Work with students and graduates
Bringing energy, creativity and expertise, Kingston students and graduates can help your business thrive while gaining valuable real-world experience.

Tap into student and graduate talent
Access the creativity, innovation and talent of our diverse students and graduates who can support the growth of your business.
Our supportive and inclusive community is one of our greatest strengths. Our students come from a diverse range of backgrounds so can offer a fresh outlook as well as cutting-edge, industry-focused skills and expertise.
Employability is at the core of all our courses – our students and graduates are work-ready with the motivation and capability to enhance your business.
Students are encouraged to think creatively, solve problems and work as a team, equipping them well for the evolving workplace of today and the future.
Student consultancy services
Engage Kingston students for bespoke consultancy projects that solve real business challenges. From rebranding strategies to market research, our students deliver innovative solutions tailored to your needs.
What are the benefits of student consultancy?
- Support students with live industry briefs
- Access new ideas
- Foster long-lasting partnerships with the workforce of tomorrow
What types of projects can we support?
Our broad selection of courses means that our student body excel across a wide range of industry-relevant skills. Previous consultancy projects have included:
- Rebranding strategies for non-profits
- Launch support for innovative start-ups
- Expansion and process improvement
What are hackathons?
Hackathons are problem solving events and workshops. Students work in teams to solve defined challenges for public, private, or third sector organisations. Solutions might include new or improved products and services, or provide new insights and thinking about the problem or context.
Hackathons solve problems for organisations; they also develop student capacity to be innovative, including creative thinking and problem-solving skills and approaches.
Collaborate with Kingston students in dynamic hackathons, where teams tackle your real-world challenges to deliver innovative ideas and insights. Benefits include:
- Access creative solutions
- Build relationships with academia
- Inspire future talent
A partnership with Kingston University's HackCentre gives sponsors an injection of innovative thinking and solutions, insights into their operations, organisation and needs of future customers.
In parallel, Kingston students gain invaluable industry-relevant experience and insight. For the vast number of our students who have no professional networks, this provides an opportunity to build towards their career goals.
What happens in a hackathon?
We design each hackathon to meet our partners’ individual needs. Each one takes place over a half day, a full day or several weeks. We design and host hackathons in partnership with challenge-sponsors, offering an intensive co-operative initiative between industry partners, students and academics.
These events are a great way to access talented students and develop innovation in your organisation. You will also be inspiring the next generation of graduates by providing them with live briefs to work on. Our hackathons follow the Design Council's Double Diamond process.
How to get involved
There are plenty of ways to get involved with Kingston University hackathons. As a partner organisation, you can:
- Sponsor a hackathon
- Bring your own challenge
- Attend as a relevant speaker
- Facilitate group work
- Attend judging rounds
- Provide feedback
For more information, contact the KA HackCentre by emailing: Amanda.Baker@kingston.ac.uk.
Led by a university project director, with a cast of supporting students, Studio KT1 is a unique creative agency. We work on creative briefs from industry, increasing employability before our students graduate.
Artists work in mixed teams as they would in industry. An art director may work with a game designer or a fine art student works alongside a computer scientist.
The way our team approach ideas is something the best advertising agency or service design company cannot replicate.
For details, visit Studio KT1 or contact c.selby@kingston.ac.uk.
The Innovation Playground is a collaborative project between Kingston University Business School and businesses looking to solve problems in new ways.
The programme combines playful creativity with learning to benefit both students and businesses.
How does it work?
The programme runs in eight-week iterations, in which:
- We pair a diverse group of students with a business
- Students receive specialist Design Thinking training and mentoring
- Together, you explore a long-standing business challenge
- You generate creative solutions, reframe the problem and explore new paths
- We adapt the programme in real-time by gathering insights from students and businesses
If you’d like to know more about our Innovation Playground, you can contact us by emailing our programme director Dr Bahare Afrahi.
Tap into creative ideas, insight and innovation at Kingston School of Art. We commission staff and students with creative production, research and consultancy projects. Every brief is different, so all our solutions are bespoke.
Mentoring and supporting students
Our supportive, multicultural and inclusive community is one of our greatest strengths. We are committed to increasing access to higher education for everyone, but in particular for under-represented individuals and groups. There are a number of ways you can get involved:
If you are interested in helping our students develop their entrepreneurial skills, there are a number of ways you can get involved in Kingston's Enterprise Education activities including mentoring, joining a judging panel, or funding projects.
Our graduates have an unrivalled reputation for starting their own businesses. Kingston has been consistently rated as one of the most successful UK University for graduate start-up companies by HESA. Help our students develop an enterprising approach to their future careers. Email entrepreneurship@kingston.ac.uk for more information.
Beyond Barriers is our successful student mentoring programme. It pairs industry professionals with students who, according to evidence, benefit most from having a mentor. It's our way of ensuring that every student has the opportunity to succeed, regardless of their background.
Every year, around 300 students from traditionally under-represented groups are mentored on the scheme. This approach helps to support personal and professional development and improves their confidence and career prospects.
If you are interested in supporting our students, there are a number of ways you can get involved in Kingston's Enterprise Education activities and events. Whether it's becoming a mentor, joining our Bright Ideas judging panel or sponsoring a project, offer your time to give back to the Kingston community.
We work with businesses to help them achieve their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) objectives and recruitment needs by enabling them to philanthropically fund scholarships and bursaries, or find students for their internship opportunities. The team works with academics across all courses, as well as with award-winning programmes that support less privileged students, like KU Cares, to develop meaningful engagement activity with our students that help you meet your objectives for the industries that you work in.
Recruit Kingston University students and graduates
Access a diverse pool of motivated students and graduates ready to contribute their cutting-edge skills to your business. Use our free advertising service for paid vacancies or connect with our team to explore tailored solutions.
Offer placements and internships
Gain fresh perspectives and innovative ideas with our placement and internship opportunities. Whether for short-term projects or year-long roles, Kingston students bring diversity, academic excellence, and cultural awareness to your workforce.
Placements span disciplines like business, law, sciences, art, and more. Employers are encouraged to pay the London Living Wage.
Get in touch to discuss business services
Whether you’re interested in research collaboration, accessing talent or exploring new technologies, Kingston University offers tailored solutions for all companies.
Phone: +44 (0)20 8417 7445
