University for the Creative Arts Information

The University for the Creative Arts is a specialist art and design university in the south of England.

It was formed in 2005 as University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester when the Kent Institute of Art and Design was merged into the Surrey Institute of Art and Design, which already had degree-awarding status; both constituent schools had been formed by merging the local art schools, in Kent and Surrey respectively. It was granted university status in 2008, and the name changed to the present one. In 2016 it merged with the Open College of the Arts.

The origin of the University for the Creative Arts lies in the establishment of various small art schools in the English counties of Kent and Surrey in the nineteenth century. In Kent the first of these was Maidstone College of Art, founded in 1867, and in Surrey the Guildford School of Art, founded in 1856. During the second half of the twentieth century many of these small art schools merged, eventually forming Kent Institute of Art and Design in 1987, and Surrey Institute of Art and Design in 1995. These two organisations joined forces in 2005 to become the University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester. In May 2008 the University College for Creative Arts was granted full university status by the Privy Council, and adopted its current name, the University for the Creative Arts, officially in September 2008.

Following the election of a Coalition government, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills introduced legislation to increase tuition fees while reducing government spending on Higher Education in real terms and the University for the Creative Arts was revealed to be the fourth most-cut university in England with a cut of 7.8% (10.2% in real terms).

The University for the Creative Arts announced in February 2011 that it was discussing designating part of its Maidstone campus for use by MidKent College. Further to this, MidKent College expressed its willingness to buy the Maidstone campus from 2012 and phase out the UCA presence at the campus by 2014.

UCA has campuses in Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham and Rochester, together with teaching bases at the Royal School of Needlework and The Maidstone Studios, and a project and exhibition space in Folkestone Creative Quarter. It previously had a campus in Maidstone, which was closed in 2014.

The university also validates provision at, or co-delivers courses with, a number of other educational institutions and arts organisations in the UK and overseas: Farnham Maltings, Laine Theatre Arts, London School of Design and Marketing, Millennium Performing Arts, Turner Contemporary and MIT Institute of Design.

On 1 November 2016, the Open College of the Arts became part of UCA. This built on a close working relationship established in 2010.

UCA is the second largest provider of creative arts education in the UK, with around 6,000 students, and offers courses in a very wide range of architecture, art, design, fashion, media and performing arts subjects. Courses are offered at pre-degree further education, undergraduate, taught postgraduate and doctoral levels.

The University is organised into seven academic schools: Canterbury School of Architecture; Communication Design; Crafts and Design; Fashion; Film, Media and Performing Arts; Fine Art and Photography; and Further Education.

It has five research centres: Centre for Digital Scholarship, Centre for Sustainable Design, Crafts Study Centre, Fine Art and Photography Research Centre, and International Textile Research Centre.

The UKs first Business School for the Creative Industries is based at UCA Epsom.

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