Summer 2025 classes

Our classes are open to all current university students and are specifically designed for the Summer School study experience.

These classes focus on experiential learning in and around the London area. Our classes are fully accredited and worth 3 U.S. / 6 ECTS credits each.

The classes minimise the amount of time spent in a classroom and maximise the amount of experiential learning in and around the London area. All classes require a lot of walking as they are all field trip based, so please only apply if you are happy to be on your feet a lot!

If you are taking two classes then you need to select one from group A, and one from group B (due to timetabling).

The classes on offer for 2025 are as follows:

PLEASE NOTE: The field trip dates on the class syllabi are tentative. Dates may be subject to change based on availability at the time when we book the field trips.

• British Culture and Society (A)
  
• Live Theatre (A)
• Creative Writing (B)
• Harry Potter and the order of popular British icons (B)
  

British Culture and Society (3 US credits)

This class gives you the opportunity to develop an understanding and appreciation of:

• contemporary British culture and society
• the differences between Britain and your home culture and lifestyle.

The course covers key topics such as:

• the British system of government
• the monarchy
• media
• theatre
• sports
• multicultural Britain
• Britain's changing world role
• national identity.

Guided field trips re-enforce your learning and support the classroom discussions. These might include visits to:

• Greenwich
• Gurdwara Sikh temple (Southall)
• a performance at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
• Hampton Court Palace
• Stonehenge and Bath
• Oxford.

We also encourage you to make independent visits to different sites in the London area. London has some of the best museums and galleries in the world and they are mostly free of charge.

Students not taking the British Culture and Society course can also participate in field trips, subject to space and your timetable, on a fee-per-trip basis. 

Download the syllabus for British Culture and Society (Word doc).

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Live Theatre (3 US credits)

This course is aimed at both students studying theatre and those with little or no knowledge of it. We will see five or six shows in the West End, the National Theatre and the fringe, encompassing a cross-section of Shakespeare, classic, modern and experimental plays.

In 2015 the shows included:

• Alice's Adventures Underground, The Vaults
• Bend it like Beckham, Delfont Mackintosh Theatre
• Death of a Salesman, Noel Coward Theatre
• Everyman at the National Theatre and
• Lampedusa at the Soho Theatre

We will also:

• meet actors, writers or directors working in the theatre – to understand how a play evolves from the page to the stage
• attend a workshop at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
• go on backstage tours at the National Theatre and elsewhere.

Download the syllabus for Live Theatre (Word doc)

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Creative Writing (3 US credits)

This class explores the act and culture of creative writing in London and the surrounding area. You discuss your creative writing – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays and more – in regular workshops with a group of peers and professional writers associated with Kingston University's thriving creative writing field.

These workshops will be combined with:

• a programme of readings, both on campus and in venues across the city, by well-known writers
• visits to literary events and festivals

Download the syllabus for Creative Writing (Word doc).

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Harry Potter and the order of popular British icons (3 US credits)

This class will celebrate not only the popular and internationally successful creations of J K Rowling but also place the Harry Potter stories in a lineage of heroic British fiction – from Sherlock Holmes to James Bond, Frodo Baggins to Doctor Who. We will study a range of these stories and also read them in terms of politics and gender. In doing so, we will seek to understand how these narratives can provide us with an alternative cultural history.

Field trips will include expeditions to the Harry Potter Studios, the Covent Garden James Bond exhibition and the Harry Potter walking tour.

Download the syllabus for Harry Potter and the order of popular British icons (Word doc).

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Kingston University reserves the right to cancel a class due to insufficient student enrolments.