Canterbury Christ Church University

The pursuit of knowledge and understanding, and how both can make a positive impact on society, lies at the heart of research and knowledge exchange at Canterbury Christ Church University. Inspired by our Church of England foundation, we are strongly committed to transforming individuals, creating knowledge, enriching communities and building a sustainable future.

Since our inception as a teacher training college in 1962, the University has grown and diversified into healthcare and medicine, creative and digital, science and technology and across business, the economy and policy. We are now a multi-faculty, multi-discipline university of 17,000 staff and students, continuing to expand and innovate to serve the needs of public services, industries and communities in the South East and beyond. Our strategy continues to address regional skills shortages whilst seeking to widen participation, diversity and sustainability in the workforce, and support regeneration.

Building on our existing high-quality clinical teaching and research strengths, we have opened the area’s first medical school (the Kent and Medway Medical School), an exciting collaboration with the University of Kent. Research undertaken in 2014 identified skills and innovation shortages in relation to science, engineering, technology and medicine which underpinned the development of our flagship Engineering, Design, Growth and Enterprise (EDGE) Hub, ranging across science, technology, engineering, creative and digital.

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 exercise found that Canterbury Christ Church University had more than doubled its proportion of world-leading (4*) research and quadrupled its proportion of world-leading (4*) impact since 2014. Nearly two-thirds of our submitted research and 84 per cent of our impact case studies were rated as world-leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*).