A university born from a duel
Near Waterloo Bridge, on the banks of the Thames, the birth of a university was accompanied by the sound of gunfire.
On March 21, 1829, the Duke of Wellington, British Prime Minister and hero of the Battle of Waterloo, fought a duel with the Earl of Winchilsea at Battersea Fields. It started when the Earl publicly challenged the Duke of Wellington – a staunch supporter of King’s College from an Anglican background – for even supporting the Catholic Emancipation Act at the same time. Shots were fired, but fortunately no one was injured.
The immediate background to this duel was that public meeting a year earlier – on June 21, 1828 – chaired by the Duke of Wellington himself. It was at that meeting that the founding of King’s College London was officially put on the agenda, and in 1829 King George IV granted a Royal Charter and KCL was born. Ultra High Quality King’s College London Degree
A university that began with a duel. It was probably the most dramatic opening in the history of British higher education.
Five campuses, one river
Today, KCL has more than 42,000 students and 185,000 alumni. All five of its campuses are in central London. The Strand, Guy’s, St. Thomas’, Waterloo, and Denmark Hill. All four campuses are next to the River Thames.
KCL doesn’t have big fences or a unified campus. The place where you take a class might be a 19th century building on the Strand campus. The place where you do your labs might be at St. Thomas’ Hospital. This hospital has a lot to do with Nightingale. Nightingale is a big name in nursing, and KCL’s Nightingale School of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care is a direct descendant of the first school of nursing founded by Nightingale.
Studying nursing at KCL is like following in Nightingale’s footsteps. The city’s bounce can be felt, and KCL’s campus is just as bouncy.KCL students go to the British Museum, Shakespeare’s Globe, and the National Portrait Gallery to do research as commonly as they go to the library to study. London is great, having been named the world’s best city to study in by QS for several years in a row. For KCL students, London is either a world outside the campus or a part of the campus.
Nine Academic Colleges and Global Rankings
KCL has nine academic colleges. From Arts and Humanities to Dixon Penn Law School, from Life Sciences and the School of Medicine to the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience – the disciplinary map covers almost the entire frontiers of human knowledge.
Dentistry is KCL’s trump card, perennially ranked number one in the world. KCL is ranked 31st globally in the QS World University Rankings 2026; 38th globally in the Times Higher Education Rankings 2026; 61st globally in the Soft Sciences Rankings 2025; and 36th globally in the U.S. News Rankings 2025. All four lists confirm: KCL is firmly in the top five in the UK.
In 2021, there was an official UK research assessment called the REF, and KCL was rated 6th in the world for research. More than 85% of their research is top or very good.KCL has an annual research income of £257 million.
DNA, the Higgs Boson and Archbishop Tutu
KCL has had 14 Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and faculty.
Rosalind Franklin – her X-ray diffraction images of DNA taken at KCL provided key evidence for Watson and Crick’s discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. Peter Higgs – a triple alumnus of KCL’s BSc, MSc and PhD programs, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013 for predicting the Higgs boson. Desmond Tutu – studied BA and MA Theology at KCL and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his leadership of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.
Also, Virginia Woolf and Arthur C. Clarke have crossed paths with KCL. The current British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, is also a KCL alumnus.
From DNA to the Higgs boson, from the anti-apartheid movement to British politics – KCL alumni have been involved in shaping almost every important area of the modern world.
