I am delighted and honoured to have this opportunity to help strengthen and expand engineering education at King’s. Engineers create our world, and by creating engineers of the future, we are shaping society and the way we live and work. I am really looking forward to bringing together the outstanding, research-informed engineering education across our two faculties and building student-centered, future-focused new offerings.”
Professor Kawal Rhode, Head of Integrated Engineering Education, King’s College London
02 February 2026
Professor Kawal Rhode appointed Head of Integrated Engineering Education at King's College London
Professor Kawal Rhode, currently the Education Lead for the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, has taken on a new cross-faculty role as the Head of Integrated Engineering Education, following a competitive selection process.
Engineering at King's spans the Department of Engineering in the Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences (NMES) and the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences (BMEIS) in the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine. The new Head of Integrated Engineering Education role is designed to shape a unified education strategy across these departments and drive the strategic development of our engineering programmes.
King’s currently offers three undergraduate engineering programmes across the two faculties – Biomedical Engineering, Electronic Engineering and General Engineering – each attracting high quality applicants and consistently achieving strong student satisfaction. In his new position, Professor Rhode will play a key part in programme integration and alignment, as well as curriculum enhancement, contributing to the University’s wider ambition to expand both its engineering education portfolio and related research activities.
Celebrating 25 years at King’s, Professor Rhode has been instrumental in shaping multiple degree programmes, including the joint undergraduate programme in Biomedical Engineering with SUSTech University in Shenzhen, China and the MSc/MRes programme in Healthcare Technologies.
His connection with King’s however, stretches back even further, beginning with his undergraduate studies in Basic Medical Sciences and Imaging Technology at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals. After completing his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at UCL, he returned to King’s in 2001. His research work focuses on clinical decision support systems, guidance systems, robotics, and surgical training simulators.
The UK currently has around 124,000 engineering vacancies each year, with a further 75,000 roles in related fields. Engineering positions make up roughly 25% of all advertised jobs nationally. Despite this demand, the UK is not producing enough graduates to fill these roles, resulting in an annual shortfall of between 37,000 and 59,000 engineers. This gap highlights a significant opportunity to expand engineering education and training.
Engineering is a broad, fundamental discipline and, in practice, engineers draw on a range of core skills to address complex challenges across all engineering specialisms. The introduction of common first-year modules across our undergraduate engineering programmes, under Professor Rhode's leadership, will help equip our graduates with the foundation skills they need as engineers working in a variety of contexts.
Each programme will continue to maintain its distinct focus, allowing students to specialise as they progress. By closely aligning engineering teaching and learning, students will develop strong technical expertise alongside the critical thinking, entrepreneurial capabilities and broader human skills needed to make a positive impact after graduating from King’s.
Looking ahead, curriculum development also includes plans to introduce new undergraduate programmes that respond to emerging trends in the field, including the growing influence of AI on technology and society, innovations in robotics, and new design and manufacturing processes.
Together with our colleagues at NMES, we have secured significant strategic investment in King’s Engineering, enabling us to accelerate key research and education priorities aligned with our strengths. This work will have long-term benefits, from enhancing student satisfaction to strengthening our research capacity and global profile. I have every confidence that Professor Rhode will play an exceptional role in driving this vision forward.”
Professor Sebastien Ourselin FREng FMedSci, Head of School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences
Kawal’s appointment highlights the vibrancy and momentum of Engineering at King’s. Alongside our innovative research addressing society’s most pressing challenges, our unique education offering across the two engineering departments at King’s will be strengthened through this new interdisciplinary role. I look forward to working with Kawal to build on the distinctive strengths of both departments as we enter the next stage of engineering at King’s.”
Professor Chris Lorenz, Head of the Department of Engineering
In this story
Professor in Biomedical Engineering and the Head of Education at the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences
Assistant Principal (Innovation)
Head of the Department of Engineering