King's College London (KQC) newsletter
UGC ACTIO The niver ity Grant Committee (UGC) con idered the College' propo als or Cornwall Hou e at a meeting on December 11. On De em ber I ,Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer wrote to the ice-ehanellor a follow: The Committee a\ its immediate ta k a being to a k the Government to create the opportunity for the full propo al to be properly conidered. There appear to be two alternative way in which this could be done: a) To dela the deadline for purcha e of the lea e until tbe full propo aJ has been properlye mined. b) To allow King's to purcha e the lea e of Cornwall Hou e, either with money obtained by the aJe of other propertie or with money provided by the GC, in advance of consideration of the full propo al. [ have written to the Secretary of State, drawing his attention to the problem and putting forward these two alternatives.' The Department of the Environment are keen to ee progress in this matter but have indicated that they could be flexible on the deadline, for the lease purcha e, previou ly et at February I 1. There i , however, no doubt of the urgency of the matter and the College now await. a response from the Secretary of State and the GC.
o
COR WALL HOUSE
follow academic planning, and our financial planning mu t harmoni e with both. The report submitted to the GC, with the wholehearted upport of the ni erity Court, addre e thi need.
PHYSICAL RA
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ALIS
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The Report present, in careful and considerable detail. three configurations for rationali ation. Configuration One: Unification of Split Department I t has already been po sible to bring together the Department of Physics, Mathematics, omputing and Biology but no le than even department are still operating on two or more sites; Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Phy iology, Biophy ics, Chemistry, Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Education. A scheme which would bring together the operations of each of these department to one or other of the existing sites was examined and costed. Configuration Two: Unification of Cognate Department Iso examined and co ted was a scheme to allow a more sen ible academic group-
ing of related di clpline . The Strand wa a umed the foeu for rt, Physical Scien e and Engineering and con liguration de i ed to unify Pre- lini al ubject Life Sciences and Edu ation. Configuration Three: Unification of the College The propo al here examined the cont iguration now known as the Thame ide Campus': u ing the Strand a in Con fig. Two, retaining Drury Lane and acquiring and developing Cornwall Hou e for Life Sci~ ence , Pre-clinical Department and ducation. 11 other teaching site and bUildings would be dispo ed of and the re ultant revue et again t development and restructu ring co ts.
ACADEMIC A D FINA CIAL IMPLICA S
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Configuration One Although the unification of departments is a fundamental necessity, plans based on thi alone would lead to the division ot medical and dental pre-clinical teaching acros London; a more radical remedy along the lines of Config.Two would be continued inside, p.2
hort ummary of the propo als made in the College ubmis ion to the Court and the UG i given below.
BACKGROU D The niversity of London has carried out a radical and far-reaching re tructuring programme, creating a clear pattern of respon ibility for cientific teaching and re earch. The need to concentrate effort and re ource in cience and engineering was a fundamental reason for the merger of King's, QEC and Chelsea and presents to the newly merged College, and to the niver ity, enormous academic potential for growth. To reali e thi potential rationalisation of our buildings and space must
ot a UGC delegation, but the new Schools Liaison Office secretary: see p.6
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