We recognise that not everyone has the same educational journey. Our widening participation programmes are designed to support prospective students who need to overcome more challenges to achieve their educational aspirations.

We want to support students to access, succeed and thrive in higher education because talent comes from all backgrounds. When you apply to one of our pre-entry programmes, we look at a range of eligibility criteria to help us select the most underrepresented and disadvantaged students. We often work with students that meet several of the following criteria outlined on this webpage.

• Non-selective state
• Free School Meals
• IMD
• IDACI
• Attainment 8 / Progress 8

We only work with non-selective state schools as we know that grammar and independent schools provide more academic and pastoral support for their pupils. We prioritise working with schools that have a higher-than-average number of students on free school meals or who live in neighbourhoods with high levels of deprivation. The school’s performance may also be below the national average.

Postcode Indicators:

• ACORN (4-5 is most deprived)
• IMD (1 is most deprived)
• POLAR 4 (1-2 is most deprived)

Some of our programmes are targeted at prospective students in Greater London, Essex, Kent or Sussex. We also run online and residential programmes where places are prioritised for students outside of London.

Research shows that postcodes are a strong indicator of post 16 educational outcomes. There are large differences in entry rates to university between neighbourhoods with high levels of deprivation and those with low levels. Young people from areas with high progression rates are themselves more likely to go to university.

You can look-up the level of young participation in higher education using your postcode on the Office for Students webpage here.

• Black students
• Gypsy, Roma, Travellers
• LatinX

Some ethnicities are underrepresented in higher education and in the King’s student body. We prioritise the most underrepresented ethnicities on our programmes because we do not believe ethnicity should affect access to higher education.

Read more about underrepresented ethnicities on our Ethnicity webpage here.

• Free School Meals
• First Generation to HE
• White working class

Students from families with no or little experience of the UK higher education system are disadvantaged in understanding the process.

• Care-experienced
• Estranged
• Forced Migrant
• Young Care

We prioritise places for priority group students on our programmes as any time spent in care, any background of involuntary immigration, being estranged, or having caring responsibilities can significantly impact educational opportunities and outcomes.

We may contact your teacher for a reference to verify your priority group status.

• GCSE's
• A Levels
• Interest in potential degree subject(s)

For some of our programmes, predicted or achieved grade requirements are an important element of selection. This is so participants can make a competitive application to a related King’s degree course.

We know that academic attainment can be a barrier to accessing universities like King’s. To address this, we run attainment raising activity in some programmes. We also offer contextual admissions for King’s applicants.

We may contact your teacher for a reference to verify your predicated or achieved grades.

• Primary
• Pre-16 (Years 7-11)
• Post-16 (Years 12-13)
• Mature (Aged 21+)

Most of our programmes are designed for a specific age group and this information is listed clearly on each programme page.  We design activity according to age so that the content is relevant to your educational stage. 

We partner with non-selective state schools in areas local to our campuses such as Lambeth, Southwark and Westminster, as well as identified regions. We identify and approach schools that have a high percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals and may have low participation rates with higher education outreach activities.

If you want to find out more or have any queries about student or school eligibility or about any our projects, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us. Our contact details can be found on our meet the teams webpage.