King's College London

King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, and a founding constituent college of the federal University of London. King's was founded in 1829 by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington and received its royal charter in the same year.On this basis, King's claims to be the third oldest university in England.King's became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London in 1836. In the late 20th century it grew through a series of mergers, including with Queen Elizabeth College and Chelsea College of Science and Technology (in 1985), the Institute of Psychiatry (in 1997), the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals and the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery (in 1998).

King's College London is regarded as one of the world's leading multidisciplinary research universities, and is usually considered part of the "golden triangle" along with the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, University College London, Imperial College London, and often the London School of Economics. King's is consistently rated as one of the world's top universities, being ranked 19th in the world by the 2015/16 QS World University Rankings, and 27th in the world by the 2015/16 Times Higher Education. King's is also the largest centure for graduate and post-graduate medical teaching and biomedical research in Europe by number of students. It is also a member of numerous academic organisations, including the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the European University Association, and the Russell Group

King's College London has five campuses: its historic main campus on the Strand in central London, three other Thames-side campuses (Guy's, St Thomas' and Waterloo) and another in Denmark Hill in south London. King's has 28,730 students and 5,948 staff and had a total income of £684.2 million in 2014/15, of which £210.8 million was from research grants and contracts. It has the fifth largest endowment of any university in the United Kingdom, and the largest of any university in London. Its academic activities are organised into nine faculties which are subdivided into numerous departments, centres and research divisions. King's is home to six Medical Research Council centres and is a founding member of the King's Health Partners academic health sciences centre, Francis Crick Institute and MedCity. It is the largest  centre for graduate and post-graduate medical teaching and biomedical research in Europe by number of students. With Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, King's has, under its umbrella, the world's first nursing school.
King's is also known for its noted alumni and staff, including 12 Nobel laureates amongst its alumni and current and former faculty. King's is also the alma mater of many heads of states, governments and intergovernmental organisations. Nineteen members of the current House of Commons of the United Kingdom and sixteen members of the current House of Lords are graduates of King's College London. In addition, King's alumni and academics have contributed to a number of important discoveries and advances in many fields, including the discovery of DNA structure, Hepatitis C, the elementary particle Higgs boson and research that led to the development of many inventions such as radar, radio, television and mobile phones. King's has also educated two Oscars winners, three Grammy winners and an Emmy winning director. King's performs highly in international rankings.In rankings produced by Times Higher Education based upon the results of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, King's was ranked 6th overall for "research power" and 7th for GPA.

History

King's College London, so named to indicate the patronage of King George IV, was founded in 1829 in response to the theological controversy surrounding the founding of "London University" (which later became University College London) in 1826. London University was founded, with the backing of Utilitarians, Jews and non-Anglican Christians, as a secular institution, intended to educate "the youth of our middling rich people between the ages of 15 or 16 and 20 or later"giving its nickname, "the godless college in Gower Street".

The need for such an institution was a result of the religious and social nature of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which then educated solely the sons of wealthy Anglicans. The secular nature of London University was disapproved by The Establishment, indeed, "the storms of opposition which raged around it threatened to crush every spark of vital energy which remained". Thus, the creation of a rival institution represented a Tory response to reassert the educational values of The Establishment.More widely, King's was one of the first of a series of institutions which came about in the early nineteenth century as a result of the Industrial Revolution and great social changes in England following the Napoleonic Wars. By virtue of its foundation King's has enjoyed the patronage of the monarch, the Archbishop of Canterbury as its visitor and during the nineteenth century counted among its official governors the Lord Chancellor, Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Mayor of London.