Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) is a

public research university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

located in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

, Kent, England. Founded as a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

college for teacher training in 1962, it was granted university status in 2005. Canterbury Christ Church University is a member of the Cathedrals Group (officially the Council of Church Universities and Colleges or CCUC), and of

MillionPlus MillionPlus, formerly known as million+, the Campaign for Mainstream Universities, and the Coalition of Modern Universities (CMU), is a membership organisation, which aims to promote the role of " modern universities" in the UK higher education sy ...

, the Association for Modern Universities in the UK.

History

Establishment

Canterbury Christ Church College (CCCC) was founded in 1962 by the

in order to meet the needs of church schools at a time of teacher shortage. Classes were originally held in the

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...

next to St Martin's Church. The founding principal was Frederic Mason. In 1968, the first-degree programme, the

Bachelor of Education A Bachelor of Education (B.Ed. or BEd) is an undergraduate academic degree which prepares students for work as a teacher in schools. A Bachelor of Education program typically lasts three to four years and combines both coursework and practical exp ...

, was established as a one-year extension to the Certificate in Education. In 1976, the university launched its first non-teaching degree, a BA in

Religious Studies Religious studies, also known as religiology or the study of religion, is the study of religion from a historical or scientific perspective. There is no consensus on what qualifies as ''religion'' and definition of religion, its definition is h ...

. In the late 1980s, the college was substantially enlarged by the addition of health studies and by 1988 the university had 1500 students.

University college status

In 1995, the college was awarded the authority by the Privy Council to grant its own degrees for taught courses, upon which the college's name was changed to Canterbury Christ Church University College. This form of the name was adopted to avoid confusion with

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

(one of the

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

colleges) and

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

, in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, New Zealand.

University status

The college was granted the university status in 2005, which recognised the delivery of degree programmes and adopted a new name, Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU). The

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

was later appointed, by virtue of office, as chancellor. The inauguration of the university and the installation of

Rowan Williams Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet, who served as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012. Previously the Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of W ...

as chancellor took place in a ceremony at Canterbury Cathedral in December 2005. In 2007, the university attracted publicity due to its controversial policy forbidding civil partnership ceremonies to take place at its properties. This decision by the university's governing body has since been reversed and in 2018, the university sponsored Pride Canterbury. In 2009, the university was granted power to award research degrees by the Privy Council. The 50th anniversary of the foundation was celebrated in September 2012, with a ceremony in Canterbury Cathedral at which more than 60 surviving members of the first intake were awarded honorary Bachelor of Education degrees and the chancellor, Rowan Williams, was awarded an honorary doctorate. In February 2013, Justin Welby became the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury and became chancellor of the university. In October 2013, Rama Thirunamachandran joined the university and in March of the following year was officially installed as vice-chancellor and principal in a ceremony held at Canterbury Cathedral. In February 2025, he announced he would be retiring in January 2026, shortly after announcing that hundreds of university jobs would be at risk despite a reported budget surplus in the 2023/24 academic year.

Campuses

Canterbury Christ Church University - geograph

North Holmes

The university's Canterbury Campus, at North Holmes Road overseen for many years by Bursar James (Jim) Blanthorn, is built on land which was once used for orchards and domestic buildings of the adjacent St Augustine's Abbey, part of Canterbury's World Heritage Site. The campus is a low-rise development centred on a courtyard adjacent to the chapel of Christ in Majesty. The chapel roof, formed of four isosceles triangles in glass, is a distinctive local landmark. The campus buildings are largely named after former Archbishops of Canterbury. The North Holmes site falls within the St Augustine Abbey element of the Canterbury UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) (the WHS also includes Canterbury Cathedral and St Martin's Church). The university includes an orchard containing local varieties of apple, a physic garden, and the growing of hops that are used to produce an annual brew of green hop beer. The nearby

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

former church of St Gregory, has been developed as a performance space for the university's choirs and musical ensembles. Most of these performances are open to the public. In addition to its main Canterbury Campus, the university occupies other sites around the city including Christ Church Sports Centre, Augustine House and the St George's Centre.

Christ Church Sports Centre

In 2009, the university built Christ Church Sports Centre which houses health and fitness facilities for students and staff. The centre includes facilities for a variety of sports including cricket, volleyball, badminton, football and netball, an exercise studio, a climbing wall and a gym. The university was used as preparation grounds by the national team of Puerto Rico at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

St George's Centre

The St George's Centre opened at the beginning of the 2012 academic year. This incorporated the

students' union A students' union or student union, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, organizat ...

facilities (until 2022), A bar and accommodation for 200 students.

Recent developments at the Canterbury campus

Following the university's purchase of the former Canterbury Prison site in April 2014, the university undertook a review of its entire estate to ensure that it was able to meet the university's strategic and academic vision. In April 2017, Canterbury City Council approved the university's plans for a new arts building on the North Holmes Campus. Named

Daphne Oram Daphne Blake Oram (31 December 1925 – 5 January 2003) was a British composer and electronic musician. She was one of the first British composers to produce electronic sound, and was an early practitioner of ''musique concrète'' in the UK. As ...

, the building officially opened in 2019, and provides a creative arts facilities and exhibition space. Plans for a new building for science, engineering, technology and health were approved in December 2017. The building project was awarded over £6m of government funding along with £7m of funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The new building, named the Verena Holmes Building, opened in January 2021 and is home to the university's Kent and Medway Engineering, Design, Growth and Enterprise (EDGE) Hub and new courses in Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Product Design and Software Engineering. It also provides teaching space for the Kent and Medway Medical School – a joint initiative with the

University of Kent The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...

, which opened in 2020.

Medway

The Medway campus opened in October 2004 as part of the Universities at Medway partnership, which includes the three universities; Canterbury Christ Church University, the

and the

University of Greenwich The University of Greenwich is a public university located in London and Kent, United Kingdom. Previous names include Woolwich Polytechnic and Thames Polytechnic. The university's main campus is at the Old Royal Naval College, which along wi ...

. Programmes in health, social care and early years are provided here. The campus is home to the university's Centre for Health and Social Care and has been equipped with a mixture of teaching space, specialist facilities and staff offices. The two buildings on this campus are

Court (RWC), and Cathedral Court. Students and staff also have access to the re-furbished Drill Hall Library, which has been created in the former

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

Drill Hall, and is used by all students from the Universities at Medway partnership.

Tunbridge Wells

The university's Salomons Institute for Applied Psychology is based at Meadow Road, in the centre of Tunbridge Wells. This offers postgraduate clinical psychology programmes including a doctorate in clinical psychology and a PhD in professional practice. It also provides training for local NHS Trusts. It was formerly based at the Salomons Estate and moved to its present location in October 2017; comedian, and former psychiatric nurse,

Jo Brand Josephine Grace Brand (born 23 July 1957) is an English actress, comedian, presenter and writer. Starting her entertainment career with a move from psychiatric nursing to the alternative comedy stand-up scene and early performances on '' Satur ...

officially opened the building.

Academic profile

Partnerships

The university has a range of partnerships in five categories: * Academic partners with whom the university develops its course to ensure they meet the needs of future employers and graduates, includin
Global Banking School
and

London School of Commerce London School of Commerce, legally St Piran's School (GB) Ltd, is a Private university, private, independent Tertiary education, higher education institution and associate college of the University of Suffolk located in London, London, Engl ...

. * Research partners with whom the university works with on research and knowledge exchange. * Education partners – as Kent's largest centre for teacher training, the university works with schools, colleges and education providers to promote access to learning. * Culture – the university is a supporter and provider of arts and culture, and is principal partner and sponsor of the

Canterbury Festival The Canterbury Festival is Kent's international festival of the arts. It takes place in Canterbury (England) and surrounding towns and villages (including Faversham, Whitstable and Margate) each October/November and includes performances of a vari ...

. * Faith – the university is part of the global partnership of Anglican higher education institutions.

Research

The university's research was recognised in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, which 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.

Teaching

In June 2017, the university was awarded a silver rating in the

Teaching Excellence Framework The Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) is a government assessment of the quality of undergraduate teaching in universities and other higher education providers in England, which may be used from 2020 to determine whether state ...

(TEF). In its citation, the assessment panel said that the university ‘consistently exceeds rigorous national quality requirements for UK higher education’ and delivers ‘high-quality teaching, learning and outcomes for its students’. In the 2023 TEF assessment, the university maintained its overall silver rating. A report published by the Higher Education Funding Council for England in 2016 stated that the university was in the top 20 for the percentage of teaching staff holding a teaching qualification.

Sustainability

Sustainability is a priority for the university and is one of the cross-cutting themes of the university's strategic framework (2015 to 2020). In May 2018, the university won an International Green Gown Award for "Continuous Improvement: Institutional Change" in recognition of its commitment to sustainability and its progress in this area. In 2019, this was followed by the university's Zulfi Ali winning the Green Gown award for individual Sustainability Champion. Between 2010 and 2016, the university reduced its gas and electricity consumption by almost 25%. In 2013, it became one of the first universities to commit to and achieve ‘zero waste to landfill’ and it also achieved

ISO14001 The ISO 14000 family is a set of international standards for environment management systems. It was developed in March 1996 by International Organization for Standardization. The goal of these standards is to help organizations (a) minimize how th ...

certification for its Environmental Management System. It became one of the first universities to achieve the new standard in 2017. In 2022, the university opened the Academy for Sustainable Futures, a collective entity to drive forward the university’s commitments to sustainability.

Governance and structure

The university is governed by its Governing Body comprising 18 elected, appointed and co-opted members. The Governing Body meets four times per year. The day-to-day management of the university is the responsibility of the Vice-Chancellor and his senior management team. Canterbury Christ Church is organised into academic faculties that contain schools and centres for teaching and research as well as professional service departments that provide central services The three academic faculties are: * Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Education * Faculty of Medicine, Health and Social Care * Faculty of Science, Engineering and Social Sciences

Rankings and reputation

In the 2023 ''Guardian'' rating of UK universities, Canterbury Christ Church University was ranked the 108th university. It ranked 3rd in the UK for graduate employment in the 2022 Graduate Outcomes survey.

Student life

Students' Union

Canterbury Christ Church Students’ Union is based at the North Holmes road campus. It is a registered charity whose role is to support and represent students studying at Christ Church. It offers support and advice services and runs campaigns to promote student health and wellbeing, sustainability and equality and diversity. Christ Church Students' Union also supports over 80 student-led clubs and societies including societies related to courses offered at the university along with cultural, political, recreational and sports societies.

Canterbury Varsity

Each year, for over 20 years, the sports clubs at Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Kent compete in Canterbury Varsity. Varsity sports include football, rugby, lacrosse, netball, volleyball, swimming, dance, basketball, hockey and tennis.

Student media

CSR, the Community and Student Radio Station, starting broadcasting in 2007. The station holds a Community FM licence and it was the first student-led community radio station to be award this licence. The station broadcasts shows 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, from two studios, one based at the university’s Canterbury Campus and another at the University of Kent. CSR won Best Station Sound at the 2021 Student Radio Awards. Unified is the university's student news outlet. In 2017 it won the Best Development in the South of England Award from the Student Publication Association.

Notable alumni

Steve Backshall Stephen James Backshall (born 21 April 1973) is a British naturalist, explorer, presenter and writer, best known for BBC Television, BBC TV's ''Deadly (franchise), Deadly...'' franchise. His other BBC work includes being part of the expedition ...

– naturalist, explorer, presenter and writer *

Rob Beckett Robert Anthony Beckett (born 2 January 1986) is an English comedian, actor, and presenter. He was a co-host on the ITV2 spin-off show '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! NOW!'' from 2012 to 2014. Since 2016, Beckett has been a team captain ...

– Comedian studied Tourism Management between 2004 and 2007 * Kate Blewett – producer and director with the BBC *

Phil Gallagher Phil Gallagher (born 3 March 1977) is a British children's television presenter who is best known for playing the title character in the CBeebies children's television show ''Mister Maker. Early life Gallagher attended Rainham Mark Grammar ...

– children's TV presenter *

Abdulrazak Gurnah Abdulrazak Gurnah (born 20 December 1948) is a Tanzanian-born British novelist and academic. He was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s as a refugee during the Zanzibar Revolution. His novels includ ...

- winner of the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

Jon Holmes Jon Holmes (born 24 April 1973) is a British comedian, writer, presenter and broadcaster. His work includes '' The Skewer'', ''The Now Show'', ''Listen Against'' (for BBC Radio 4), along with both music and spoken word radio. He has also a ...

– writer, script editor and presenter *

Joel Hopkins Joel Hopkins (born 6 September 1970) is a British independent film director and screenwriter best known for his films '' Jump Tomorrow'' (2001) and ''Last Chance Harvey'' (2008). Career Hopkins was born in London, England, he moved to New York ...

– BAFTA award-winning film writer–director *

Geraldine McCaughrean Geraldine McCaughrean ( ; born 6 June 1951) is a British children's literature, children's novelist. She has written more than 170 books, including ''Peter Pan in Scarlet'' (2004), the official sequel to ''Peter and Wendy, Peter Pan'' commissi ...

– children's author *

Dorothée Munyaneza Dorothée Munyaneza (born 1982) is a British-Rwandan singer, actress, dancer and choreographer. She has produced two performance pieces, ''Samedi Détente'' and ''Unwanted'', both about the Genocide against the Tutsi. Personal life Munyaneza w ...

– actor, singer, dancer and choreographer * Noel Paine - artist

References

External links

* {{authority control Universities and colleges established in 1962 1962 establishments in England Universities UK