King’s College London or KCL is a prestigious public research university and the fourth oldest university in the United Kingdom, established in 1829 by King George IV and Duke of Wellington. KCL is in London, United Kingdom, and a founding college and member of the federal University of London.

There are more than 27,600 students studying at KCL from 150 countries worldwide. KCL is a top-ranked university, which is ranked within Top 10 in the United Kingdom. KCL also has an outstanding reputation for world-class research and teaching. KCL has played a key role in many of the advances, such as sciences, life sciences and medicine. Therefore, KCL has become one of the world’s leading research-led universities and is now the largest centre for the education of life sciences and medicine in the UK and Europe.

Campuses

The five campuses of KCL are the Strand Campus, Guy’s Campus, Waterloo Campus, St Thomas’s Campus, and Denmark Hill Campus. The Strand Campus is the founding and main campus of KCL.

Faculties

• Arts and Humanities
• Dental Institute
• Life Sciences and Medicine
• Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience
• The Dickson Poon School of Law
• Faculty of Natural and Mathematical Sciences
• Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery
• Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy
• King’s Business School

Rankings

• No.6 in the United Kingdom and No.34 globally, according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024.
• No.7 in the United Kingdom and No.40 globally, according to the QS World University Rankings 2024.
• No.23 in the United Kingdom by The Guardian University Guide 2024.
• No.24 in the United Kingdom by Complete University Guide 2024.

Notable Alumnis

• Florence Nightingale, the pioneer and founder of modern nursing, established the nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital, which later evolved into King’s Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care at KCL.
• Rosalind Franklin, a biophysicist, is credited with the discovery of the structure of DNA. Although not an alumna, Rosalind Franklin joined King’s College London as a researcher from 1951 to 1953.
• Peter Higgs, a theoretical physicist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013.
• Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the leader of the Anglican Church in South Africa and the first black person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.
• Thomas Hardy, a world-renowned novelist and poet, was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twelve times. He also served as an inspiration for another famous novelist, Virginia Woolf, who later studied at King’s College London from 1897 to 1902.