Kingston University

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Kingston University


Established	1992
Type	Public
Chancellor	Sir Peter Hall
Students	22,250 ^[1]
Undergraduates	17,460 ^[1]
Postgraduates	4,670 ^[1]
Location	Kingston upon Thames, UK
Website	http://www.kingston.ac.uk/

Kingston University is a university in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south-west London.

Formerly a polytechnic, it was granted university status in 1992 under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.

[edit] History

The Kingston Technical Insitute opened in 1899[1].

[edit] Campuses

[edit] 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, Statistics and Science, and Radiography.

A short walk from the campus is Cooper House, which houses Student Services and Admissions.

[edit] Kingston Hill

This campus has a much more modern look and feel to it, after undergoing a multi-million pound development in 1997. With its own halls and numerous car parks (including the main seven storey car park) Kingston Hill mainly caters to the 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. A new larger learning resource centre is being built replacing the former LRC.

[edit] Knights Park

This campus, located on Grange Road, close to Penryhn Road, is a heavily arts-based campus accommodating, among others, the History of Art and Design, Architecture, Interior Design, Furniture Design, Graphic Design, Photography, Animation, and Fashion departments. The facility also features a bar, café and arts-orientated library. The building is on the banks of the River Hogsmill. The 'Middle Mill' hall of residence is situated across from the campus, close to the Stanley Picker University art gallery.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Other Locations

In addition to the four main campuses are three administration buildings: Cooper House near the Penrhyn Road Campus, and Millennium House River House in Kingston town centre - the latter is so named as it is overlooks the River Thames. There is also student accommodation at Clayhill and Seething Wells in Surbiton, Kingston Bridge House in Hampton Wick, and Middle Mill in Kingston. Recent plans for a student village to be built in Surbiton were unsuccessful.

[edit] Faculties

[edit] Art & Design

Based at the Knights Park campus.

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[edit] Arts & Social Sciences

Primarily based at the Penrhyn Road campus, although as of a restructure in 2005, the faculty also incorporates the School of Music and the School of Education which are both based at the Kingston Hill Campus. In 2003, the Stanley Picker gallery gave birth to transitstation [2], which was created/curated by Stanley Picker Fellow Dagmar Glausnitzer-Smith and the then gallery curator Charles Ryder [3].

[edit] Business & Law

Based at the Kingston Hill campus and incorporating the Kingston Business School and Kingston Law School.

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[edit] Computer Information Systems & Mathematics

Formerly part of the Faculty of Technology, a university restructure in 2005 lead to this new faculty being created[4]. It is based at the Penrhyn Road campus.

[edit] Teaching

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

[edit] Research

The Faculty's research interests are spread across a range of topics, from computationally-intensive computer vision to computer based learning technologies, networking and mathematics. Research activities are organised into smaller research groups and larger research centers. The three current research centers are:

Centre for Applied Research in Information Systems (CARIS)[5]
Digital Imaging Research Centre (DIRC) [6]
Mobile Information Networking Technologies (MINT)[7]

The Mobile Information Engineering and E-Med Systems group [8], which is part of the MINT Research centre, conducts leading research in the areas of Bio-information systems and the application of emerging mobile and network technologies for health care systems. The group is one the leading research groups both nationally and internationally, working in this innovative engineering environment and applied cognate research areas. The group aims to bring together Clinicians, Engineers, and Scientists at the forefront of information and communication technologies for medicine and solutions to perplexing health care problems.

[edit] 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.

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[edit] 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.

All degrees within the Faculty of Health and Social Care are awarded by the University of London

More details of the faculty can be found at the website: Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences

[edit] Science

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

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The School of Earth Sciences and Geography at Kingston University has a proud tradition of high-quality teaching and research extending over more than 50 years. Its geosciences courses were among the first to be accredited by the Geological Society as providing suitable training for the geoscience industries. The BSc Geographical Information System (GIS) course was the first of its type in the UK and established Kingston's pre-eminence in this subject.

Other courses provided by the School of Earth Sciences and Geography include BSc(Hons) Environmental Hazards and Disaster Management; BSc(Hons) Environmental Sciences; BA/BSc(Hons) Geography; BSc(Hons) Geology

[edit] Facilities

[edit] Printing

The main campuses have both black and white and colour printing, as well as copying machines and binding machines. Costs of printing and copying are a standard 5p a sheet. Colour printing as 65p (sixty five pence) a sheet. This reflects the University's high costs in other areas.

[edit] Health

The Penrhyn Road campus has a small gym, located at the rear near Fassett's Road. The gym has two floors, the ground floor is for weights, aerobic hall and treatment rooms; while the first floor has many cardio machines as well as some machine weights. The gym was refurbished in the summer 2006.

There are two main membership levels, Gold and Silver. Silver allows entry only before 3pm. Aerobics classes are free to members. Annual memberhsip for Kingston students is £150 for Gold and £110 for Silver. The gym is open to everyone over 16, but has discount rates for the university students and staff.

[edit] Shops & cafes

There is a Subway located in the students union bar. Next door to the students union bar is a confectionery store selling basic stationery and snacks. Close by to Penryhn Road campus are many cafes and shops.

[edit] Ongoing projects

[edit] New University Project

Kingston University is currently investing in the New University Project (NUP) which it states is for "for the future benefit of both our students and staff, and also for the local community"[9]. Pivotal to this expansion and reallocation of space was the purchase of Surrey County Hall from Surrey County Council, however on the 10 April 2006, it was announced that the deal had collapsed[10]. The County Hall building is situated opposite the main Penrhyn Road campus, and plans included the closure of the Knights Park campus with the Faculty of Art & Design moving into the new building from 2010.

The NUP is still ongoing and other developments include an extension to the Library at Kingston Hill, an extension to the Roehampton Vale building, and a new teaching block at Penrhyn Road.

[edit] Rose of Kingston

In 1998, the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames agreed to start work on a new theatre for Kingston. Working with Kingson University, they set up a trust to raise funds and the outer building structure was completed in March 2003 with its first season being a performance of Don Juan.

Controversy surrounds the project which has been hugely delayed and gone overbudget.

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