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 & Design, which already had degree-awarding status;[4] 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.
UCA is the second largest provider of creative arts education in the UK, with around 6,000 students[citation needed], 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: The Business School, Canterbury School of Architecture; Crafts & Design; Fashion and Textiles; Film, Media & Performing Arts; Fine Art, Photography and Visual Communication; and Further Education.
It has five research centres: Centre for Digital Scholarship, Centre for Sustainable Design, Crafts Study Centre, Fine Art & Photography Research Centre, and International Textile Research Centre.
The UK’s first Business School for the Creative Industries is based at UCA Epsom.