King’s College London Widening Participation works with underrepresented learners and their supporters, empowering them to access, thrive and succeed in higher education. We have the power, expertise and drive to help bring about a fairer society, where people from all walks of life can access a great education. Opportunities, aspirations and chances to succeed are not distributed fairly across society. We are a team of professionals who can help to change that on behalf of King’s. We’re a civic minded university that seeks to educate a diverse community of learners all with individual voices and experiences so that they can achieve to their greatest potential. Widening participation to higher education in turn makes King’s and the wider world a better place.

On these pages you can find details of our projects and partnerships. This information will be particularly helpful for prospective students, teachers, social workers and parents/carers.

Find specific support for:

• Current students
• Teachers & advisors
• Care leavers 
• Estranged students
• Mature students
• Gypsy, Roma and Traveller students
• Forced migrant students

Widening participation is one of the eight strategic priorities for King's College London. Each year we develop an access and participation plan with the Office for Students (OFS) that sets us clear benchmarks for our progress in supporting key groups.

At King’s we believe a diverse study body enriches the education that we offer.

You can read more about all of our work in our 2020 & 2021 Yearbook.

Our Widening Participation department consist of several key teams, including;

• Leadership Team
• Pre-16 Programmes Team
• Partnerships and OfM Team
• Priority Groups and Communities Team
• Post-16 Programmes Team
• What Works Team

Learn more about our teams here.

Key projects:

We are dedicated to improving access for Black students. Our Access and Participation Plan outlines our objective to increase the proportion of Black students entering King’s from 9.5% to 11.5% by 2024/25. The Amos Bursary ensures talented young men of Afro-Caribbean descent have the opportunity to excel in education and beyond. We work closely with Amos Bursary to host 120 of their bursary recipients and associates, as well as providing two bursaries at King’s.

Aspire is our post-16 scheme for black students. Co-created with the King’s African and Caribbean society, Aspire boosts the confidence and HE knowledge of Year 12/13 black students through a range of mentoring, academic and careers-based activities. King’s Aspire students also visit other ACS societies at Russell Group universities such as Warwick and Birmingham.

The first year of university is a daunting experience for every student. If a student comes from a background where none of their parents/carers or anyone in their area have been to university, it can be especially difficult to adjust.

The buddy scheme is run by KCLSU and uses volunteers (experienced students) who are paired up with first-year students from our outreach schemes.The scheme eases the transition to university life for incoming students. Buddies give information, advice, and signpost services offered by King’s and our Union. Buddies are also a friendly face that can help the students settle and feel like they are a part of the King's community.

In 2017, the Widening Participation Department launched a listening campaign with parents in Lambeth and Southwark. One of the issues raised was that their children did not possess British citizenship. Despite the fact that many of these children were born in the UK or had lived here most of their lives, they were required to pay a child citizenship fee of £1,012 to the Home Office, of which £640 is profit. Many families in our local communities cannot afford to pay this fee.

In 2019 we created the Citizenship Payment Plan in collaboration with Citizens UK and EdAid. This provides parents with the finance to apply for citizenship for their children without having to fall into expensive and risky debt. The payment plan splits the cost into 12 equal, interest-free instalments over 12months. Repayments are recycled, meaning more families will be able to benefit from the scheme. You can read more about the scheme here: https://edaid.com/cpp

We are holding online Empoderando Familias meetings every fortnight on Saturday afternoons. We are building relationships between the parents, KCL and Citizens UK so that they have as much support and information as possible during these uncertain times.

Realizamos reuniões on-line do Empoderando Familias a cada quinze dias nas tardes de sábado. Estamos construindo relacionamentos entre os pais, a universidade e a Citizens UK, para que eles tenham o máximo de apoio e informação possível durante estes tempos incertos.

Estamos celebrando reuniones en línea de Empoderando Familias cada quince días, los sábados por la tarde. Estamos construyendo relaciones entre los padres, la universidad y Citizens UK para que tengan el mayor apoyo e información possible durante estos tiempos inciertos.

Play your way to university! Ever wondered what university life’s really like? What kind of career your favourite subjects could lead to? And what options you need to take at school?

If you’re 8-14 years old play gameplan to explore life at King’s College London and find out what it’s like to study here. Create an avatar, play games, and earn points to get to the top of the leaderboard. Plus, your parents can get advice, hints, and tips to start planning and help you every step of the way. Your teachers will also find resources on the site to support you to play gameplan in school!

Register and play for free.

The Hastings Project is a parental engagement inititiative run in collobaration with Eggtooth, a Hastings-based organisation. It aims to create a community of parents who are confident talking about higher education and share newfound knowledge among their networks. We work with a small group of parents who have not attended university to improve their knowledge and understanding of higher education and develop their confidence and self-efficacy.

The project comprises nine months of weekly sessions focusing on personal development, six-weekly sessions on higher education, and four community experiences in Hastings. The project begins with an overnight stay in Hastings and concludes with an overnight stay at King’s.

K+ is our flagship post-16 programme. A well-established, targeted programme giving year 12 and 13 learners from non-selective schools in Greater London a chance to experience various aspects of university study and increase their chances of getting to a top university over 2 years. The programme involves a range of events including academic taster days, careers insight days and our non-residential summer school, ‘Spotlight’. K+ graduates who complete an academic assignment and attend all of our events receive a variable offer from King’s.

Alongside our core K+ programme, we have identified that students struggle to achieve top A Level grades in certain subjects. As a result we have developed a series of intensive revision sessions for K+ students so that they can meet the terms of their offer, known as our ‘K+ Raising Attainment’ project. This provides enhanced support to students who might not otherwise be able to access expensive personal tutoring, specifically targeting Biology and Chemistry A-levels.

You can find out more by visiting our dedicated K+ website and watching a series of videos from participants and staff explaining the programme.

The King’s Advocate Award is an annual widening participation training programme that enables teachers and social workers to support some of the most under-represented pupils in London to access and thrive at university. Participants achieve the award by attending training, carrying out engagement activities in the context of their roles, reflecting on their learning and sharing good practice. We also provide funding for teachers and social workers to bid for to develop activity to improve their work supporting students.

Find out more about the King's Advocate Award.

Our King's Scholars scheme works with pupils in Years 7-9 in the boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Westminster. Over three years King’s Scholars learn about university life, explore the diverse range of subjects, and discover the different career paths available after university. Through out King’s Scholars, pupils also learn how to supercharge their learning through metacognition – learning how to learn effectively. The scheme also works closely with parents and guardians.

We believe that Latinx students should be recognised as a distinct group within our university populations. Engagement and support should be tailored in the same way that the Higher Education sector is already doing for other BME groups.

In October 2019 King’s College London commissioned a report on the representation, engagement and participation of Latinx students in higher education. The report identified six ‘best bets’ for HEIs who want to work with Latinx families as part of their widening participation activities. Following the recommendations of the Latinx report means having a basis on which to build effective access programmes which meet the needs of Latinx students. It means having the knowledge to ensure that once at university, Latinx students develop a sense of belonging and are equipped to gain successful outcomes.

The absence of official statistics relating to the Latinx population in the UK is mirrored within higher education, where there is no centralised data on the number of Latinx students at UK-based HEIs. Since including Latinx as an ethnic category in our applications and admissions process in 2019 we have now been able to access data which indicates the number of students who identify as ‘Latin American’ at King’s. This is the first time that we have ever been able to access this data which confirms that ‘Home’ Latinx students are an underrepresented group at King’s. This means we will ensure that they are one of the priority groups for our existing (and potentially new) widening participation programmes.

We welcome applications from mature students and we understand that the needs of these learners may differ from those entering higher education at 18. 

These webpages provide information for mature students about applying to and studying at university.

The MedSoc programme is a pilot project with 10 schools taking part this academic year 2022-23. This new project will support schools to set up a pupil-led Medical Society with a focus on the application process. Students interested in medicine or dentistry will benefit from this programme as it covers topics such as:

• Research tutorials
• Personal Statements
• Multiple Mini Interviews
• UCAT exams

This programme is aimed at students in Year 11 and 12. As a result of the programme, students will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to navigate through the admissions process and make a competitive application for medical and dental school.

Schools for this programme have already been selected based on levels of deprivation, attainment, and progression to higher education.

As part of MedSoc, we are also providing Medical Activity Days to Year 10s from MedSoc schools. This in-school event is designed to give students a greater understanding of the range of careers in healthcare and the skills required. Students will practice clinical skills (such as CPR and blood taking) and meet current King’s medical students.

We are no longer able to book any more schools for the MedSoc programme (or Medical Activity Days) for this academic year. Please get in touch with the Outreach for Medicine and Dentistry team to add your school to the waiting list for MedSoc.

Please note that the programme is oversubscribed, and priority booking is given to target schools, as determined by levels of deprivation, attainment, student progression to higher education, and schools without existing links to higher education institutions.

This programme is for students across the UK in Year 11, 12, and 13 who have only attended non-selective state schools since age 11 and are interested in becoming a doctor or dentist.

Over the course of the 14 lecture programme students will hear from a variety of speakers to help them make the best application to medicine or dentistry possible! Last year’s lectures included the following:

• Medical and dental specialities: cardiology, prosthodontics, renal transplant, and many more!

• Q&As each week with current medical and dental students as well as a lecture dedicated to the student experience.
• A session on other careers in healthcare with six professionals currently working and teaching in the sector (nursing, dietetics, clinical science, etc.)
• September Q&A with key admissions colleagues in the schools of medicine and dentistry at KCL and UCL.
• Talks on the application process: the UCAT, personal statements, and interviews.

Lectures will be held on Tuesday evenings at 6-7.15pm and will run in blocks of three throughout 2023, starting in January and ending in September.

For more information and to apply, students should follow this link. Please see the application form for the latest application deadline.

If you would like to find out more about the programme, please watch our introductory video here.

Here’s what a 2022 participant had to say about the programme:

“You should join this programme because it shows you the exact, what's and how's you need to go into the healthcare setting. It gives you many different people's perspectives, from consultants to student doctors. It outlines the skills you will need if you decided to join this line of work. It is extremely insightful and helps you make an informed decision. And most importantly it helps you confirm whether this is the right career for you rather than making a mistake and regretting the years you've put into Medicine and Dentistry. Honestly, I believe it should be essential for anybody who's thinking of these careers.” 

In collaboration South London Citizens we have provided community organising training to parents of year 7-9 learners on our King’s Scholars programme. Parents have used these tools and techniques to campaign on issues of educational equality. They have secured funded open day visits to Oxford, Cambridge and the University of Leicester and a number of subsidised places on private summer schools. This also provides parents with the knowledge and experience to help their children make informed choices and aspire to the best possible education that is right for them. This work has been covered by the BBC and features prominently in King’s College London’s strategy for London and our commitment to Service.

Find our more about Parent Power.

Because of who they are, LGBT students are more likely to face multiple issues when accessing university:

• Poor attainment from truanting as a result of bullying
• Poor mental health
• Estrangement and homelessness

KCLWP see LGBT students as a target group which has been missed for too many years. We are planning a scheme which can help empower LGBT students reach their potential and feel they belong in the space they’re in.

We are committed to only to empowering students from across the UK to access higher education. We have recently expanded our flagship post-16 programme, K+, beyond Greater London to non-selective schools in Essex. We have also undertaken research into specific barriers to accessing university faced by young people in Medway and Swale. This research has underpinned our approach to our new Kent to King's (K2K) project, launching in 2021.

Gypsies, Roma and Travellers (diverse ethnicities commonly grouped together as GRT) are significantly underrepresented in higher education, with estimates that only 3-4% of the GRT population accessing university. They are also more likely have multiple deprivations and barriers throughout the education life course. This is why our 'Rombelong' programme aims to work with Gypsies, Roma and Travellers throughout the education lifecycle, with two structured programmes as well as bespoke 121 support for young people entering university and prioritisation on our mainstream programmes.

'Tutors for GRT': This is our partnership project ran with The Traveller Movement. We deliver online tutoring to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller young people aged between 5 and 18. The aim is to address educational barriers when and where they occur, increase engagement and enjoyment with education.

'Rombelong Researchers': This project is delivered in school with year 6s, it is a 5 week project where the young people decide on a topic to research, use different methods to discover information and present their findings at the end of the project.

To find out more about our work with Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, or for advice on going to university, please contact outreach@kcl.ac.uk.

Scholars+ is a tutoring and revision programme for Year 10 and 11 pupils. Launched in 2020 and delivered in partnership with tutoring provider Team Up, Scholars+ supports pupils to achieve the GCSE grades needed to make competitive applications to high tariff universities. Pupils receive tutoring from King's students in either Maths or English. We are currently working with four local schools to undertake a two year pilot.

We offer one to one support for students from these backgrounds. This can involve help with personal statements, selecting a course and other general advice.

• Read more about our support for care-experienced students.
• Read more about our support for estranged students.
• Read more about our support for forced migrant students.

Sutton Trust Summer Schools are free, residential, subject-specific courses which provide bright students from non-privileged homes with a taste of life at a leading university. The aim is to demystify elite universities and to equip students with the knowledge and insight to make high quality applications to prestigious universities.

Every year we give students across the UK the opportunity to live as a university student and get a hands-on experience of academia and social life. Over the week, students get involved in a packed timetable of academic workshops, lectures and tutorials, external visits, university guidance and social activities showing London as our home.

The Armitage Foundation believe that any student with the capability and passion to become a doctor should be able to, irrespective of their background, and are working to actively address that less than 5% of medical students come from the most disadvantaged backgrounds and half of all schools across the UK do not produce a single medical applicant. They run after-school programmes delivered by current medical students from similar backgrounds to show that medical school is achievable.

We have partnered with The Armitage Foundation since 2020-21 to deliver their Juniors Programme for pupils in years 8 and 9 at two of our local schools. Armitage Juniors includes 6-7 sessions each year with a mixture of fun, practical and theory-based training including communication skills; ethics; respiration; radiology; cardiology; advice on next steps; GCSE options. Sessions are delivered by trained KCLWP Student Ambassadors with selected pupils from each school. We are proud to be one of two university partners and are looking forward to growing the partnership due to hospital trust funding with two new schools in Medway Kent over 2021-22.

Find out more about The Armitage Foundation.

We are creating a new programme for year 7 children in care. Our King's students will act as tutors, giving guidance in key subjects such as English and Maths.

As the programme develops, more information will be added to this page.

The Widening Participation Fund helps students run their own outreach projects. It’s open to all King's students, individuals or groups, wanting to create and develop student-led outreach projects in the community. Students have developed some brilliant initiatives and have volunteered their time to get them running: the KCLevate project by the Bangladesh Society, the homework club by STAR, InsideMed from the EMDP society, to name a few.

Partnerships

The Widening Participation Department at King’s College London works in partnership with a number of organisations to meet our aims. These include:

Citizens UK is a charity that organises communities to act together for power, social justice and the common good. Community Organising is based on the principle that when people work together, they have the power to change their neighbourhoods, cities, and ultimately the country for the better. This methodology helps create change through building relationships and developing leaders. Our whole-university partnership with Citizens UK, the UK’s largest community organising alliance, provides access to a network of professional organisers and relationships with local and national organisations that are also part of the alliance.

We are the first Widening Participation Department to utilise community organising techniques, ingraining them into our projects such as Parent Power and work with the Latinx community. When we engage with communities, we listen to what issues need addressing, place people over programme and focus on developing leaders from those communities.

We are currently working with South London Citizens and Lambeth Council to improve social mobility in Lambeth. Read more about this in the Building Better Futures report (PDF).

Our partnership with Citizens has not only had an external impact. Using aspects of organising methodology such as relational one-to-one meetings has strengthened relationships within King’s and created a more honest and open working environment.

The Elephant Group is a head teacher-led collaboration working to bring together the wider education sector and improve communication between schools and HE. The aim is to ensure that the top third of non-selective state school pupils access the top third universities. KCLWP hosts the annual launch event at King’s and our representatives attend TEG Conferences and CPD meetings in London and York throughout the year. We deliver workshops on student finance, personal statements and the UCAS application process, Taster Days on a university specialty, Top tips and spotlights on our own university journeys. We also provide advice and information to teachers on the contextual admissions process and share any opportunities relevant to TEG students for Taster Days, Open Days and subject-specific events across the partnership.

Find out further information about The Elephant Group. 

IntoUniversity is a nation-wide educational charity that promotes aspiration to achieve amongst under-represented young people. The charity works with schools and colleges to deliver a programme of workshops designed to encourage ambition and enhance attainment. From its local centres, IntoUniversity provides learning and homework support, plus a mentoring scheme. KCLWP is a long-term supporter and since July 2018 has been a core funder of the IntoUniversity Kennington centre.

Read more about IntoUniversity on their website.

At King’s, both the university and the Students’ Union are serious about social mobility. Supported by a joint role between the SU and KCLWP, we support students in the local community to access and thrive in higher education. After you explore our webpages, you should also discover their student-led outreach programmes.

The Brilliant Club is an access charity that works with schools and universities across the UK to increase the number of under-represented pupils progressing to highly selective universities. KCLWP have worked with the Brilliant club since 2012, including The Scholars Programme where researchers are placed in state schools to deliver university-style tutorials. KCLWP host Launch and Graduation trips, allowing thousands of pupils to visit the King’s campus each year. King’s also support Researchers in Schools with Honorary Research Associate status, recruiting and placing PhD graduates as trainee teachers committed to closing the attainment gap and promoting university access.

Read more about The Brilliant Club on their website.

Up Learn is an online education platform that supports students with self-directed A-Level tutoring in a range of subjects. They use cognitive science research and technology to deliver an effective, enjoyable and effortless learning experience. Students with accounts are able to complete resources (such as interactive videos, quizzes, exam papers) designed by examiners, tailored to the topics they need further support with, plus 121 support from trained Tutors. Students who partially completed a course are 1.5x more likely to attain A*/A, compared to the national average.

We have partnered with Up Learn to address the learning loss of KCLWP Y12-13 programme students caused by Covid-19 and provide 176 Maths & Chemistry accounts to our students. As an edtech company, Up Learn are committed to make world-class learning accessible to all, and tackling the attainment gap between socioeconomic backgrounds. This is reflected in their scholarship programme, where for every student that pays for a course, a free licence is given to a student that can’t.

Read more about Up Learn on their website.