King's College London
From Freepedia
| King's College London | |
| Image:Kcl-logo.png | |
| Motto | Sancte et sapienter "With holiness and with wisdom" |
| Established | 1829 |
| Principal | Prof Rick Trainor |
| Location | London, United Kingdom |
| Students | 21,500 total |
| Faculty | 5,000 |
| Member of | University of London, Russell Group |
| Homepage | http://www.kcl.ac.uk |
King's College London in London is the largest college in the federal University of London, with 21,500 registered students. King's was so named to indicate the patronage of King George IV.
Contents |
Campuses
King's began on a site adjacent to Somerset House in the Strand, still in use and still organized around the original building; the university has spread to several other campuses as well, including the Guy's campus near London Bridge; the St. Thomas' campus facing the Houses of Parliament across the Thames; Waterloo campus across from the BFI London Imax; the Hampstead Halls campus, formerly the site of Westfield College, since merged with Queen Mary and the Denmark Hill campus in south London. The current institution is the product of the merger of King's with a number of other institutions over the years, including Queen Elizabeth College, Chelsea College, the Institute of Psychiatry, and the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals.
General information
Founding
King's was founded in 1829 with Crown, Church of England and political support amid popular opposition to the foundation of humanist University College London on Gower Street. Indeed a duel [1] was fought over the College's honour between the then-Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, and the Earl of Winchilsea who questioned the Prime Minister's support for Catholic and Anglican institutions, but nobody was injured. Rivalry between the two colleges continues today: UCL often claims superiority over King's through its slightly higher rankings in university league tables, but King's is widely supposed to be the more famous of the two colleges. Both federated into the nascent University of London when it was established by charter in 1836.
In addition to the founding of the College in 1829, King's College School was created as the Junior Department. The School's premises were in the basement of the King's College site east of Somerset House, but later moved to its current site in Wimbledon in 1897.
The first qualification that King's issued was the Associate of King's College or the AKC. This is still awarded today to students and staff who take an optional two to three year course through the Dean's Office.
Current Position
In August 2005 the The_Guardian newspaper stated that London School of Economics, Imperial College London, King's and University College London individually 'have international reputations that in this country only Oxbridge can beat' [2]. The Guardian also ranked King's as the sixth best university in the country. According to these 2005 results, King's is the best non-Oxbridge multi-faculty university in England. Many of its departments also came top in their field. Most notably, the English department was ranked as the best in the country beating those of both Oxford University and Cambridge University. King's is a member of the self proclaimed elite Russell Group of leading research universities and is consistently ranked as one of the top 20 universities in Europe, and is highly distinguished for Humanities (especially Classics, Music, English and History), Law, War Studies, Medicine and Dentistry. It has the fifth largest endowment of UK universities at £100m (2002), the fourth largest endowment per student, and has credit ratings of AA-/Stable/A-1 (Standard & Poor's).
Notable Features
Florence Nightingale's original training school for nurses was at St Thomas' Hospital and King's College Hospital and is now incorporated into the university as the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery. Perhaps the most famous scholarly research performed at King's was the work by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins that was essential to the discovery by James D. Watson and Francis Crick of the structure of DNA.
King's is also known for its top ranked War Studies department that attracts students with both a civilian and military background across the world. It is supported by facilities such as the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives and the King's Centre for Military Health. In September 2005 an innovative e-learning MA/Diploma will be launched - War in the Modern World. This postgraduate course will be delivered purely online for students around the world.
The current Principal is Professor Rick Trainor, formerly Vice-Chancellor of University of Greenwich.
Students' Union
Main article: King's College London Students' Union
King's College London Students' Union (KCLSU) is the second oldest in London, founded just after University College London Union, and provides an enormous range of activities and services: over 50 sports clubs, 60 societies, a wide range of volunteering opportunities, 2 bars, 2 nightclubs, shops, eating places and even a gym. Recently, a third site was opened at the Waterloo campus which finally completes development of services across the three key King's sites. A former President of KCLSU, Sir Ivison Macadam went on to be elected as the first President of the NUS and the Union has played an active role there and in the University of London Union ever since. Competition and rivalries within the University of London between King's and University College London are still fierce but unlike the riots between respective College students in central London that still occurred until the 1950s, things are now limited to the rugby pitch and skullduggery over mascots.
The current President of KCLSU is Matthew Pusey.
Famous alumni
Well-known alumni of King's College include:
- Asma Akhras (First Lady of Syria)
- Sir Edward Appleton
- Lord Robin Auld (Lord Justice of Appeal)
- Martin Bashir
- Sir James Black
- Charles Barkla
- Alain de Botton (philosopher, writer)
- Rory Bremner
- Sir Arthur C. Clarke
- Lord George Carey
- James Clerk Maxwell
- Michael Collins
- Helen Cresswell (writer)
- Quentin Crisp
- John Deacon
- Sir William S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan
- Thomas Hodgkin
- Sir Frederick Hopkins
- Peter Higgs
- Derek Jarman
- John Keats
- Baron Joseph Lister
- Sir Charles Lyell
- Florence Nightingale
- Lord David Owen
- Sir Owen Richardson
- Sir Charles Sherrington
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Nobel prize winner)
- Sir Charles Wheatstone
See also
There is also King's College, Cambridge. There is no connection.
References
- F.J.C. Hearnshaw (1929). The Centenary History of King's College London. George G. Harrap & Co.
- Gordon Huelin (1978), King's College London, 1828-1978.
- Christine Kenyon Jones (2004), King's College London: In the service of society.
External links
- King's College website
- King's College London Libraries
- King's College London 175th Anniversary website - includes complete history
- King's College London Students' Union website
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In 1993, on the 40th anniversary of the discovery of DNA, King's College London erected a special plaque in the Quad at the Strand campus to mark the College's contribution to the discovery. From left: Raymond Gosling, Herbert Wilson, Maurice Wilkins and Alec Stokes.
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