Town House Strategy

Society is changing at pace and employers need graduates who bring the Future Skills most valued by industry into the workplace. Find out how we are transforming our students’ education through our visionary Town House Strategy.

For more than 120 years, Kingston University has been driving innovation in education and community impact.

From our beginnings as Kingston Technical Institute in 1899 to our evolution into a modern institution, Kingston University has continually shaped the futures of students through academic excellence and forward-thinking teaching. Our Town House Strategy is named after our internationally acclaimed, RIBA Stirling Prize-winning Town House building, and is built around four key themes:

• Driving a progressive new model of education, combining subject-specific knowledge with the Future Skills and attributes most needed by employers.
• Partnering with industry to develop students’ skills, and engaging government and organisations with the University’s expertise to further debate and influence policy.
• Having impact in research, knowledge exchange and professional practice.
• Providing an innovative and high-performing working environment for staff.

“Through the Town House Strategy we are transforming our students’ education by embedding the Future Skills sought by business and the professions across our curriculum.

It is also giving greater prominence, visibility and support to research and knowledge exchange and creating a culture of high performance that is ambitious, inclusive, innovative and enterprising.”

“The Strategy will ensure our graduates, our staff and the University itself are sought after. Students will seek to broaden their knowledge and skills at Kingston University because it will help them make the most of their higher education. Staff will choose to work here because they can be effective, innovative and develop their careers. Businesses, organisations and government bodies will seek to partner with us because of our approach, expertise and values.”

— Professor Steven Spier, Vice-Chancellor, Kingston University

The UK’s leading university for Future Skills education

We’ve established a growing international reputation for our transformative Future Skills approach to education, which sits at the heart of our brand. Our expertise in Future Skills provides us with a distinctive proposition that sets us apart in the sector. 

It is central to our Town House Strategy ambitions, alongside our commitment to advancing research and knowledge exchange and being ambitious, inclusive, innovative and enterprising in everything we do. We are now amplifying the impact of our identity and brand to cement our sector-leading position – and deliver on our purpose of being truly sought after as a first-choice institution for students and staff.

Our undergraduate Future Skills programme is informed by extensive research with business to identify the skills they most need from graduates through our award-winning Future Skills campaign. Through their degree, students are taught and assessed on their development of nine Future Skills graduate attributes, alongside their subject-specific learning. These include creative problem solving, digital competency, adaptability, empathy and resilience, preparing them for career success in a rapidly changing world of work.

Celebrating our first cohort of Future Skills graduates

This summer the University celebrated a significant milestone, with the graduation of the first full cohort of undergraduates to have completed all three phases of our sector-leading Future Skills programme.

Around 14,000 students now benefit from a Future Skills education each year, working directly with employers on live briefs and industry projects. We are also one of a select group of global universities recognised as an Adobe Creative Campus – and are developing strong relationships with leading businesses, both through the Future Skills programme and our research.

Our commitment to high-quality teaching, providing an outstanding student experience and supporting students to achieve successful degree outcomes has been recognised in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). We are part of an élite group of just 26 higher education providers across the United Kingdom (UK) to be awarded Gold in all three TEF categories. In the latest Research Excellence Framework, 70 per cent of the University’s research was rated world-leading or internationally excellent.

Our research is transforming the lives of people around the world by responding to some of the biggest issues facing society. Through the Town House Strategy, the University established four Knowledge Exchange and Research Institutes (KERIs) to drive excellence and collaboration across the institution, reflecting its growing research ambitions.

We are number one in London for children’s nursing, creative writing, general nursing, graphic design, mental health nursing and midwifery in the 2026 Guardian University Guide. We are also in the top 10 nationally for mental health nursing, fashion and textiles, graphic design, construction, surveying and planning, and geography.  The University is consistently ranked among the top 10 higher education institutions in the UK for graduate start-ups in the Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey.