We carry out innovative and robust research and evaluation to better promote university access and success for students from underrepresented backgrounds.

Evaluation is important to determine whether interventions are achieving their intended outcomes. We run impact evaluation which helps generate causal evidence, identifying what works.

Our two-year report entitled 'What Works at King's College London: What we've found in our first two years' summarises our research projects from 2018-2020.

This report includes information on:

• Our framework for applying Behavioural Insight to the student experience (ACES).
• Our RCT to improve the take up of offers for a place in halls of residence.
• Our annual self-efficacy and sense of belonging survey (Settling into King's).
• Our work tackling the BAME attainment gap (Your King's Your Success).
• Our RCT of a self-reflection tool for first year students (AWARE).
• Best practice when evaluating interventions. Find out more by reading our What Works report.

Find out more by reading our What Works report.

Our Settling into King’s (SiTKs) report summarises a key project that set out to monitor students’ self-efficacy and sense of belonging at King’s.

In September 2018 King’s College London embedded three questions to measure self-efficacy every time a student enrolled (in their first year) and re-enrolled (in their second and third year). There were an additional three questions that measured sense of belonging upon re-enrolment. The responses to these six questions were found to be highly correlated, suggesting that reported self-efficacy is closely related to sense of belonging. 

• Read our Settling into King's report (2021)

The King’s Wellbeing Survey was the university’s first attempt designed to measure mental wellbeing of its students across the whole institution. Built in collaboration with colleagues from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience and Student Transition and Outcomes, the resulting survey used a combination of clinical and non-clinical scales to represent the multifaceted and complex nature of mental wellbeing. In addition to validated questionnaires, the survey asked several questions based on students’ experience at King’s.

The inaugural survey was launched on 23 February 2022 and closed on Sunday 13 March with a total of 4,695 student responses. This figure represents approximately 10% of the total student population enrolled in 2021/22. Foremost, this data will help ensure that improvements to mental health and wellbeing services are focused in the right areas and that we can measure the impact of what we do using robust evidence. The survey will be run for a second time in 2023.

To discuss findings, please contact us via email on whatworks@kcl.ac.uk.

We are working with TASO (Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education) to run one of the first ever UK based Randomised Control Trials of a multi-intervention outreach programme. We hope this will provide causal evidence around the effectiveness of one of our key post 16 programmes, K+.

Interim findings are expected Spring 2023.

The final report is expected in Spring 2024.

Read more about the trial, including the research protocol on the TASO website here.

The KCLXBIT report summarises the findings of a two-year project which ran from 2016-2018 and was conducted by the What Works Department at King's and the Behavioural Insights Team. The findings illustrate the value of testing the behavioural insights approach to help drive social mobility and student success at King's.

The below report summarises the findings of our two-year collaborative project (KCLxBIT) which led to the establishment of What Works.

• Read the KCLxBIT Project Report (2015-2017)