Kingston University Totally Explained

Everything about Kingston University totally explained

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.

History

The Kingston Technical Institute opened in 1899. (External Link

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, 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 a Student Union Bar and recently refurbished gym.
A short walk from the campus is Cooper House, which houses Student Services and Admissions.

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 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.

Knights Park

This campus, located on Grange Road, close to Penrhyn 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.

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. Extensive facilities on site such as a wind tunnel, engineering workshops, flight simulator plus automotive and aeronautical learning resources. Recent development at this site has seen the opening of the Hawker Wingwill, 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's overlooks the River Thames and includes the office of the Vice-Chancellor.

Halls of residence

The University has 7 halls of residence. Chancellor's, Walkden and Rennie are all 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's Kingston Bridge House (KBH) which is situated on the edge of Bushy Park at the Hampton Wick end of Kingston Bridge, London.
The university runs and operates a "headed tenancy" scheme in which the university sublets local properties to students from landlords.

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.

Teaching The faculty delivers both Undergraduate and Postgraduate programmes of study across the following schools - Architecture & Landscape, Art & Design History, Fine Art, Surveying and 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.

Research Research in the faculty is broadly based around Art, Design and Architectural themes from colour in design through to real estate. Research Centres and Groups in the faculty include

Colour Design Research Centre
Screen Design Research Centre
Modern Interiors Research Design (External Link)
Sustainable Design Research Centre (External Link)
Centre for the Contemporary Visual & Material Culture
Curating Contemporary Design Research Group
Real Estate Research Group
Fashion Industry Research Centre

Galleries The Stanley Picker Gallery (External Link)is the faculty's exhibition space which is used to present a variety of lectures and exhibitions. In 2003, the Stanley Picker gallery gave birth to transitstation (External Link), which was created/curated by Stanley Picker Fellow Dagmar Glausnitzer-Smith (External Link), (External Link) and the then gallery curator Charles Ryder (External Link).
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 (External Link).
Kingston University also runs Dorich House (External Link) 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 flexible 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 - Economics, Education, English Literature, European Studies, Historical Studies, Linguistics and Language Studies, Music, Politics, Psychology, Sociology, Media, Film & Drama.

Business & Law

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

Teaching The Faculty of Business and Law built a strong reputation offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses as well as executive education in the 5 following groupings -

Law

Accounting and Finance

Informatics and Operations Management / Business Information Technology

Leadership, Human Resources and Organisation

Strategy, Marketing and Entrepreneurship The faculty also offers PhD and DBA research degrees in addition to its renowned 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.

Research The faculty has a number of specialist research units which cover the principal business disciplines.

Asia Business Research Centre

Business-to-Business Marketing Research Centre

Centre for Insolvency Law and Policy

Centre for International Business Policy

Centre for Stakeholding and Sustainable Enterprise

Centre for Working Life Research

Consumer Research Unit

e-Commerce Research Unit

Jean Monnet Chair in European Law

Small Business Research Centre

Strategic Human Resource Management and People Research Unit (SHaPe)

Computer Information Systems & Mathematics

Formerly part of the Faculty of Technology, a university restructure in 2005 lead to this new faculty being created(External Link

). It is based at the Penrhyn Road campus.

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.

Research The Faculty's research interests are spread across a 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 centers. The three current research centres are:

Centre for Applied Research in Information Systems (CARIS)(External Link

)

Digital Imaging Research Centre (DIRC) (External Link

)

Mobile Information Networking Technologies (MINT)(External Link

) � The Mobile Information Engineering and E-Med Systems group (External Link

), 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.

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.

Teaching 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.

Research Emphasis is placed 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

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, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Forensic Science, Geography, Nutrition, Pharmaceutical Science, Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Sports Science.
The School of Earth Sciences and Geography at Kingston University has a 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.

Facilities

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 for A4 and 10p a sheet for A3. Colour printing is 65p a sheet for A4 and £1 for A3.

Health and Fitness

The Penrhyn Road campus has a small gym, located at the rear near Fassett 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 of 2006. There are two main membership levels, Gold and Silver. Silver allows entry only before 3pm. Aerobics classes are free to members. Annual membership for Kingston students is £173 for Gold and £127 for Silver. The gym is open to everyone over 16, but has discount rates for the university students and staff. Tolworth Court sports ground is the university's outdoor sports facility. It offers students grass pitches for cricket, football and rugby plus floodlit hardcourt pitches for tennis, netball and five-a-side football. Many other leisure and recreation activities are offered for students at local amenities through the Students Union.

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.

Inter-site Bus Service

There is a free bus service for students which runs between the campuses and Kingston town centre.

Rose of Kingston

In 1998, the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames agreed to start work on a new theatre for Kingston. Working with Kingston 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.

Notable Alumni

Sam Chan - Hong Kong actor

Tony Ball - Former Chief Executive of BSkyB

Eason Chan - Hong Kong singer

Francis Yeoh CBE - Chief Executive Officer of YTL Corporation

Gail Emms - Badminton Mixed Doubles World Champion, Commonwealth Gold and Olympic Silver medallist

Richard Archer - Lead singer and founder of indie rock band Hard-fi

Lavinia Greenlaw - Author

Nick Hornby - Author

Jim Holdaway - Artisitc creator of Modesty Blaise cartoon

Christian Hrabalek - Automotive Designer

John Bratby - Kitchen sink realism artist

Fiona Banner - Artist and Turner Prize nominee (2002)

Anya Galliccio - Artist and Turner Prize nominee (2003)

Helen Storey - Designer

John Richmond - Fashion Designer

Steve Carter - Construction Manager (US)

Richard D James - Musician, mostly known as Aphex Twin (did not graduate)

Jasper Morrison - Product designer

James Irvine - Product designer

Mathew Hilton - Product designer

Glenda Bailey OBE - Editor in Chief, Harper's Bazaar (US)

Eric Clapton - Musician

Lawrence Dallaglio - International Rugby Union player

Trevor Eve - Film and Television actor

Graeme Le Saux - Former Chelsea and Blackburn Rovers footballer

Fletcher Sibthorp - British Artist

Ben Barnes - Actor

Michael Young - Product designer

Mike Roberts - Politician

Controversy

Stress & Bullying

The School of Human Resource Management was involved in controversy in July 2006 when the Director of Postgraduate Programmes committed suicide. Professor Diana Winstanley, a leading expert in the area of ethical practice in human resource management, committed suicide following her experience with workplace-related stress.
In 2000, the London South Employment Tribunal found Kingston University had constructively dismissed Human Resource Management Professor, Agi Oldfield when its HR Director, Liz Lanchbery threatened to sack her unless she withdrew her grievance against her manager, Christine Edwards, for alleged bullying.

National Student Survey

In 2008, a member of staff of Kingston University was exposed for encouraging students to give high scores in the official funding council survey of student satisfaction. The staff informed students "If Kingston comes down the bottom, the bottom line is that nobody is going to want to employ you, because they'll think your degree is shit." The university said this was an isolated incident. The staff were exposed via a recording of an instruction given to students at Kingston University..

Further Information

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