A Closer Look At: Kingston University’s Four Faculties!

As much as I love my studies, even I have to admit that all the different terms used at university can sometimes get confusing – so I thought I’d take this chance to explain Kingston Uni’s four different faculties. Considering not everyone at university studies the same course, never mind something in the same field, faculties primarily exist to help provide the right support for your course and create a group of staff/pupils with similar career or research ambitions – so, if you ever need a little bit of academic support or career guidance, you can make a note of your course faculty below and reach out to them!

Kingston’s Health, Science, Social Care and Education Faculty consists of three different schools: the School of Education, Midwifery and Social Work (located on the Kingston Hill campus), the School of Nursing (also located on the Kingston Hill campus) and the School of Life Sciences, Pharmacy and Chemistry (located in the Penrhyn Road campus). Subjects that come under this faculty include (but are definitely not limited to!) Biochemistry, Animal Sciences, Midwifery, Early Years Education, Pharmacology, Adult Nursing and Sports Therapy – so quite a wide range! 😊 Although the faculty does a wide range of vital research in fields such as cancer research and learning disabilities, the one thing I’m always amazed most about from the Health, Science, Social Care and Education faculty is the sheer amount of facilities available. There’s a simulated ward for Nursing and Midwifery students, replica classrooms for Education students, simulated living and interview rooms for Social Care students, and even nutrition and biomechanics labs for Food Science and Sports Therapy students – it’s hard not to be at least a bit jealous! Furthermore, the faculty also places exceptionally well in the Guardian University league tables – with the Midwifery department ranking 1^st in London, and the Education department coming in at 2^nd in the whole of the U.K. in 2022.

Created in 2022, Kingston’s most recently formed faculty is the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and the Environment (or ECE). Spread over several different campuses, it consists of the School of Computer Science and Mathematics and the School of Engineering and the Environment – and, with courses varying from Aerospace Engineering to Geography and Quantity Surveying, any STEM lover will feel right at home here! However, outside of just straight academia, the faculty is also heavily involved in outreach activities with the local community through both its Outreach Centre and ‘Lab In A Lorry’ initiatives, which gives GCSE and A-Level students a better idea of the opportunities available to them through higher education. ECE has also consulted and collaborated with several high profile businesses to help further advance student learning, some of which include Airbus, Google, GlaxoSmithKline and Sony.

One of the biggest faculties in the university, the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences is home to Kingston Business School (Kingston Hill campus) and the School of Law, Social and Behavioural Sciences (Penrhyn Road). Covering subjects from accounting, finance and management to criminology, politics and law, the faculty is home to many different disciplines which focus on developing your critical thinking and problem-solving skills, with many degrees giving you the chance to study abroad at some point throughout your time here. With their own state of the art Bloomberg Trading Room, several specialist psychology test laboratories and highly experienced tutors, students with courses in this faculty will definitely get some worthwhile guidance for their future careers whilst here. If you’re a current student/applicant who hasn’t yet had the chance to visit the Kingston Business School, I highly recommend it – it’s always fascinating to see the changing stock rates whirling around the screens above, and trust me, the relatively calm atmosphere in the main seating area is great if you want to study somewhere other than a library for once!

Finally, I’m onto my own faculty – Kingston School of Art! Rated No.1 in London for Art & Design by The Times Good University Guide 2023, the faculty consists of three separate schools – technically schools within a school – which are the School of Arts, the School of Creative and Cultural Industries and the Design School. Focused on primarily practice-based learning to encourage experimentation, students can study courses ranging from Product Design to Journalism to Historic Building Conservation – really, for one art school you wouldn’t believe the amount of courses on offer! I currently study Fine Art and Art History, and have to admit my favourite thing about KSA is the workshops. With an open access policy to all students, the workshops allow you to work in mediums you typically wouldn’t have access to elsewhere, such as metalworking, plaster sculpture, printmaking and ceramics. I’d call this my favourite faculty, but I think I might unfortunately be a little bit biased!!! :biggrin:

If you’ve any questions about the faculties, or even just about studying at Kingston in general, just pop them down below and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks for reading!

- Eve.