University of Kent

Kent is one of the UK’s leading universities. Awarded Gold, the highest rating, in the UK Government’s Teaching Excellence Framework†, and with a global reputation for excellence – three of Kent’s subject areas are ranked within the world top 100, with a further eight in the top 200* – we offer you outstanding teaching, world-leading research, stunning study locations and one of the best student experiences in the country.

We offer a wide range of foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, exciting study abroad, work placement and internship opportunities, European summer schools, and a generous scholarship fund, including awards for academic, sporting and musical excellence.

And if you don’t yet have the required qualifications or level of English language, we offer flexible pre-sessional courses and the International Foundation Programme (IFP) to enable you to progress to your chosen degree. Free English lessons are also available during your studies.

†The University of Kent's Statement of Findings can be found here

*2017 QS World University Rankings by Subject

Rankings

Ranked 21^st in the Times Higher Education (THE) ‘Table of Tables’ 2017, and 22^nd in The Guardian University Guide 2018,  we also gained the fourth highest score for overall student satisfaction in the 2016 National Student Survey. Our outstanding teaching was rated gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework. Based on the evidence available, the TEF Panel judged that the University of Kent delivers consistently outstanding teaching, learning and outcomes for its students. It is of the highest quality found in the UK.

97% of our research was found to be of international quality in the most recent Research Excellence Framework, an independent national survey of UK universities. Because our academics are engaged in world-class research and this informs their teaching, you have the chance to study with some of the most influential thinkers in your field.

As well as providing a first-rate academic experience, we want you to be in a good position to face the challenges of the global economic environment. We provide an award-winning Careers and Employability Service, Careers Advisers, and mentoring and work opportunities through JobShop. And these initiatives work: more than 96% of our students who graduated in 2016 were in work or further study within six months.

Inspirational Teaching and Academic Excellence

Kent is renowned for its teaching style; our academics have an outstanding ability to pass on their passion for study and debate. You will be challenged and encouraged, and develop as an independent thinker, capable of thriving in different situations. This approach is enhanced by the opportunity for you to attend numerous talks and workshops in related fields, allowing you to place your studies within a broader context.

Our postgraduate students further develop their skills by presenting work at research seminars, participating in conferences and publishing papers.

Employability

Kent equips you with the essential skills to give you a real advantage when it comes to getting a job. More than 96% of Kent students who graduated in 2016 were in work or further study within six months.

Our award-winning Careers and Employability Service can help you to plan your future career and put you in touch with our Alumni Careers Network. Our annual Careers Fair gives you the chance to meet with prospective employers to discuss graduate schemes, year in industry placements and internships.

In addition, JobShop, a service provided by the students’ unions at Kent, can help you find paid, part-time work. This helps you to develop skills and try out different areas of employment.

Go Abroad and Year in Industry

At Kent, as part of your degree, you can further extend your experience by spending time in another European country or elsewhere in the world. We have numerous destinations around the world including in: Europe, Asia, North and South America, Australia and South Africa. Whether you choose to study or to undertake a work placement, we’ll support you every step of the way.

Many of our degrees offer the opportunity to spend a year in industry or on professional placement, allowing you to gain the practical skills and life experience to stand out in a competitive global workplace. Employers are very keen to employ graduates who already have work experience. The year in industry can greatly enhance your job prospects by providing you with real commercial experience. It also allows you to evaluate a career path, and gain knowledge of the working environment.

A truly international community

As a Kent student, you will be joining a truly international community – 27% of our students come from outside the UK, representing 150 nationalities, 37% of our academics are from overseas, and we have 155,000 alumni in 185 countries. This international mix creates a dynamic and stimulating environment, giving you the opportunity to discover how different cultures address global issues and enabling you to make new friends from around the world.

Our student societies celebrate a range of festivals including Chinese New Year, Holi, Thanksgiving and Diwali, and our Multicultural Events Fund offers awards to help you run your own multicultural event.

The UK’s European university, we have stunning UK campuses close to London, and specialist European centres in Paris, Brussels, Athens and Rome. Each offers an attractive and safe environment for your studies.

Less than an hour’s travel from London, our beautiful Canterbury and Medway campuses are situated in the county of Kent in the south east corner of England. Affectionately known as the ‘Garden of England’, the county boasts over 1,000 miles of countryside and 200 miles of unspoilt coastline, and is the perfect location from which to explore mainland Europe.

The jewel in Kent’s crown is Canterbury, a beautiful and lively city less than an hour from London. Virginia Woolf famously wrote “there is no lovelier place in the world than Canterbury”, and each year many students from around the world fall in love with the city’s diverse and cosmopolitan charm.

As you would expect from a city with nearly 40,000 students, there’s a rich social life. The city has musuems, art galleries, clubs, bars, restaurants, sports facilities, two cinemas and a theatre, as well as a wide range of shops. Canterbury’s medieval history is easy to see in its streets and buildings and in the world-famous cathedral. It is a cultural city with a strong focus on the arts; an annual arts festival attracts thousands of visitors from across the UK and Europe.

Overlooking the Cathedral, and nestled in 300 acres of green parkland, is our Canterbury campus. As with the city, the campus offers a lively and friendly environment for students and great social facilities including its own nightclub, cinema, theatre and sports centre. 

Medway is a bustling area with outstanding facilities, exciting arts programmes and buildings of historic significance. Our Medway campus on the Chatham Maritime site combines a historic riverfront setting with first-class facilities to provide a stunning study environment less than an hour from London.

Student accommodation 

Our University accommodation allows you to make an easy transition to living in the UK – you don’t have to worry about finding somewhere to live and all of your basic bills are included in the rent.

We offer some of the best accommodation in the university sector and, since 2010, have invested over £120m in our student residencies. Most of our bedrooms are recently built or newly refurbished.

Our Canterbury campus houses 5,400  students in flats, houses and colleges offered on a self-catered or part-catered basis.

Medway students can stay in the purpose-built Liberty Quays development, a short walk from the campus and right by the River Medway.

Our international students, whether at Canterbury or Medway, are offered a room in University accommodation for their first year of study (providing they meet the application criteria).

You can explore our accommodation options via our virtual tour.

We offer a wide choice of undergraduate and postgraduate (taught and research) degrees through our faculties of Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences:Humanities

• The School of Architecture
• The School of Arts
• The School of English
• The School of European Culture & Languages
• The School of History
• The Centre for American Studies
• Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies
• Centre for Music and Audio Technology

Sciences

• The School of Biosciences
• The School of Computing
• The School of Engineering and Digital Arts
• The School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science
• The Medway School of Pharmacy
• The School of Physical Sciences
• The School of Sport and Exercise Sciences

Social Sciences          

• The School of Anthropology and Conservation
• The School of Economics
• The Kent Business School
• The Kent Law School
• The School of Politics and International Relations
• The School of Psychology
• The School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
• Centre for Journalism
• Centre for Professional Practice

If you don’t yet have the required qualifications or level of English language, we offer flexible pre-sessional courses and the International Foundation Programme (IFP) to enable you to progress to your chosen degree. Free English lessons are also available during your studies.

For information on our doctoral programmes (PhDs), please see our online Graduate prospectus.

Our academic schools produce world-leading research, and we are rated as internationally excellent, leading the way in many fields of study. We are ranked 17th in the UK for research intensity and 97% of research at Kent was found to be of international quality in the Research Excellence Framework 2014, an independent national survey of UK universities. This means that you will study in one of the best research-intensive universities in the UK with outstanding academic staff who have a strong track record of research publishing.

Contributing to the University’s REF success were:

• the number of our world class publications
• the number of research active staff
• the demonstrable impact our research has made to the sciences and to economic, social and cultural understanding

To find out more about the research at Kent and its international impact, watch our ‘Think Kent’ lecture series.

Sport

Our superb sports facilities at Canterbury provide students with the opportunity to experience sport either for leisure and recreation or to an elite competitive level using state of the art equipment and a wide-range of facilities. We also offer a wide variety of fitness and dance classes, sports courses and fun tournaments throughout the year.

Facilities include: an air-conditioned fitness suite fitted with the latest StarTrac equipment; a strength and conditioning training area equipped with four Olympic lifting platforms and Eleiko discs and bars; a Physiotherapy Clinic; large group exercise studio which hosts a full timetable of dance, studio, cycling, toning, holistic and combat classes, three multi purpose sports halls for activities including badminton, basketball, football, netball, table tennis, and volleyball; two squash courts, an indoor and outdoor tennis and netball centre; a floodlit 3G football pitch and multi-use astro-turf pitch; grass pitches for sports including rugby, football and cricket; a sports pavilion and two café areas.

Our outstanding facilities led to Kent being selected as a pre-games training camp for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

At Medway, our students have access to Medway Park, a multi-sport, state-of-the-art facility, located near to the campus. Kent students receive preferential rates to use its sports halls, pools, squash courts, health suites and athletics track.

The arts

On our Canterbury campus, the Gulbenkian Theatre offers a full programme of music, comedy, dance and drama, whilst the Gulbenkian Cinema screens a wide range of films from new releases to classics.

Our Colyer-Fergusson Building is a state-of-the-art centre for music performance able to accommodate everything from chamber recitals to large-scale orchestral concerts.

Passionate about music? We offer a wide range of music-making opportunities, and Music Performance Scholarships of up to £2,000 are awarded each year to talented instrumentalists and singers studying for any degree at the University.

Students’ unions

Kent Union at Canterbury and Greenwich and Kent Students’ Unions Together (GK Unions) at Medway run a wide range of student societies, including numerous international societies, and events which give you a chance to try something different or develop an existing interest. You could even establish your own society. Both unions are run by students for students and can provide advice and support on a range of matters.

Libraries

Our libraries contain over 1.3million books, periodicals and journals, as well as many online resources. Our impressive Templeman Library contains a number of special collections, study areas, and viewing facilities. The £10million Drill Hall Library at Medway hosts extensive book and journal collections.

IT services

We provide full IT services to assist your studies, including training, support and high-speed wireless access from study bedrooms and other locations across campus.

Support When You Need It

Our students describe the University as a safe and friendly place with a great social scene.

To help you settle in, we hold a special Welcome Week in September (at the beginning of the academic year). This includes a greeting at the airport, lots of welcome events and trips to see local tourist attractions.

At Kent, we’re proud of our supportive teaching. Our academics are friendly and approachable, and you will have an academic adviser, someone who can help if you have any problems. Our Student Learning Advisory Service (SLAS) provides tuition on everything from research skills to writing essays, from maths and stats clinics to creative language development.

If English is your second language, we can help you to develop your fluency – you can have up to two hours of free English lessons a week at our Centre for English and World Languages.

Our student support and well-being team offer a counselling service and run events throughout the year to aid physical, social and psychological well-being. We also have a dedicated student Careers and Employability Service.

Tuition Fees

Our standard tuition fees for international students (from outside the EU) for 2018/19 are:

• Undergraduate and postgraduate degrees:
  • Standard non-laboratory programmes: £15,200
  • Standard lab-based or practical programmes: £18,400
• International Foundation Programme (IFP): £15,200
• Pre-Master’s graduate diploma: £15,200

Scholarships

We offer a generous range of undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships to international students, including awards for academic, sporting and musical excellence. See our Scholarships and Loans pages for details.

We welcome students from around the world and our International Recruitment team is always available to answer your questions.

• For details of how to apply to our undergraduate degrees, please see our Undergraduate applications page.
• Applications for postgraduate taught and research programmes are made online via our Graduate website.
• You can apply online for our International Foundation Programme (IFP) and pre-sessional courses via our International Pathways site.
• It is also possible to apply for our courses via one of our authorised representatives in your own country.

Entry Requirements

Search our online prospectus to find the entry requirements for your chosen degree.  To see which international qualifications we accept, please see our international pages.

If you are a non-native speaker of English, we will also need to see evidence of your English language ability. The level required will depend on your chosen programme of study. If you don’t currently have the necessary level of English, we offer an International Foundation Programme (IFP) and a range of pre-sessional courses to help you improve your English and study skills before joining your programme. Free English lessons are also available during your studies.

Contact us

If you have any questions about Kent, you can contact our International Recruitment team by email or telephone, meet our staff at an overseas fair, or talk to one of our overseas representatives in your own country.