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King's College London (KQC) newsletter
AUGUST 1st
WARDS
A Note from the Principal On August 1 of this year, King's, Chelsea and Queen Elizabeth Colleges will embark on a new period in their individual histories: they will join together to form a single School of the University of London; a diverse multi-disciplinary School, one of the largest in the University, one of the five designated Centres of Excellence in university teaching and research in London. The process of merger is disruptive and demanding and every member of staff throughout the three Colleges will have had to take on a burden of extra work and extra worries over past months in order to get the College in a state where it is ready to take this next, very important step. It has been a time when we have had to reflect upon and re-order priorities against a national background of declining financial resources and bleak forecasts for higher education as a whole and, in common with many colleagues in universities up and down the Country, the problems we have had to face have been many.
tors, some within our own competence and some which presuppose the support of the University as a whole, and indeed the Government of the day. The Academic Plan indicates how we have approached the task to date and, more importantly, how we intend to face it in the future and it details the quite exhilarating scope of our teaching and research plans. It also points out that without relief from the strains imposed by the geographical scattering of our sites we should be hard pressed to consolidate the excellence that is easily within our academic range. Academic and physical consolidation is
vital to the realisation of any lasting advantage. Cornwall House is in part available to us now and our use of the building has the support of the Government. We must use this unique opportunity to create a unified campus and all action possible is now being taken to implement occupation of the building. We have, then, the prospect of playing a central role in the development of higher education into the 21st Century. I believe that we have created the conditions for the successful completion of a merger which is without precedent in the university system and that we must continue to devote our energies to our growth and advancement. There will be no fanfares or trumpets on Thursday August 1 1985 but what I hope there will be is a solid feeling of unity and strength for the future. For those staff present in College on the day itself there will be a chance to meet together over a drink and some food on each of the three Campuses - or indeed
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Much up-hill work is now complete. The redrafting of the ACADEMIC PLAN is done; it has been submitted to the Court of the University and will go to the UGC. This plan clearly states that our merger is fundamental to the restructuring of the University as a whole and that the combined College will be in a position to make an outstanding contribution to the federal university provision. We have now to turn our attention to our institutional response to the letter from the UGC, drawing on the essence of the Academic Plan and research statements already prepared to present our ai ms and objectives in to the late 19805. To continue to promote academic excellence in research and teaching and to expand the opportunities we offer to students, in a general climate of contraction, is not an easy goal to aim for but it is vital that this is the goal we choose. The task will be complex and success will depend on a variety of fac-
Princess Anne opens the Lions International Earl Mountbatten Blood Research Laboratory at a ceremony onJ une 14 at the King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry. (see inside article)