Pioneering Partnership has healthy aims: new three-way alliance launched

A unique academic alliance between Kingston University, Royal Holloway, University of London and St George’s, University of London will be launched on 19 December and will aim to address the historic under-provision of higher education in London’s south-west quadrant. 

Professor David Eastwood, Chief Executive of The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), will be the guest speaker at the event taking place at the Royal College of Surgeons.  Welcoming the initiative, Professor Eastwood commented: “We are delighted to support this new and exciting initiative which will capitalise on the complementary strengths of three higher education institutions. This partnership represents a dynamic model of collaboration and we wish all three partners every success.”

The alliance has been made possible by the award of £4 million from HEFCE’s Strategic Development Fund, together with 500 additional student numbers.  The alliance builds upon the outstanding strengths of each university as providers of Health, Biomedical Science and Business education.  It extends the existing ten-year partnership between St George’s and Kingston through their joint Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences and the recent WestFocus partnership that includes the three organisations, which is funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund.

Through the alliance, the three institutions will offer new opportunities in biological and biomedical sciences, leadership and management education for health professionals and inter-professional practice and learning.  The alliance will create a shared electronic learning environment and communications network for students and staff across the three partners.  These initiatives will support the growing need for a diverse and flexible workforce within the NHS and the public sector.

One of the main aims of the alliance is to provide students with greater opportunities to obtain qualifications for careers in science, health, social care and allied subjects. 
The three institutions intend to combine their teaching resources to offer new courses in biological and biomedical sciences and leadership and management education as well as to enhance continuing professional development training.

A new BSc in Biomedical Informatics was launched in September this year delivered jointly by the three institutions, and a Health Sciences Foundation Degree with routes into other degrees such as medicine, nursing and practitioner training will be the next course to be rolled out.  The alliance will also focus on research, postgraduate and professional provision as it develops.

Professor Stephen Hill, Principal of Royal Holloway, emphasized the important role of the alliance:  “This is a significant and distinctive addition to Royal Holloway’s range of collaborations with very different types of institutions, which promotes real growth in innovative capacity.  The partnership will provide new opportunities in biomedical sciences and health management for our own staff and enable us to experiment with novel modes of teaching, benefiting students.  It will help to address the historic under-provision of higher education in London’s south-west quadrant.”

“We are presently celebrating a decade of education provision through the joint Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences run by Kingston and St George’s which has supplied the region’s workforce with thousands of highly-skilled and qualified staff,” Professor Mary Stuart, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Kingston explained. “Extending that relationship to include Royal Holloway will provide us with the scope to train an additional 500 students a year, develop our course portfolios and delve into new aspects of research,” she added.

Professor Michael Farthing, Principal of St George’s, said: “This marks the birth of a new type of collaboration amongst HEIs.  The funding provided by HEFCE will allow the rapid development of a range of initiatives, and demonstrates the Government’s confidence in this new way of collaborative working.  St George’s is particularly pleased to receive funding towards a new flagship education building.”

Additional Information

The launch

The Launch Event will take place on 19 December 2006 in the Council Room, Royal College of Surgeons of England at 6.30 pm.

The Alliance

St George’s, University of London (SGUL), is a college of the University of London, and has a long history as a leading London medical school, with a strong reputation for innovation and quality in its medical education.  Its annual income is £65m.  It has programmes in medicine, biomedicine, a Foundation Degree for paramedics, and via the joint faculty, in health-related professions — nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy, radiography, social work.  It also has a joint programme with KU in pharmacy. SGUL is co-located with St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust in South West London.  It has approximately 5500 students, made up broadly of 1300 undergraduate medicine and bioscience students; 3700 health professions undergraduates in the joint faculty; 300 taught post-graduates, and 200 research students.  Approximately 7.5% of the medical students are from overseas.

With more than 20,000 students, Kingston University is a major provider of higher education in South West London, offering an extensive range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Government assessors have rated the University’s teaching quality as excellent in 16 subject areas. The Sunday Times has consistently praised Kingston for its teaching quality, describing it as a vocational university with a fine teaching record and highlighting its achievements in producing some of the best paid graduates in the United Kingdom.

Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL) is a research-intensive institution and a member of the University of London with approximately 7,700 students distributed between three faculties of Science, Arts, and History and Social Sciences.  In the latest UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), RHUL was placed in the top 10 research institutions and all its science departments scored 5 or 5*.  Nearly 20% of students are post-graduates and 20.6% are international students.  It was ranked 5th equal among UK HEIs in the 2005 National Student Survey and second in the country for graduate employment (HESA 2006).  RHUL is located on a 120 acre site in Egham, West London, centred around the historic Founder’s Building and an exciting, modern campus.  It has an annual income of £100m (06/07).