53-57 High Street
Kingston-upon-Thames KT1 1LQ

Tel 020 8547 7053

admissions-info@kingston.ac.uk

www.kingston.ac.uk

Sunday Times ranking 77= (65=)

Teaching excellence 66.7%

Student satisfaction 70%

Head teacher ranking 57= (48=)

Peer ranking 82= (79)

Research quality 16.9%

A/AS-level points 233

A-levels for entry 55%

Unemployment 9.2%

Firsts and 2:1s 47.2%

Student/staff ratio 18.4:1

Dropout rate 17% (19%)

Undergraduates 15,297 (2,165)

Postgraduates 1,607 (3,064)

Teaching staff 719

Applications/places 33,621/6,027; 5.6:1 (+5.4%)

Clearing entry 12.2%

Bursaries 45%: £300-£1,300

Scholarships None

EU/overseas 6.9%/9%

Mature 28%

State school 95%

Lowest social classes 36%

Low-participation areas 13%

Live in 16% (79%) £84-£105

Kingston remains one of the best deals in higher education. Its record on teaching quality puts it in the vanguard of the modern university sector and is a match for many older institutions. Students have caught on and now more apply to Kingston than to any other London-based university. Applications are up again this year. But with entrants gaining less than 250 Ucas points on average, getting a place remains highly attainable.

Kingston’s outlook is resolutely job-focused. Degrees offered for the first time next year attest to this: sports analysis and coaching, television and video technology and computer science (games programming), for example. This month a foundation degree in railway signalling and train control admits its first students.

A revamp of the university fabric is well under way. About £30m of work will be completed this month, which includes lecture theatres, classrooms, IT areas and meeting spaces in a six-storey building on the main Penrhyn Road campus.

There are four campuses in all, dotted around Kingston-upon-Thames, which offers all the convenience of London (the West End is about 25 minutes by train) without some of the claustrophobia. The Thames-side location is a plus, but while private accommodation prices don’t match those of the central London colleges, they are not cheap either. University rooms are all wired for internet access, a prerequisite where a web-based learning system (Blackboard) has most learning modules posted online.

Just under half the students qualify for bursary support of up to £1,300 a year, £300 of which is available under a scheme targeted at first-generation applicants to higher education and those leaving local authority care.

Open days October 6 and 27; November 10; June 18, 2008.

Student view Olrick Coker, students’ union president:

USP You can get here from anywhere in London.

Worst feature There are always roadworks in Kingston.

Location An affluent, green area.

Social scene The main attractions are the clubs, Oceana and The Works.

Rated excellent (15) Allied health professions (physiotherapy and radiography); building; business and management; civil engineering; English; geology; hospitality, leisure, recreation, sport and tourism (sports science); land and property management; maths, statistics and operational research; mechanical, aeronautical and manufacturing engineering; molecular biosciences; nursing and midwifery; organismal biosciences; politics; town and country planning and landscape.

Degree of student satisfaction 70.0%

Civil, Chemical and other Engineering 81.3; Teacher Training 79.9; Physical Geography and Environmental Science 78.8; English-based studies 78.4; Law 77.4; Finance and Accounting 75.2; Art and Design 73.6; History and Archeology 72.7; Politics 71.9; Medical Science and Pharmacy 71.5; Other subjects allied to Medicine 69.8; Computer Science 68.8; Other Creative Arts 68.5; European Languages and Area studies 68.4; Business 68.0; Mechanically-based Engineering 67.8; Architecture, Building and Planning 67.3; Sociology, Social Policy and Anthropology 66.2; Communications and Information studies 65.8; Psychology 65.7; Biology and related Sciences 65.3; Economics 64.1; Sports Science 63.9; Social Work 61.5; Physical Science 61.2; Media studies 60.5; Performing Arts 60.0

Times recommends

• Minister sacked over fake degree
• Student grant blunder will hit 80,000 families
• Half of Cambridge students admit cheating