa.ac.uk/causesforconcern/kingston09.asp
26. Newman, Melanie (2009-03-26). "Kingston Showed Lack of Regard for External Examiner's Role, Says QAA". TSL Education Ltd. Retrieved 2008-03-27.
27. ^ Comet, July 10th 2011
28. Vasagar, Jeevan (07-12-2011). "Universities given go-ahead to charge £9,000 tuition fees". Guardian. Retrieved 19 July 2011. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
29. "Tuition fees 2012: what are the universities charging? | News | guardian.co.uk". The Guardian. London: GMG. ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 60623878. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
30. Telegraph, July 15th 2011
31. http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/activities/item.php?updatenum=591
32. ^ "Kingston University – A–Z Unis & Colleges, Getting Into University". The Independent. Independent News and Media. 2007-07-27. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
33. Ian MacDonald, "Preface to the First Revised Edition." In MacDonald, Revolution in the Head (London: Vintage, 2005), p. xix.

External links

• Kingston University – Official Website
• Kingston University Students' Union
• Kingston University Student News Website

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List

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• Kingston University
• Association of Commonwealth Universities
• Educational institutions established in 1899
• 1899 establishments in England