Kingston University guide: Rankings, open days, fees and accommodation
Overview
Kingston University's pitch to applicants is that its degrees will equip them with the skills that employers say they need. Kingston's Future Skills initiative means students on all degrees will develop and be assessed on nine core skills identified as being valued most by employers. These include creative problem-solving and digital competencies. A record number of students will benefit from acquiring these skills, with nearly 6,000 admitted to the university in September 2024. More than two-thirds of the domestic intake are drawn from the capital - with a largely balanced intake of black, white and Asian students - and there is a sizeable international cohort. Sited in South-West London, students can experience the social and cultural playground of London without all of the cost. The university was one of just 26 nationally to achieve a coveted triple gold in the most recent Teaching Excellence Framework, covering an overall rating, student experience and graduate outcomes. A significant upgrade of the Penrhyn campus is due for completion this year, and £55m was invested recently in improving student residential accommodation. However, the university has not been immune to the higher-education cuts and made several course closures to help save £20m.
Paying the bills
Some 500 students are awarded a Kingston bursary each year. Worth £2,000 in the first year of study, undergraduates from homes with an annual income of £25,000 or less qualify for the award, bar those studying nursing and midwifery. Further bursaries are awarded to care leavers and estranged students (worth £1,500 per year) and young adult carers (between £500 and £1,000 per year). The Chancerygate Foundation bursary, meanwhile, supports at least one black British student studying building surveying, real-estate management or quantity surveying with a bursary of up to £10,000 per year. The university also offers several scholarships, while those experiencing severe financial hardship can tap into the Back on Track Fund, which makes awards of up to £500 to address short-term financial problems, as well as the Student Support Fund and a Travel Fund. About one in ten students benefits from some form of financial help from the university. Kingston offers just over 2,000 places in self-catered, recently refurbished residential accommodation costing between £5,200 and £16,320 for a 40-week tenancy. The lowest-priced options are some of the cheapest student rooms in the capital.
What's new?
'In a world increasingly driven by artificial intelligence and technology, developing Future Skills will be vital when navigating and adapting to a rapidly changing workplace after graduation.' This underpins Kingston's drive to equip students with the nine key skills employers say they value most: creative problem-solving, digital competencies, enterprise, a questioning mindset, adaptability, empathy, collaborative skills, resilience and self-awareness. In the first year, Navigate modules help students through a series of workshops to understand the skills they already have. The Explore modules in year two get them working with employers to build their knowledge and skills through live projects, placements and business visits, while Apply in their final year helps them refine and tailor the skills they have acquired to prepare them for their chosen career. Kingston will hope that Future Skills positively impacts its graduate jobs performance indicators which, at present, leave it in the bottom 20 nationally for both the proportion of recent graduates progressing to high-skilled jobs and the number who believe that their careers are on track. New degrees admitting their first students in September 2025 include historic building conservation, 3D design innovation and a BA in education: early years teaching and learning. The number of degree apprenticeship programmes will also nearly double in number thanks to the introduction of midwife and several registered nurse pathways (in children, learning disabilities, and mental health and disabilities).
Admissions, teaching and student support
The university achieves considerable diversity in its intake without having a formal contextual offers scheme. '[We] consider each applicant on their own academic potential and merit, tailoring offers to individual students and their situations,' the university told us. This clearly works, with more than half the intake coming from homes where neither parent went to university. Just under a quarter of undergraduates are mature returners to education and two-thirds are drawn from ethnic minorities. Kingston's access and participation plan specifically aims to recruit more children of white ethnicity in receipt of free school meals, who are particularly under-represented in the student population. Once at university, students are well-supported. Kingston's Head Start programme takes place each summer to help applicants prepare for the academic and social transition to higher education, while its Elevate initiative upskills students of black African or black Caribbean descent, helping them achieve their full potential. All staff are given mandatory training in safeguarding and supporting mental health and wellbeing. There is a compulsory induction session for students that covers mental health and wider health and wellbeing initiatives, too. The counselling and wellbeing team holds daily drop-ins and offers remote and in-person appointments, and the disability and mental health service runs a weekly social group to help tackle isolation.