I attended Kingston University as a part-time, mature student, gaining a 2:1 in English Literature with Education. There are a number of campuses in and around Kingston upon Thames; I had classes in two of them.
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Campus Penrhyn Road
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This is the main campus. It's big. It's concrete. It's ugly. It's on Penrhyn Road (a ten to fifteen minute walk to the town centre). This is where I studied English Literature. It has a canteen, which I rarely used. This is because they had a coffee bar specifically for mature students, graduate students, faculty and staff. No youngsters. You got real ceramic cups and plates. There were comfy chairs. I got coffee there before class.
The classrooms, are, well, classrooms. That's what they look like. Which is just as well.
Course - English Literature
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The English Literature portion of my degree pleased me for the most part. I felt I got a good education, mostly with caring tutors (some part-time, some tenured). Foundation English Lit included an introduction to drama, an introduction to poetry, and an introduction to the novel (you only had to take two of the three I skipped the novel). After that, you could choose from narrower fields amongst others, I took a Shakespeare class, Romantic poetry, Post Modern poetry, and critical issues. I thought Fictions of Appetite was silly (don't ask!)
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Campus - Kingston Hill
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The Kingston Hill campus is pretty it has trees and grass and halls of residence. It's the one that appears on brochures, as it LOOKS like a campus.
Course - Education
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Here is where the education faculty is situated. I would like to point out, that the education portion of my degree was NOT teacher training. It does not claim to make you a teacher. What it was supposed to do is give you an insight into English education the laws, theory and practice. It would be a preparation, if you wished it to be, for a PGCE.
However, I said it would be. I can't say enough about the education portion of my degree. It was awful. Truly awful. It was disorganised, badly staffed and badly run. Marking of papers seemed to be arbitrary, with no consistent standards.
I took Comparative Education. A lecture on American education was timetabled, labelled 'lecturer to be advised.' Oh, it was advised, all right. Ten minutes before the lecture was due to start, I was asked to lecture. Me. A STUDENT. For free. I did it, but what did I learn from it? Humph.
Despite my dissatisfaction with the Education course, and despite the ugliness of the Penrhyn Road campus, and despite the changing around nearly every year of the structure of the course (daytime exams, a reduction of modules offered in the evening, a change to the credit accumulation system yadda yadda yadda), all in all, I'm glad I did it.
With ANY university be it Harvard, Oxford or Kingston, you get out what you are willing to put in. I worked hard, and, for the most part, that hard work was rewarding and rewarded.
The staff was, especially in the English faculty, committed and knowledgeable. Most of them, anyway. I didn't always agree with their viewpoints, but many deserved, and got, my respect (the Education faculty is another kettle of fish).
Sodo I recommend Kingston University for the more mature student? Well, yes and no. It IS a bit of a lottery which faculty you get, which courses will be offered in the evening, what you choose to study. But, if you live in South West or West London, it offers a convenient, decent education. So it's up to you. read more
