The proposed merger between King’s College London and Cranfield University was formally agreed today (2 November) for 1 August 2027 after legal agreements were signed.
First announced in May this year, the merger will bring the Bedfordshire-based postgraduate-only university, notable for its defence and engineering work, under King’s as a new faculty.
Cranfield has 5,000 students and 1,700 staff across its two campuses, and is one of the few universities in the world to operate its own airport. It also trains the armed forces through its Defence Academy in Oxfordshire, alongside King’s.
“I’m confident that welcoming Cranfield with all its unique strengths, world class facilities and deep industry partnerships into our community will help us achieve that and support our Strategy 2030 to build a bigger, better King’s,” KCL Vice-Chancellor Shitij Kapur announced on Monday.
‘Militarised’ institution
The merger has been seen as controversial given KCL’s existing links to the defence industry, with some staff reportedly warning that the university risks becoming “militarised”, calling it a “worrying obsession”.
King’s said at the time that all of the work it carries out are within agreed “legal and ethical frameworks, without compromising academic freedom”. The government has also come out in support of the merger.
King’s itself is known for producing a significant volume of defence and security research; it is notable for its Department of War Studies, which describes itself as one of the world’s leading centres for the study of conflict and security.
In August, King’s was also named as one of the founding members of the Defence Universities Alliance, a national network established with hopes to strengthen collaboration with the Ministry of Defence.
The president of King’s College London Student Union (KCLSU), Luqmaan Waqar, told Roar in October that he found the merger to be “concerning” given its links, which he said “prides itself on its defence education, research and consultancy”.
New faculty
From August 2027, Cranfield will become King’s tenth faculty, known as the Cranfield Institute of Technology. Cranfield’s business school will also join with its King’s counterpart.
Announcing the merger, King’s vice-chancellor Shitij Kapur said that “Our focus now will be on the detail of how that merger will happen and there is no intention to rush that process.
“Our guiding principle will be to take the time it needs to get it right and minimise disruption to the service we provide our students and staff”, he continued.
In an email sent to students, seen by Roar, King’s said:
“Your day to day experience as a student at King’s will be unchanged. The content of your course, where you study, the cohort you are part of and the degree you graduate with will not be affected by this change.”
It is understood that Cranfield will lose its degree awarding powers after the merger, with all subsequent awards being issued by King’s.
It remains unclear who will lead the merged institution, with King’s stating that “the next stage of the process will determine the future leadership arrangements” after a “detailed process of preparation, integration planning”.
Financial situation
A series of other UK universities have also announced mergers, in part due to increasing financial pressures on the sector, such as that between the Universities of Greenwich and Kent.
A report published in June suggested that Cranfield had just 20 days of available cash to cover its operational expenditure, scoring “poorly” on financial sustainability. Its 2025 accounts reported a deficit of £8.1 million.
However, Professor Dame Karen Holford, Cranfield’s vice-chancellor, told The Times in May that the merger was not driven by financial reasons, and King’s told Roar that the “full financial picture” of Cranfield is positive.
Picture for staff
Cranfield and King’s both say that they briefed the University and Colleges Union (UCU) merger, though UCU have complained that this did not amount to a “consultation” on the matter.
When the merger was announced, the KCL branch of the Unison union said that they “[stress] the importance of protecting jobs, contractual terms and having a clear transparent timeline for staff”.
No job losses are expected from the merger, according to Cranfield’s Unison branch, but some unions have expressed concern that absorbing Cranfield’s deficits will stifle hopes for desired pay rises by staff.
“While the vice-chancellor received a 13.4 per cent pay rise last year (bringing his salary to £355,000 and widening his pay multiple, relative to the median employee, from 7.4 to 8.2 in a single year) academic staff received the minimum 2.5 per cent agreed in the previous bargaining round”, Dr Jamie Woodcock, a King’s lecturer and chair of KCL Unison, told the Times in May.
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