Tell us a bit about yourselves?
Frances: I am Frances Doyle, the President of K4C and a penultimate BA International Relations (Hons) student. I was born in Australia, however I am Swiss, Irish, English and Burmese. Outside of university, I love hiking or cooking with my friends and family.
Matilda: I am Matilda Elliott Bunn, the Vice President of K4C and a penultimate BA European Politics (Hons) student. I was born in Carlisle, Cumbria, and grew up in the Lake District. Some of my hobbies include running with my friends and I have recently completed my first half-marathon race.
What is King's 4 Change?
Frances: K4C is a pioneering society aiming to get students involved in live social justice campaigns and actions that support change at King’s and beyond. We are partnered with Citizens UK, the UK’s largest grassroots alliance fighting for social justice and policy reform in living wages, housing and migration. Our K4C team consists of 16 committee members. All have personal reasons for engaging with our cause and are working tenaciously hard to win the change we want to see.
Matilda: At K4C, we aim to create an inclusive environment, where students of all courses are able to join. With members ranging from the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine to the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, we represent a variety of students at King’s.
What inspired you to get involved?
Frances: As a student of Burmese descent, the human rights crisis in my country continues to inform my passion for activism and migration. I was able to apply my interest in social justice through the King’s Edge Summer Skills Programme. I received training from experts in strategy, advocacy, and action planning and was able to take a leadership role in active campaigns centralising migrant justice, fair wages, youth justice and housing. For example, my team and I developed and led the King’s College Hospital Reaccreditation Campaign as part of the nation-wide Living Wage Campaign, which has won over £2 billion in additional wages since 2001.
Through these opportunities, I saw the change I could make through upskilling and my connection with Citizens UK. This led me to relaunch K4C to give students the access to facilitating the social change they want to see through training, community and action.
Matilda: Following a move to London for my university studies, I was struck by the clear disparity of opportunities and resources, in sectors such as health, between the North and South of England. Subsequently, I applied my passion for creating a more equal society in the King’s Edge Summer Skills Programme.
Within this scheme, I learnt about community organising, the process of bringing people together to build collective power and create change. This included training on how to take action, the impact of power relations and the importance of teamwork. Citizens UK, alongside the organisation of the King’s Edge team, provided a clear gateway for myself and my fellow K4C members to feel empowered by our own voices and how our motivation will lead to change for the better of society.
What are you focusing your energy on right now?
Frances: K4C has three strategic focuses, migration, housing and living wages, in line with that of Citizens UK. Within the University, our energy is directed towards addressing student-facing issues, such as the cost-of-living crisis, focusing on constituent issues such as transport and food expenses.
How did the King’s Edge Summer Skills Programme add value to your work as the President and Vice President of K4C?
Frances: Engaging in the King’s Edge Summer Skills Programme brought immense value to my work as President of K4C as we gained practical experience in campaigning that we can now relay to the King’s community. Through the Programme’s partnership with Citizens UK, K4C has support from a broad community of university networks and charitable partnerships that have helped move our campaigns forward, provide training to members and offer contingency to our society’s work.
Matilda: Through being involved in the King’s Edge Summer Skills Programme, I gained the key skill of teamwork that I was able to replicate in K4C. This included supporting events like Citizen’s Assemblies, meetings that bring together communities to secure commitments from decision-makers and hold them to account. Through speaking with a diverse number of individuals from a variety of causes, organisations and charities, I have been able to gain a greater understanding of other peoples’ concerns and experiences. This has been key within my position as Vice President of K4C as I can better understand my members’ issues they desire to enforce through an action.
What has been the biggest challenge so far?
Frances: Winning campaign goals within and outside our university can be long-winded due to a myriad of factors such as competing perspectives and bureaucracy. Despite the challenges of creating institutional change, the most difficult barrier in my work so far has been integrating students into this process of campaigning and ensuring incremental wins as we work towards our final aims.
Matilda: Due to the prejudices young people face within politics and campaign actions, this has resulted in our work facing barriers. With youths labelled with assumptions that they are too young to understand, or do not hold enough life experience to share their opinions on key problems, wider society does not provide the sufficient acceptance that Citizens UK or King’s provides us. Nonetheless, we are not disheartened and have successfully made impactful changes.
What are your hopes and aspirations for K4C?
Frances: As K4C progresses and our community continues to grow, my goal as President is to have our campaigns produce tangible, long-term outcomes that represent the interests of all student communities. This includes incorporating students and their ideas into campaigning for broader issues. For example, with the upcoming 7 May local elections, we are increasingly working with Citizens UK on campus through training sessions and weekly events, who use this period to push forward their strategic aims and community asks to MPs. Moreover, we will continue to expand our university network and the types of campaigning we engage with. The team most recently organised a University Refugee Week comprised of collaborative events such as academic and research panels and charity walkathons with universities including Birmingham, Reading, Royal Holloway and Oxford.
Matilda: With K4C growing significantly since our re-establishment, I hope as Vice President to engage more students to join our community and allow their concerns to become represented through campaigns. Through collaborating with the King’s Impact Changemakers Network, I aim to welcome a new community for students who have already shown their passion to create change in society.
How can other students get involved?
Frances: Students can become part of K4C by attending our bi-annual events providing expert training in advocacy that can be applied to our weekly hackathons, debates and house meetings, where we explore student challenges, draft mock campaigns and work on KCLSU ratified campaigns. K4C social events are also unique opportunities for students to join our growing community and meet like-minded peers interested in social justice.
Matilda: Our house meetings are gatherings where our members can freely talk about the concerns we would like to address within our campaigns and our collaborations with fellow societies to widen our knowledge of current affairs. It’s a great opportunity for students to meet the K4C team and see our work in action!
We also recommend reaching out to our team on Instagram, as we are all friendly and eager to help anyone looking to become involved in our cause. By following us you can stay up to date on our latest events and campaigns.
Want to get involved?
Email the team at kings4change@gmail.com and follow @kings4change on Instagram to stay updated and join the movement.
Sign up for the Introduction to Community Organising training with Citizens UK, and look out for more opportunities from the King’s 2026 Summer Skills Programme on the King’s Edge platform.