Guidelines for student journalists

Working with the Kingston University Press Office

Please bear in mind the Kingston University Press Office is a very small and extremely busy team of three working to get good media coverage for the University as well as dealing with a large number of inquiries from international, national, regional and specialist journalists. Unfortunately this means that in most instances we will not be able to help you with your query.

Please do not contact the Press Office for general information – e.g. equipment not working or ideas for stories. Please also note that we can only provide responses to factual questions and cannot give a University 'opinion' or 'view' (an individual can hold an opinion, an institution cannot!).

Always try other avenues for information relating to your stories:

  • All University press releases can be found on the Kingston University website;
  • The Press Office also sends all press releases and news alerts out to relevant journalism lecturers; 
  • For stories about a particular academic's research, contact the academic directly. Please bear in mind they will have also have very heavy workloads and may not have time to reply;
  • If you need a Students' Union comment – go to the Students' Union directly;
  • Queries relating to estates and buildings should be forwarded to the Stakeholder Engagement Manager Deirdre Ferrier;
  • Inquiries for other administrative/corporate departments (including Student Services, Human Resources, Information Services, Finance, V-C's and Planning Office, UK and International Marketing, KUSCO, Academic Registry) must come through the Press Office first. We will redirect them to the appropriate department. Bear in mind that they are also very busy and may not have time to respond.

If you are a third year or postgraduate journalism student and have an inquiry that you think should be sent to the Press Office, the following steps must be followed:

  • Email press@kingston.ac.uk in the first instance clearly stating your deadline;
  • Ask no more than three questions;
  • Give us plenty of advance warning before your deadline – at least three working days if possible;
  • Please do not email individual Press Office staff as they may be working away from the office, or on leave. We cannot answer enquiries sent to individual emails;
  • Only contact us during working hours, Monday-Friday 9.00am-5.30pm;
  • Please do not duplicate other requests – check with your course mates to see who is working on particular stories so that the Press Office only receives one request, rather than several, for the same information.

Kingston University first and second year assignment inquiries

Due to the high volume of other work we undertake, the Press Office has agreed with journalism lecturers that we can only assist with inquiries from third year and postgraduate journalism students. We are therefore unable to help with first and second year journalism students' assignments.

Student journalists from other institutions

Unfortunately due to the high volume of inquiries we already handle in the Kingston University Press Office, we are unable to assist with your stories or filming requests.