The 'University of Kent' is a
plate glass campus university in
Kent,
England.
Name
The university's original name, chosen in
1962,
[3] was the 'University of Kent at Canterbury', reflecting the fact that at the time of its foundation the then single campus crossed the borders of the jurisdictions of the
county borough of
Canterbury and
Kent County Council. At the time it was the normal practice for universities to be named after the town or city whose boundaries they were in, but there were few precedents for one straddling the boundary, with both "University of Kent" and "University of Canterbury" initially proposed. The eventual name adopted name reflected the support of both the city and county authorities, as well as the existence of the
University of Canterbury in
New Zealand, who opposed the use of their name.
[4] The acronym 'UKC' became a popular short form for the university.
[5]
The reasoning for the name subsequently became anachronistic when
local government reforms in the 1970s resulted in the Canterbury campus falling entirely within the jurisdictions of both the
City of Canterbury (which no longer had county borough status) and the Kent County Council.
In the 1990s and 2000s the University has expanded and now has campuses in
Medway,
Tonbridge and
Brussels, and works in partnership with
Canterbury College, South Kent College and Mid-Kent College. In 2003 the formal title was changed to 'University of Kent'.
[6] ''University of Kent at Canterbury'' and ''UKC'' are still used to refer to the Canterbury site (with other variants such as ''University of Kent at Medway'' and ''University of Kent at Brussels'' also in use for the various sites). The term ''UKC'' is also still heavily used by both students and alumni for the University as a whole.
Canterbury has a second university,
Canterbury Christ Church University.
History
A university in the ancient city of
Canterbury was first considered in
1947, when an anticipated growth in student numbers led several localities to seek the creation of a new university, including Kent. However the plans came to nothing.
[7]
A decade later both population growth and greater demand for university places led to new considerations. In 1959 Kent County Council explored the possibilities of a university through its education committee,
3 formally accepting the proposal unanimously on
24 February 1960.
[8] Two months later the council's Education Committee agreed to seek a site at or near Canterbury, given the historical associations of the city, subject to the support of Canterbury City Council.
[9] By
1962 a site was found at Beverley Farm, suitably straddling the then boundary between the City of Canterbury and the
administrative county of Kent.
[10]. The University was granted its
Royal Charter on
January 4 1965 and the first students arrived in the October of that year. On
March 30 1966 Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent was formally installed as the first
Chancellor.
[11]
The University of Kent at Canterbury was envisaged as being a
Collegiate establishment, with most students living in College; and specialising in
inter-disciplinary studies in all fields.
[12] Over the years, changing demands have effectively destroyed this original concept, leading to the present state, near the "norm" for a British University.
The university grew at a rapid rate throughout the
1960s, with three of the colleges and many other buildings on campus completed by the end of the decade.
[13] The
1970s saw further construction but the university also enountered the biggest physical problem in its history.
[14] The university had been built above a tunnel on the disused
Canterbury and Whitstable Railway. In July
1974 the tunnel collapsed, damaging part of the Cornwallis Building which sank nearly a metre within about an hour on the evening of July 11th.
[15] The south west corner of the building had to be demolished and was replaced by a new wing at the other end of the building. Fortunately it transpired the university had insurance against subsidance.
[16]
In
1982 the university opened the University Centre at Tonbridge (now the ''University of Kent at Tonbridge'') for its School of
Continuing Education, helping to enhance the availability of teaching across the county.
[17]
In the
2000s the university entered a collaboration with the
University of Greenwich and
Mid Kent College to deliver university provision in the
Medway area.
[18] This led to the development of the ''University of Kent at Medway'', opened from
2001. Initially based at Mid Kent College, a new joint campus opened in
2004.
18 As a consequence of the expansion outside of Canterbury the university's name was formally changed to the ''University of Kent'' on
1 April 2003.
18
In
2007 the university was rebranded with a new logo and website. The logo was chosen following consultation with existing university students and those in
sixth forms across the country.
[19]
Coat of Arms
The University of Kent's Coat of Arms
The University of Kent's Coat of Arms were granted by the
College of Arms in September 1967.
3 The white horse is taken from . The three Cornish Choughs, originally belonging to the arms of
Thomas Becket, were taken from . The Crest depicts the West Gate of Canterbury with a symbolic flow of water, presumably the
River Great Stour, below it. Two golden Bishops'
Crosiers in the shape of a
St. Andrews Cross are shown in front of it. The supporters - lions with the sterns of golden ships - are taken from the arms of the
Cinque Ports.
[20]
The Coat of Arms are now formally only used for degree certificates, degree programmes and some merchandise, as a result of the University seeking a consistent identity branding.
19
Canterbury campus
The main Canterbury
campus covers 300 acres (1.2 km²) and is in an elevated position just over two miles (3 km) from
Canterbury's city centre. It currently has approximately 11,000 full-time and 6,200 part-time students and some 600 academic and research staff.
Colleges
Darwin Houses, a set of student housing next to
Darwin College, surrounds a large rose garden
The university is now divided into four colleges, named after distinguished scholars. In chronological order of construction:
★
Eliot (the
poet T. S. Eliot) (1965)
3
★
Rutherford (the
physicist Ernest Rutherford) (1966)
3
★
Keynes (the
economist John Maynard Keynes) (1968)
3
★
Darwin (the
biologist Charles Darwin) (1970)
[21]
There was much discussion about the names adopted for most of the colleges with the following alternative names all in consideration at one point or another:
★ For Eliot: Caxton, after
William Caxton
★ For Keynes:
Richborough, a town in Kent;
Anselm, a former
Archbishop of Canterbury
★ For Darwin: Anselm (again); Attlee, after
Clement Attlee, the post war Prime Minister; Becket, after
Thomas Becket, another former Archbishop (this was the recommendation of the college's provisional committee but rejected by the Senate); Conrad; Elgar, after
Edward Elgar; Maitland; Marlowe, after
Christopher Marlowe; Russell, after
Bertrand Russell (this was the recommendation of the Senate but rejected by the Council); Tyler, after both
Wat Tyler and Tyler Hill on which the campus stands. The name for the College proved especially contentious and was eventually decided by a postal ballot of members of the Senate, chosing from: Attlee, Conrad, Darwin, Elgar, Maitland, Marlowe and Tyler.
[22]
(Both Becket and Tyler were eventually used as the names for residential buildings on campuses and the building housing the Architecture department is named Marlowe.)
Each college features residential rooms,
lecture theatres, study rooms,
computer rooms and social areas. The intention of the ''colleges'' was that they should not be just
Halls of Residence, but complete ''academic'' communities. Each college has its own
bar, all rebuilt on a larger scale, and originally its own dining hall (today, only Rutherford has a functioning dining hall; Darwin's is now hired out for conferences and events; Keynes' was shut down in 2000 and converted into academic space; and Eliot's was closed in 2006). It was expected that each college (more were planned) would have around 600 students as members, with an equivalent proportion of staff, with half the students living within the college itself and the rest coming onto campus to eat and study within their colleges. Many facilities, ranging from accommodation, tutorials and alumni relations, would be handled on a college basis. With no planned academic divisions below the Faculty level, the colleges would be main focus of students' lives and there would be no units of a similar or smaller size to provide a rival focus of loyalties.
However this vision of a collegiate university has increasingly fallen away. The funding for colleges did not keep pace with the growth in student numbers, with the result that only four colleges were built. In later years when there was heavy student demand for scarce accommodation in Canterbury the solution was found in building additional on campus accommodation but not in the form of further colleges. The hopes that students living off campus would stay around to eat dinner in their colleges were not met, whilst the abolition of college amenities fees removed students' direct stake in their colleges. With the growth of specialist subject departments as well as of other university wide facilities, more and more of the role of colleges was transferred to the central university. Even the accommodation and catering was transferred to the centralised ''University of Kent at Canterbury Hospitality'' (UKCH).
[23]
Today the University cannot be considered
collegiate in any true sense - applications are made to the University as a whole, and many of the colleges rely on each other for day-to-day operation. Academic departments have no formal ties to colleges other than those that are located within particular college buildings due to availability of space, with lectures, seminars and tutorials taking place wherever there is an available room rather than on a college basis. Many students are allocated accommodation in their respective college, but some are housed in developments with no defined collegiate link whilst others are housed in different colleges. In addition to these college accommodations there are also:
★ Darwin Houses, a set of 26 student houses next to Darwin College, opened in 1989
[24]
★ Becket Court, next to Eliot College, opened in 1990
[25]
★ Tyler Court, three blocks of halls of residence. Block A was opened in 1995
[ mostly for postgraduates; Blocks B and C were completed in 2004[26] for undergraduates.]
★ Parkwood, a mini student village comprising 262 two-storey houses and a recently built apartment complex, about 5 minutes walk from the main campus. The initial houses were opened in 1980.24 A large addition to the Parkwood area was completed in 2005, comprising a number of en-suite fitted rooms grouped into four, five and six bedroom flats.
Library
The Templeman Library (named after Dr Geoffrey Templeman, the University's first Vice-Chancellor) contains over a million items in stock including books, journals, videos, DVDs, and archive materials (for example, a full text of ''The Times'' from 1785 onwards), yet it is still only half its planned size. It has a materials fund of approximately £1million a year, and adds 12,000 items every year. It is open every day in term time. It receives 800,000 visits a year, with approximately half a million loans per annum.
It also houses the British Cartoon Archive,[27] (established 197521) a national collection of, mainly, newspaper cartoons, with over 90,000 images catalogued.
Theatre and cinema
The University is home to the Gulbenkian Theatre, an acclaimed 344-seat theatre that shows a variety of local, national and international plays and productions as well as playing host to well-known comedians and celebrities. The theatre was opened in 1969 and was named after the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation which helped fund its construction. Attached to the building is the popular Cinema 3, an arthouse cinema showing a mix of classics, films in association with the University's film studies department, and new Hollywood movies. In the daytime the cinema is used as a lecture theatre. Both the cinema and theatre are open to the public and are popular with residents of Canterbury.
A new café-bar extension was completed in 2005.
Sports Centre
A £1.5million development completed in 2003 meant that the Sport Centre is among the best of all UK universities. Its facilities include tennis and squash courts, hockey and football pitches, a state of the art gymnasium, a cardio theatre, a dance studio, a multi purpose sports hall and a fair trade cafe, although unusually, no swimming pool.
Medway campus
In 2000 the University joined with other educational institutes to form the "Universities for Medway" initiative, aimed at increasing participation in higher education in the Medway Towns.18 The following year the ''University of Kent at Medway'' formally opened, initially based at Mid Kent College.18 By 2004 a new campus for the university had been established in the old Chatham Dockyard.18
Tonbridge campus
In 1982 the university established the School of Continuing Education in Tonbridge, aiming to make teaching available across the entire county.24 Development of the campus has continued almost constantly, with many new buildings added in the 1980s and 1990s.17 The campus is now called the ''University of Kent at Tonbridge''.
Academic Faculties and Departments
The University is divided into three faculties:
★ Humanities
★ Social Sciences
★ Science, Technology and Medical Studies (STMS)
The original plan was to have no academic sub-divisions within the three faculties (initially Humanities, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences) and to incorporate an interdisciplinary element to all degrees through common first year courses ("Part I") in each faculty, followed by specialist study in the second and final years ("Part II").12 The lack of Departments encouraged the development of courses that crossed traditional divides, such as Chemical Physics, Chemistry with Control Engineering, Biological Chemistry and Environmental Physical Science.[28]
However the interdisciplinary approach proved increasingly complex for two reasons. The levels of specialisation at A Levels meant that many students had not studied particular subjects for some years and this made it impossible to devise a course that both covered areas unstudied by some and did not bore others. This proved an especial problem in Natural Sciences, where many Mathematics students had not studied Chemistry at A Level and vice versa. Additionally many subjects, particularly those in the Social Sciences, were not taught at A Level and required the first year as a grounding in the subject rather than an introduction to several different new subjects. Problems were especially encountered in the Faculty of Natural Sciences where the differing demands of Mathematics and physical sciences led to two almost completely separate programmes and student bases.28 In 1970 this led to the creation of the School of Mathematical Studies, standing outside the Faculties.21 The addition of other subjects led to increased pressure on common Part I programmes and increasingly students took more specialised Part I courses designed to prepare them for Part II study.28
The University now has the Faculties further divided into 18 Departments and Schools, ranging from the School of English to the Department of Biosciences, and from the Kent Law School to the Department of Economics. Also of note is the University's Brussels School of International Studies, located in Brussels, Belgium. The School offers Master's degrees in international relations theory and international conflict analysis, along with an LLM in international law. In 2005 a new department, The Kent School of Architecture, began teaching its first students.
Student body
The student population is quite mixed, with approximately 16% of students coming from overseas.[29] No less than 128 different nationalities are currently represented. The female to male ratio is 55 women to every 45 men.29
Students' Union
:''Main article: University of Kent Students' Union
The Students' Union is known as "Kent Union" and has a considerable presence on campus. Kent Union runs three shops on campus, ''Essentials'' (all-purpose food and essentials), ''Parkwood Essentials'' (ditto, but in student village Parkwood) and ''Extras'' (off-licence). The Union also runs the Parkwood bar ''Woody's'' and the two-storey nightclub ''The Venue'', which from 1999 played host to big names such as Zane Lowe, Pendulum, DJ Hype, Goldie, the former boxer Nigel Benn, Starsky & Hutch original Huggy Bear, the Scratch Perverts, members of B
★ Witched and Tim Westwood.
The union is notable for having the unique position of "Duck Warden", (currently held by 1st year psychology student Sam Leivers) amongst its many office bearers.
In the early 1980s the Students' Union had a strong reputation for live music and played host to such acts as U2, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, The Smiths', Echo & the Bunnymen and Elvis Costello.
The Student Bar
The Student Bar is an online community, developed by a student at the university, which currently has over 6,000 members that consist of people that either study or work at the University of Kent, or are members of the university's alumni.
The website itself is similar to other social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Members are able to provide a profile which can include information about their course of study, personal details and interests as well as upload photos. The mainstay of The Student Bar is the ability to create and join groups for discussion on a range of topics. It creates a closer unity between students at the university that wasn't usually provided for students prior to 2006 and adds an extra level of socialising. The Student Bar is now open to students at other universities in the UK.
Alumni services
In contact with almost 30,000 alumni worldwide, the Development & Alumni Relations Team produces publications, undertakes fundraising activities to support the University and organises events for alumni.[30] Famous alumni include the actor Paul Telfer and comedian Alan Davies.
The Chaplaincy
Whilst the University is secular, there is a strong chaplaincy consisting of permanent Anglican and Catholic priests, a Pentecostal minister, as well as part-time chaplains from other denominations and faiths.
The chaplaincy runs the annual Carol Service that takes place every year in the Cathedral at the end of Autumn Term.
League Table Results
The 2008 ''Guardian Newspaper University League Tables'' (published 2007) puts the University of Kent in 30th place in the institutional rankings, while ''The Times Good University Guide'' (2007 - published 2006) puts Kent in 34th place. ''The Sunday Times University League Table'' (2006) placed Kent in 46th place. (There are some 120 ranked university institutions in the UK).
Kent does not appear in the top 200 World Universities listed by ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' or the top 500 World Universities listed by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's world rankings table.
In the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise the University of Kent was placed 46th (according to the RAE league tables in ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'').
Sixteen departments from Kent appear in the top 20 of either ''The Times'' or ''The Guardian's British subject rankings from 2005 (including six departments in the top ten).
The National Student Survey conducted in 2005 reported that the University of Kent had the best student satisfaction in the South East (excluding London, which is considered a region in its own right) and was 26th out of 128 institutions surveyed. Part-time students gave the University an even better ranking, putting Kent in 4th place nationally when only part-time student opinions were taken into account.[31]
The Franco-British double degree programme
This bi-lingual programme combines subjects in one degree and is taught in two countries. The first year is spent at the University of Kent, the second year at the Institut d'études politiques de Lille (IEP), the third year at the University of Kent, the fourth year at the IEP of Lille and the fifth is either spent in Canterbury, in Brussels or in Lille.
The students of the Franco-British double degree programme receive at the end of the fourth year the BA (Bachelor of Arts) from the University of Kent, the Diplôme by the IEP of Lille and at the end of the fifth year, either the MA (Master of Arts) in Canterbury or in Brussels or the Master delivered by the IEP of Lille, chosen between ''14 parcours de formation'' by the IEP of Lille.[32] [33]
References
1. Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' (University of Kent at Canterbury, 1990) page 36 ISBN 0-904938-03-4 As Martin notes "Our former Information Officer has ventured the opinion that Cranmer would not have got very high marks had this phrase appeared in an O-Level Latin paper!"
2. Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2005/06
3. About Kent - History - 1959-1969
4. Second University Sponsor Resigns
5. Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' (University of Kent at Canterbury, 1990) pages 29-30 ISBN 0-904938-03-4
6. Whilst Canterbury ceased to be a county borough in the 1970s, Medway is now a unitary authority - the modern form of a county borough. However the current overall title of the University does not reflect this.
7. Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' (University of Kent at Canterbury, 1990) page 14 ISBN 0-904938-03-4
8. Step Towards Kent University
9. Siting Of A Kent University - Canterbury Area Recommended
10. Site Of University For Kent
11. Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' (University of Kent at Canterbury, 1990) pages 11-36 ISBN 0-904938-03-4
12. University Of Kent Sets Out To Be Different - Emphasis On Collegiate-Based Life
13. "Kent Life" in ''Kent: The Magazine for The University of Kent'' Spring 2005 No. 44 page 4
14. Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' (University of Kent at Canterbury, 1990) pages 225-231 ISBN 0-904938-03-4
15. Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' (University of Kent at Canterbury, 1990) page 228 ISBN 0-904938-03-4
16. Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' (University of Kent at Canterbury, 1990) page 231 ISBN 0-904938-03-4
17. "Kent Life" in ''Kent: The Magazine for The University of Kent'' Spring 2005 No. 44 page 5
18. About Kent - History - 2000-2006
19. Our visual identity (pdf)
20. Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' (University of Kent at Canterbury, 1990) pages 33-36 ISBN 0-904938-03-4
21. About Kent - History - 1970-1979
22. Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' (University of Kent at Canterbury, 1990) pages 122-126 ISBN 0-904938-03-4
23. Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' (University of Kent at Canterbury, 1990) ISBN 0-904938-03-4
24. About Kent - History - 1980-1989
25. About Kent - History - 1990-1999
26. About Kent - History - 2000-2006
27. British Cartoon Archive website
28. Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' (University of Kent at Canterbury, 1990) pages 39-54 ISBN 0-904938-03-4
29. Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2005/06 There are 18,220 total students. 15,270 are United Kingdom students (3,385 postgraduates and 11,885 undergraduates), a total of 83.8%. 10,095 students are female (2165 postgraduates and 7390 undergraduates), a total of 55.4%.
30. Details of the activities, events and networking opportunities can be found on the University's alumni website at http://www.kent.ac.uk/alumni/
31. Teaching Quality Information - publishers of the National Student Survey
32. ''14 parcours de formation''
33. ''Official Site of the Franco-British course at the IEP of Lille and at the University of Kent at Canterbury'' - French and English
External links
★ University of Kent website
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