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( King's College London)
King's College London is a British higher education institution and co-founding constituent college of the federal University of London.[4][5] Founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, its royal charter is predated, in England, only by those of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.[6] In 2008 King's was ranked 5th in the UK, 5th in Europe and 22nd in the world by The Times Higher Education Supplement.[7] King's is a founding member of the Russell Group and the Golden Triangle,[8] constitutes the biggest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe, and houses five Medical Research Council Centres - more than anywhere else in the world.[9] Today, King's is arranged into nine Schools of Study, spread across four Thames-side campuses in Central London and one in Denmark Hill, South London.[10] King's, so named to indicate the patronage of King George IV, was founded in 1829 in response to the founding of "London University", latterly known as University College London, in 1826.[11] UCL was founded, with the backing of Jews, Utilitarians and non-Anglican Christians, as a secular institution, intended to educate "the youth of our middling rich people between the ages of 15 or 16 and 20 or later".[12] The need for such an institution was due to the religious nature of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which then educated solely the sons of wealthy Anglicans.[13] The foundation of UCL met with the disapproval of the establishment, indeed, "the storms of opposition which raged around it threatened to crush every spark of vital energy which remained".[14] The Revd Dr George D'Oyly, rector of Lambeth and governor of Wilson's School in Camberwell, opposing the secular nature of the college, published an open letter proposing the formation of a competing institution. This would be of a religious, and more particularly Anglican, nature, one which would instil, "the services of religion performed as directed in our National Church".[15] This prompted Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the then Prime Minister to chair a public meeting which launched King's on 21 June 1828. His simultaneous support for the Anglican college and the Roman Catholic Relief Act, which was to lead to the granting of almost full civil rights to Catholics, was challenged by George Finch-Hatton, 10th Earl of Winchilsea in early 1829. The result was a duel in Battersea Fields on 21 March that year.[16] Deliberately off-target shots were fired by both and neither was hurt.[16] "Duel Day" is still celebrated on 21 March every year, marked by various events throughout the College.[17] King's opened in 1831, very much in a similar academic guise to Oxford. Despite the intentions of its founders and the chapel at its heart of the buildings, the initial prospectus permitted, "nonconformists of all sorts to enter the college freely".[18] Chemistry, English literature and Commerce were among the subjects offered.[19] At this time, neither King's, nor "London University" had the ability to confer degrees, a particular problem for medical students who wished to practice. Amending this situation was aided by the appointment of Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux as Lord Chancellor, who was chairman of the governors of "London University". In this position he automatically became a governor of King's. In the understanding that the government was unlikely to grant degree-awarding powers on two institutions in London, negotiations led to the colleges federating as the "University of London" in 1836, "London University" thus being demoted to the lower status of University College.[20] King's professors played a part in scientific and social advances of the nineteenth century, through extending higher education to women, the working class, and by offering evening classes. Perhaps the most famous scholarly research performed at King's was the work by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins that was essential to the discovery by James D. Watson and Francis Crick of the structure of DNA.
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