King’s College London officially opens new Professional Education space
King’s new professional education space opened today, offering a high-tech, flexible and stylish venue for all nine faculties growing professional education provision. Managed by King’s Professional & Executive Development (KPED), the new space is a key enabler allowing the university to widen its educational reach to new and increasingly diverse groups of learners.
The space includes large, flexible teaching areas that can be configured to accommodate multi-modal delivery, encompassing lectures, seminars, peer and project working, break-out groups and lounge space. Technology offers a variety of ways for people to connect and integrate online and on-campus. A pantry-style kitchen will allow participants to help themselves to refreshments throughout the day while office and reception areas provide space for academic and support teams to be on-hand and provide high levels of client service. The space is overseen by the KPED Operations Team, who will deliver an exceptional professional education experience for the university.
Part of our commitment to establishing professional education as a core component of King’s education portfolio is investing in a physical space in which it can thrive. The flexibility and integrated technology available in Melbourne House for our faculties and their custom-built courses recognises the needs of the professional learner and allows King’s to offer lifelong learning experiences at every career stage.
Professor Adam Fagan, Vice-President (Education and Student Success)
The first course to be delivered is King’s Business School’s Mini-MBA for In-House Lawyers, part of their open Executive Education portfolio, with early bookings including the established custom programme portfolios delivered by the Business School, Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy and The Dickson Poon School of Law to our established client base including the UK and international government clients.
The redevelopment of the space is a huge boost for KPED, who are realising a long-held ambition for dedicated professional education space on campus. All faculties were invited to share ideas about what they would like for their executive education courses, so they could be incorporated into the designs and ensure the space met current and future needs of the university’s growing professional education portfolio. The KPED team collaborated with colleagues in King’s Business School (KBS), The Dickson Poon School of Law, the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy (SSPP) to develop the detailed proposal approved by the College Council last summer.
It is very gratifying to see the successful delivery of this new professional education space in Melbourne House. The creation of this space will help to enable the university’s ambitions to more firmly establish professional education alongside our other core activities, and now offers a very high-quality physical space that can be enjoyed by both the participants who join our programmes, and the staff who deliver the programmes.
Zoë Fearnley, Director of Operations, Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy
Since 2018, professional and executive education at King’s has been delivered as a hub and spoke model, with KPED acting as the hub, working with faculties acting as the spokes, to enable and grow their commercial custom and open programmes. During that time undergraduate and postgraduate student numbers have grown, increasing the demand for space across the university’s estate and leading to professional education courses being located off-site. The third floor of Melbourne House will remove the need for professional education courses to compete with degree courses for suitable rooms on the King’s estate or use costly locations elsewhere.
LTS, the architects really understood the differing needs demanded by the space and the requirements of our client group as did the teams from Estates and Facilities, AV Solutions and King’s Food. Working as one team has been a great experience and has led to this amazing space. It’s possibly one of the best teaching spaces in central London and will make such a difference to our operation and ambition for King’s.
Jo Fowler, Director of Professional Education, KPED and Interim Director, King’s Online