News archive 2008

Ministerial visits to King’s today

16 Jul 2008, PR 154/08

In two separate visits, two ministers came to King’s today (16 July) to see at first hand the best the College has to offer in terms of cutting-edge research and high quality student provision.

Gerry Sutcliffe MP, Minister for Sport, arrived first at the Waterloo Campus to visit the Drug Control Centre, which is one of only 33 laboratories accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency to conduct drug testing in sport. Annually the Centre analyses more than 7,500 samples each year sportsmen and women for prohibited substances mainly under contract to UK Sport. This year that figures includes around 1,500 tests being conducted on every British athlete heading to Beijing for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Mr Sutcliffe was given a tour of the Drug Control Centre laboratories by the Director, Professor David Cowan, and Vice-Principal (Research) Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman.

He was shown the Sample Receipt Area where the kits containing the samples are received and logged by the Centre; the Sample Preparation Area where samples are first submitted to a variety of screening procedures, and the mass spectrometers which analyse the samples and show the results obtained from them.  Professor Cowan discussed with the Minister some of the Centre’s research work to help control drug abuse in sport.

Mr Sutcliff expressed interest and enthusiasm for the operation run by the Drug Control Centre, finding it very useful ahead of his trip to the Olympic Games in Beijing next month.

Baroness Delyth Morgan

At the Strand Campus, Baroness Delyth Morgan, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Intellectual Property and Quality in the Department of Innovation, Universities & Skills, was met by the Principal, Professor Rick Trainor, and Assistant Principal (Estates) Professor Colin Bushnell, for a tour of the Strand Campus.

This was followed by a presentation by Professor Phil Whitfield, Vice-Principal (Students) on student finance, and a question and answer session with students and representatives from King’s College London Students’ Union. Professor Freedman and Dr Alison Campbell, Director of King’s Business, then gave an overview of the College’s research strategy.

After the meeting the Principal thanked Baroness Morgan for visiting King’s at the early stage of her ministerial career and invited her to return to see other parts of the College in the future. She thanked all those present who had taken part in her fact-finding trip, saying: ‘ I have found this meeting incredibly helpful, and as I have only been in post for six months, the presentations and discussions have been very useful. I am particularly keen to have more student input and debate.’

[Baroness Delyth Morgan - Image by Greg Funnell]


Notes to editors

King’s College London
King’s College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher 2007) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King’s has 19,700 students from more than 140 countries, and 5,400 employees. King’s has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. The College is in the top group of UK universities for research earnings and has an annual income of approximately £400 million. An investment of £500 million has been made in the redevelopment of its estate.

King’s has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, social sciences, the health sciences, natural sciences and engineering, and has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe and is home to five Medical Research Council Centres - more than any other university.

Drug Control Centre
The Drug Control Centre is part of the Department of Forensic Science & Drug Monitoring at King’s. Working with UK Sport to implement the UK’s anti-doping policy in sport, the Centre carried out more than 7,500 tests across 50 sports last year. It analyses samples collected from human sports competitors covering events and training in the UK.  (http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/biohealth/research/drugcontrol/)

Further information
Melanie Gardner, Senior Public Relations Officer, Public Relations Department, King’s College London. Tel: 020 7848 3073; email melanie.gardner@kcl.ac.uk

Next:
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This information is provided by the Public Relations Department
Tel: 020-7848 3202  Fax: 020-7848 3739  Email: pr@kcl.ac.uk