King’s College London (KCL) is digging deep to invest in scientific education and discoveries — excavating the Quad at its Strand campus to redevelop 3,000 sq m of subterranean space into cutting-edge laboratories and workspaces. Building on its history of scientific breakthroughs — which includes discovering the structure of DNA, developing the theory of electromagnetism and conducting the world’s first human-to-human blood transfusion — KCL is investing £45.5 million in powering the future of its science explorations. The university has already launched two interdisciplinary research institutes, Net Zero Centre and the Centre for Physical Science of Life, and there are plans for centres for statistics and quantum technologies. The university has also been busy recruiting 64 academic staff and developing new laboratories and dedicated teaching spaces to bolster its credentials as a scientific powerhouse. 

KCL students are in the thick of all that London has to offer by virtue of the university’s prime central locations: four of its five campuses are within a square mile of each other, close to the banks of the Thames near London Bridge and Waterloo. 

What is King’s College London’s reputation? 

KCL was founded in 1829 and with University College London became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London in 1836. It has awarded its own degrees since 2008 and today has more than 30,000 students, about a third of them from outside the UK.

A member of the research-led Russell Group of universities since 1998, KCL counts 14 staff and alumni who have been awarded the Nobel prize. The university ranks eighth in our research quality index after 55.1 per cent of the work submitted to the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) was judged to be world-leading. KCL’s best results were in allied health subjects; business and management; classics; clinical medicine; sport and exercise sciences; chemistry, modern languages; engineering; and theology.

KCL is rated silver overall and for the student experience by the government’s Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF 2023). Assessors gave it gold, their highest grading, for student outcomes, reflecting its “tailored approaches that are highly effective in ensuring students succeed in and progress beyond their studies”. The panel also praised KCL for its “approaches to supporting students to achieve educational gains that are evidence-based, highly effective and tailored to students and their different starting points”. Physical and virtual learning resources, “used effectively to support outstanding teaching and learning”, were called “outstanding”.

In global league tables that do not include student satisfaction in their metrics, KCL fares well. It is placed 40= by QS and 38= by Times Higher Education in their latest world rankings. At the subject level, the university’s Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care is rated No 1 in the UK and second in the world for nursing in the 2024 QS rankings.

There are environmental accolades too. KCL is fifth in the People & Planet league table of UK universities ranked by environmental and ethical performance.

In common with many London-based and research-led institutions, KCL is in the bottom ten for how students rate teaching quality, though it does better with feedback about the wider experience (116=) in our new National Student Survey (NSS) analysis. Both are improvements on last year’s student satisfaction ratings, contributing to a three-place rise in our main academic ranking for KCL which brings it inside the top 25.

What degree courses have been discontinued and what new courses are available?

In autumn 2024 KCL launched a natural sciences degree and expanded its four-year graduate entry medical programme to enrol a further 54 students at a new branch campus in the University of Portsmouth’s medical school. No degrees are closing in 2024 or 2025.

What are King’s College London’s entry requirements — and my chances of getting in?

Courses demand from BBB up to A*A*A. Contextual admissions are made to students who meet widening participation criteria — one or two grades lower — and accounted for almost a fifth (19 per cent) of all offers made to UK and international students in 2023. A small number (3 per cent) gained their places through clearing.

What are the graduate prospects?

Undergraduates can attend breakfast drop-in sessions with employers and take up opportunities for work shadowing and placements. The university has longstanding relationships with hundreds of businesses and industry partners locally, across the UK and internationally, from a research, educational and employment perspective. Among these, it is the academic partner of King’s Health Partners, one of only six Academic Health Sciences Centres in England designated by the Department of Health. More than 350 employers visit King’s each year to recruit students — including from Meta, M&C Saatchi, GSK, Civil Service Fast Stream, and Citi. 

KCL graduates do well in the jobs market; the university is placed 13= in our analysis of the latest graduate outcomes survey, which tracks the proportion of graduates in professional-level jobs or undertaking further study 15 months after leaving university.

What is King’s College London’s campus like?

The Strand site and the Waterloo campus house most of the university’s non-medical departments. Subterranean makeover aside, at street level the Quad — which connects the university’s original King’s Building with its Somerset House East Wing site — was given a new lease of life too, freshly resurfaced and complete with social spaces.  

Facilities for film studies at the Strand include recently added industry-standard equipment. The Dickson Poon School of Law has expanded into the East Wing of Somerset House, the striking London landmark. Bush House, the former headquarters of the BBC World Service and another historic London building, houses KCL’s business school, the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy and some student services.

Nursing and midwifery and some biomedical subjects are based at Waterloo, while medicine and dentistry are mainly at Guy’s Hospital, near London Bridge, and the St Thomas’ Hospital campus, across the river from the Houses of Parliament. A £3 million upgrade to dentistry facilities at Guy’s has added 70 “phantom head” simulators for practising dental surgery and 12 haptics technology units using virtual reality. 

Denmark Hill, in south London, is the base for the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience and dentistry teaching facilities.

Everything you need to know about King’s College London’s student life and wellbeing support

KCL’s “whole university” approach to mental health and wellbeing has been recognised with the Student Minds University Mental Health Charter Award. KCL provides support for students’ welfare at different levels, from guided self-help and workshops and specialist support groups around race, sexuality and gender to university specialist services and links with external services as needed. The university’s own Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience offers free and confidential individual and group counselling.

KCL’s sports grounds are a train ride away, at Honor Oak Park in southeast London and New Malden in Surrey. There are facilities for all the main sports, as well as rifle ranges, two gyms and a swimming pool. Students can access campus gyms at Bush House, London Bridge and Waterloo; there are free training programmes and more than 200 studio classes a week. 

The university’s cultural life has been enriched by the King’s Culture programme of free exhibitions, late events, talks and workshops across Science Gallery London — near the Shard, on Guy’s Campus — and at pedestrianised areas on the Strand campus.

There is centrally organised social stuff too, especially during the freshers period, but as former students have put it, the social life at KCL is London-based rather than university-based — which for many is its big appeal.

What do the students say? 

"My time at King’s has profoundly shaped my academic and personal growth. I have benefited from world-class teaching and had access to global institutions providing unparalleled cultural, professional, and networking opportunities. The students’ union creates a strong sense of belonging. Studying here has equipped me with a clear sense of direction and the tools to pursue my goals.”  
Scarlet Durant, BA War Studies graduate

What about student accommodation at King’s College London?

KCL’s halls of residence are spread out across the capital. Accommodation is guaranteed to all first-years who apply by the deadline. Of the 5,590 available spaces in halls, 80 rooms are at the lowest end of the rent scale (£155 a week), while eight are at the highest (£519 a week). There are a small number of rooms available in catered halls.

How diverse and inclusive is King’s College London?

Ranking 88th in our social inclusion index for England and Wales, KCL was the top-ranked Russell Group university in the Social Mobility Index 2023, compiled by the Higher Education Policy Institute. 

As part of its work to widen participation, KCL runs a number of outreach schemes for pupils from Key Stage 2 to 5 and supports care-experienced, estranged and forced migrant students. The university is also a partner in the King’s Maths School in Lambeth, south London, and offers the Scholars+ tutoring and revision programme for GCSE pupils in partner schools to support applications to high-tariff universities. Students who have experienced significant hardship or disruption in their home environment are offered one-to-one support through the application process and enhanced support as an undergraduate.

Everything you need to know about scholarships and bursaries at King’s College London

Approximately a third (35 per cent) of entrants in 2024 received some form of financial assistance. The King’s Living Bursary is open to UK students from households with incomes up to £42,875 and its value is on a sliding scale. A wide range of merit-based scholarships is offered to students from the UK and abroad, but these are often subject specific and can change each year, so it is worth visiting the website for up to date information.