UK Summer classroom experience

Summer programmes are an amazing opportunity to have an educational experience in the United Kingdom. It can be different from other countries, and that’s what make it unique.

Classes are a mix of ways to learn, from academic sessions to tours, guest Lectures, case studies, debates, critical thinking sessions, workshops, but it also involves independent study.

We really encourage students to participate in classes, express their ideas and views, and share it with all their peers.

It’s not always easy to adjust to a new education system, but often it makes you see things from a different perspective.

Summer (time) flies

Time is flying, and while some students are starting packing to go home some are packing to join us for session two next week.

Australia, South Africa, Kenya, Mexico and USA are some of the destinations from around 90 countries that students are heading back over the next few days.

Spending a few weeks away from home could seem long but in fact once you get here it flies by and most people would probably like to stay longer. Hopefully some will feel inspired to return and spend a longer period at King’s.

During the last three weeks students had lectures taught by King’s academics, met industry professionals, had hands-on experience, worked in groups, went on excursions and of course explored London in their free time.

To those who are going back home, have a good journey back and keep exploring, and to those who are arriving in London this weekend, have a safe journey, we are looking forward to meeting you all.

From London to Hong Kong

We flew from London to Hong Kong to bring a unique teaching experience to students at our hosting school, Singapore International School (Hong Kong). Here are some highlights of an inspiring week.

Students were introduced to the British way of teaching and they explored a range of subject areas, such as Biomedical Sciences, Business Management, Chemistry, Law, Politics and Engineering.

It was a great opportunity for them to have an international experience in their own country, and some of the students got excited with the idea of studying abroad in the future.

Professors returned fully inspired by the bright and motivated students that they met and came back with good memories.

Students attended special sessions on the British university application process delivered by our deputy director, Ian Fielding.

For more information on our pre-university summer programmes, please check our website.

(Summer) Time of your life

Summer has started in London and the temperatures this week are reaching 29 degrees. The Undergraduate Summer School will start next week and everyone in our team is working hard to make sure that you will have an unforgettable experience at King’s. By now, you probably have mixed feelings; excitement, worry, enthusiasm and a lot of other emotions. Some of you are travelling alone, some are coming from far away and some are leaving your countries for the first time. But you are not alone, we can guarantee that most of your fellow students are feeling the same way and you will see that once you get here and meet them.

This is a fantastic opportunity to learn from the academics of one of the top universities in the world, expand your knowledge in the subject area that you have chosen and experience the British education system. It is also a chance to explore London, meet people from other countries, get exposed to other cultures and get out of your comfort zone.

Studying abroad is a way to get inspired and to think about what you would like to do in the future. Most people who experienced studying or living abroad are likely to repeat the experience. It can have an impact on your future and certainly in your outlook on the world.

Remember that not everyone has this opportunity; to meet people from other backgrounds, cultures and countries, so make the most out of it!

Why not to take the first step to meet someone? If at any point you feel lonely, insecure or scared just get in touch with someone in our team and we will be here for you.

Now review your packing checklist, do some research about your subject and get ready to fly in to London.

Pre-University fun times checklist

The countdown has started! In less than a month, you will be in London having an unforgettable life experience on the Pre-University Summer School. Having the chance to be taught by King’s College London academics is a fantastic opportunity, and you should make the most out of it. London has so much to offer that we recommend you to make a list of the main attractions that you want to see when you are not busy with classes and studies. And don’t worry, London Eye, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, South Bank and the West End (an area of Central and West London where the main theatres are concentrated) are just around the corner from our campuses.

To help you prepare for your social experience, we have 20 tickets available for the musical comedy, Aladdin. Based on the Disney movie, it has been running in the West End since 2011 to raving reviews.

The dates and times of the show are:

  • 16 July 2018 at 7.30pm – suitable for session one students (9 – 20 July)
  • 31 July 2018 at 7.30pm – suitable for session two students (23 July – 3 August)

For further information and to book tickets, please click here.

We are also arranging day trips to the picturesque city of Oxford on Saturday 14 July and Saturday 28 July. These are fully escorted and guided tours on a private luxury coach. The day includes a walking tour of the historic city centre and what is considered a favourite tradition amongst students – punting along the river. For further information and to book tickets, please click here.

There is also the new Arcade Garden at Bush House, which is part of the Strand Campus, with free creative wellbeing workshops, including watercolour painting, mindful movement, garden workshops, breathful chanting and fragrance making. It is a perfect place for you relax, study and have a break. For further information about the workshops, please click here.

Now is the time to start making your check-list and booking everything you need before arriving, so you don’t need worry about anything apart from your studies and experience. Please visit our website for more social activities.

Undergraduate Social ‘n Sports

So, you have accepted your offer to join the King’s Undergraduate Summer School, and you now probably have an idea of what you are going to study, where you are going to live and how much your workload will be. This is the perfect moment to start thinking about how to spend your free time. You probably want to go sightseeing or attend a musical or have some fish and chips.

We have put together the below social activities that you can enjoy during the Undergraduate Summer School programme.

Oxford and Windsor Day Trip

Oxford is known for its beautiful canal, pedestrianised central business district and fascinating architecture. In Windsor, you can visit the largest and oldest inhabited castle in the world and the Queen’s favourite weekend home.

For further information and to book tickets, please visit the links below:

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre Trips

To celebrate some of the greatest works of William Shakespeare we will be offering our students the opportunity to attend a performance at The Globe Theatre where Shakespeare’s plays are performed like they were in his time.

Session one students can attend a live performance of Hamlet (10 July 2018 at 7:30pm), and  Session two students can attend Othello (1 August 2018 at 7:30pm).

Harry Potter Studio Tour

Step across the threshold of the Great Hall, walk down Diagon Alley, visit Number 4 Privet Drive, board the night bus, and take a photo on Hagrid’s Motorbike.

For further information and to book tickets, please visit the links below:

  • Session one : 7 July 2018 – Tour 1 at 10:45am, or Tour 2 at 11:15am
  • Session two: 28 July 2018 – Tour 1 at 10:45am, or Tour 2 at 11:15am

Gym Membership and BeActive

King’s Sport and King’s Summer Programmes are delighted to be offering gym membership packages to summer students. Membership includes full access to the fitness equipment and access to a variety of group fitness classes such as yoga, pilates and spinning (booking required). Here is an example timetable. If you wish to purchase a gym membership, please do so via the e-store.

In addition to this, A BeActive programme is available to all students, which consists of:

  • Weekly Table Tennis sessions
  • Weekly GoodGym Run – a chance to work out and volunteer in the community at the same time
  • Bi-Weekly Rave Runs

We look forward to seeing you this summer and hope you are also excited to be joining us on the King’s Undergraduate Summer School!

All you need to know about London

Public transport
Getting around London can seem really daunting at first, but don’t worry, you’ll soon get used to it. The first thing you should do when you get here, is purchase an Oyster card (unless you are a Pre-University Summer School residential student). This works on a pay-as-you-go basis, so all you need to do is top up at a machine (in a tube or train station) or online, when your balance is running low. Another way to pay for travel is to use a contactless card, which costs the same amount as using an Oyster. This means you have the added benefit of not having to worry about topping it up!

Both Oysters and Contactless cards are really simple to use on public transport. On the tube, trains and DLR, make sure you ‘touch in’ on the yellow reader at the start of your journey and ‘touch out’ at the end of your journey. If you’re taking the bus or the tram, you will only need to ‘touch in’ on the yellow reader once when you board. Also make sure you download a mobile app such ‘Citymapper’, as it is really useful for working out a route between two places.

Coffee and Culture
London is bursting with cool, quirky coffee shops and cafes, and some of the following parts of town are a great place to start: Neal’s Yard in Covent Garden, Pop Brixton, Brixton Village, Hoxton and Shoreditch. If you’re looking for other ways to spend your free time, head to Peckham, specifically Rye Lane for a unique and trendy part of London that is far off the beaten (and touristy) track! There’s also Richmond Park in South West London, a beautiful expanse of green space which is only 35 minutes from Waterloo on the train. The Southbank Centre, Somerset House and The Store Studios are all in walking distance of the Strand Campus and often have exhibitions and events on during the summer. 

Sight-seeing
Don’t forget about all of London’s famous sights. Just walking across Waterloo Bridge will give you an amazing panoramic view of some of them, but make sure you explore them properly. The London Eye, Trafalgar Square, St. Paul’s Cathedral, The Shard, London Bridge, The Tower of London and Tower Bridge are all close to two of King’s campuses – the Strand Campus and Guy’s Campus. Other unmissable sights in London include Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, The Houses of Parliament, Hyde Park and Regent’s Park.

Download the King’s Mobile app if you are already enrolled on the Pre-University Summer School and the Undergraduate Summer School. This app will provide information about summer accommodation, social and sports activities, advice and tips on your stay in London, as well as FAQs. To download the app, click here.

Culture, Literature, Art, Film and More!

What better way to explore the vibrant city of London than to take a summer course highlighting its role in the arts, literature, media and film. Here is an overview of the culture modules offered by the King’s Undergraduate Summer School;

London & Film
This course is intended to introduce you to some significant debates within British film studies through a focus on London as a cinematic city, the divergent spaces of London, and capital’s relationship to film genres. Films that are screened across this module will explore both the tribulations of fictional Londoners, but also focus on its real-life inhabitants that have dually shaped and contributed to London’s own big-screen history.

Media, Gender & Culture   
Taught by the Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries, this module is intended to give you the opportunity to undertake specialist learning in media, gender and contemporary culture. Taking full advantage of our location in central London, the class will visit many of the capital’s foremost cultural institutes and you will have the opportunity to meet with insiders from the media and cultural industries.

Museum of London: Curating the City
This module looks at the social, economic, and political history of London in the twentieth century by closely examining the various collections held at and the varied types of work carried out by museum curators. It is taught onsite at the Department of English and at the Museum of London with supervised access to museum artefacts and resources.

Wonderland: 100 Years of Children’s Literature
This course is intended to give you the opportunity, as an undergraduate student studying English Literature and/or History, to explore 100 years of children’s literature. The module will be taught by the Department of English, and will include a strong creative component where you will be given the chance to devise, and perform, your own children’s stories.

Jane Austen’s England 
This module examines Jane Austen’s life and work within the context of her time and in relation to her contemporaries. It will also explore Austen’s place within literary history, as well as locating her work and her world in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by comparing and contrasting the original texts with TV and film adaptations, sequels and textual transformations at the hands of modern directors and writers.

Literature in the City   
This module will examine the relationship between urban space and narrative representation in three European cities: London, Dublin, and Berlin.Students will be encouraged to use a combination of political, social, and literary theory to navigate literal and figurative cityscapes, through class discussion, short assignments, and exercises in urban rambling.

Theatrical London 
This module will be taught by the Department of English, and will examine London’s diverse and vibrant scene from its historic development to contemporary performance in the city and through this examination introduces theories and vocabulary used to analyse actors, audiences and architecture, the key components of theatre making.

Session one of the King’s Undergraduate Summer School runs from 2 – 20 July 2018 and session two runs from 23 July to 10 August 2018. All applications must be submitted online by 31 May 2018. More information about the academic content can be found on this webpage. All the best with your application and we hope to see you in London this summer.

Summer Education Abroad- Berlin

Berlin’s combo of glamour and grit is bound to mesmerise anyone keen to explore its vibrant culture, cutting-edge architecture and tangible history. It is the capital of Germany and one of the most celebrated and renowned cultural epicenters in Europe.

This course is designed for King’s students studying a range of different subject areas. Students will discover the city of Berlin and explore how citizenship shapes how cities and communities are built and rebuilt through history. By joining this highly interactive, skills and knowledge-building programme, they will be intellectually stimulated and personally empowered.

We will be running two sessions in consecutive weeks, with 25 places on each course:

  • Session 1: 11 – 15 June 2018
  • Session 2: 18 – 22 June 2018

Participation in this programme is fully funded as part of the commitment to King’s institutional strategy to support the brightest minds regardless of background. King’s will cover all course-related content, economy return flight to Berlin, any local travel related to the programme and affordable accommodation in the city centre. Please see here for further information about funding eligibility.

The study tour will use excursions, museum visits and discussions with Berliners to offer expert insight into both Berlin’s past and its present, enabling participants to profoundly experience this dynamic city whose future will influence the development of the Western world.

The course will be led for the second time by Aida Baghernejad. She explained her thoughts in the upcoming Summer Times blog; “This course introduces you to dynamic people who have taken their life and their destiny into their own hands. It’s all about personal agency and responsbility; about not only dreaming of a utopia, but actually just creating it yourself.”

The deadline for applications is midnight on Sunday 25th March 2018. Students can apply online here. Please see the webpage for further application guidance.

New Summer Programme- University Futures: Skills in leadership and innovation

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New to the King’s College London Summer Programmes Team portfolio for 2018 is University Futures: Skills in leadership and innovation conference.

Running from 1- 7 July 2018, this programme will be led by King’s College London’s Entrepreneurship Institute. This stimulating programme, aimed at high school students aged 14 and 15 years olds, will explore themes of innovation and leadership through a series of lectures, seminars and group work activities. More information about the academic content can be found on this webpage.

University Futures is a fully residential programme and all students will be housed in our Stamford Street Apartments. Every night there will be social activities for all students to take part in, including a treasure hunt along London’s South Bank, a trip to Covent Garden, a boat party on the Thames and a theatre trip.

You can apply online and you have until 15 May 2018 to submit an application to the programme. More information about the programme and how to apply can be found here. Good luck with your application and we hope to see you in July.