King’s College London has agreed to merge with Cranfield University, creating a new UK “super-university” that would rival many international competitors in size and research output. The merger would result in King’s taking on another 5,000 mainly postgraduate students and becoming the second largest mainstream university in the UK, with about 47,000 students, overtaking the University of Manchester and behind only University College London.
Under the agreement, the institutions would merge by the end of summer 2027 and be known as King’s College London. The government has already given preliminary approval for the merger to go ahead, at a time when the higher education sector in England is struggling financially.
Prof Shitij Kapur, King’s vice-chancellor, said: “The merger would bring new educational possibilities for students, new discoveries from academics and a clear focus on working in partnership with industry and government to support national resilience. This is a deliberate step to bring some of the best of the UK to compete with the best in the world.” Kapur will remain vice-chancellor of the new combined entity.
Patrick Vallance, the government’s science and innovation minister, said the merger “creates an extraordinarily powerful university … bringing together two world-class institutions and giving King’s a place at the heart of one of our most important regions for science and technology.” Cranfield, based near the town of the same name in Bedfordshire and with another campus in Oxfordshire, was founded after the second world war as a college of aeronautics. More than 90% of its students are postgraduates, concentrating on technology, engineering and management studies.
Prof Karen Holford, Cranfield’s vice-chancellor, said: “This merger is an exciting proposition for Cranfield, aligning our deep specialisms in engineering, technology, and management within KCL. It is an intentional step, which brings Cranfield University’s outstanding applied research, nationally important facilities, sovereign capability, and longstanding industry links to King’s, creating enormous potential.”
