The Christian Unions provide opportunities for fellowship, bible study and evangelism, with nearly 40,000 students attending outreach events each year.

[5] An attempted reconciliation between the two groups in 1919 was ultimately unsuccessful, owing to CICCU's insistence on the centrality of the atonement for Christian faith, which SCM would not agree to.

[8] From 1919, under the influence of Norman Grubb, conservative evangelical students from UK universities began meeting at an annual conference in London.

[11] By 1928, the Inter-Varsity Conference became a permanent fellowship of evangelical Christian Unions and rival organisation to the SCM.

The movement developed out of links that had been established between the IVF and the Norwegian network of Christian Unions, the Norges Kristelige Studentlag.

From 1934, regular international conferences took place between evangelicals connected to universities in Europe, North America, South Africa, and Australia; in 1947 the IFES was formally established.

[22] From the late 1980s and into this century, support for those involved in Christian ethics was provided through the Whitefield Institute, Oxford, founded by E. David Cook.

[24][25][26] Its doctrinal basis reflects typical elements of conservative evangelicalism, such as Biblical infallibility, the universal sinfulness of all humans, and penal substitution.

[32] According to a 2013 research paper, there are approximately 200 UCCF-affiliated Christian Unions in the UK, with a total membership of around 10,000.