Having established itself as one of the fastest-growing new universities, with over 22,000 students, Kingston is developing a learning environment to match. The university has revitalised its four sites, spending more than £65 million in a decade on capital projects. Three new buildings opened in 2007 alone. One provides six floors of teaching and study space and a new central courtyard on the main Penrhyn Road campus; another is a three-storey teaching extension at the Faculty of Engineering’s Roehampton Vale site; while the Kingston Hill campus has acquired more computer study space in the learning resources centre and a Learning Café with computer facilities.

Applications have been buoyant, bucking the trend among former polytechnics and enabling the university to reduce the numbers recruited through Clearing. Results in the National Student Survey have improved, after disruptive building work depressed initial satisfaction levels and contributed to a fall in The Times league table. The new facilities have won plaudits from staff and students alike. Journalism, languages and pharmacy students were the most satisfied.

London

The university markets itself as in “lively, leafy London”, making a virtue of its suburban location as well as its proximity to the bright lights. It has four campuses in the southwest of the capital: two, close to Kingston town centre; another, two miles away at Kingston Hill, and the fourth in Roehampton Vale, where a site once used as an aerospace factory now contains a new technology block. A flight simulator and the university’s own Learjet continue the tradition and a Foundation degree in aeronautical engineering is ministers’ favourite example of the two-year course. Kingston boasts the third largest engineering faculty in London, behind Imperial College and Brunel.

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• The Times University Guide table

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• Kingston University

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• Kingston University official site

Facilities

The four campuses are linked by an extensive network of 2,000 computers. Among the facilities in the new buildings are multiple projection systems, video conferencing, interactive displays and built-in voting systems. Students can take advantage of 24-hour opening in some of the main learning resources centres and a high-tech self-issue system for borrowing books and other resources.

Approaching a third of the university’s submission to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise was rated ‘world-leading’ or internationally excellent. The best results were in nursing, where 15 per cent of the work reached the top level, and in business and management studies, where the proportion was 10 per cent, making Kingston the highest-rated new university in the field. The star performance was in history of art, architecture and design, where half of the submission was at least internationally excellent.

Nursing is part of the Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences, a collaboration with St George’s Hospital Medical School, which recently added pharmacy to its portfolio of courses. Radiotherapy students are among the first in the country to hone their clinical skills in a simulated cancer treatment room. And the Centre for Paramedic Science serves as a hub for course delivery and a raft of revolutionary research and positions the two institutions at the forefront of paramedic education.

Access

Around a quarter of Kingston’s places go to mature students and more than a third to those from working-class families – both groups with low completion rates nationally. The latest projected dropout rate is 16 per cent, a second successive improvement and less than the national average for the subjects on offer. Students get extra support in their first, most difficult, year. The university’s attempts to widen access to higher education have been particularly successful among ethnic minorities, who account for more than half of the undergraduates.

To make the university more responsive to its students, it provides a “one-stop shop”, which deals with student issues ranging from careers and accommodation to complaints and financial advice. The university’s responsiveness and the accessibility of staff were singled out for praise in a quality audit. Over £20 million has been spent on halls of residence, most recently with extensions and refurbishment of the two largest halls, which now have 2,360 rooms. Students like the location, on the fringe of London, although complaints about the high cost of living are common.

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