The university was granted its royal charter on 4 January 1965 and the following year Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, was formally installed as the first Chancellor.

In 1959 the Education Committee of Kent County Council explored the creation of a new university,[11] formally accepting the proposal unanimously on 24 February 1960.

[13] By 1962 a site was found at Beverley Farm, straddling the then boundary between the City of Canterbury and the administrative county of Kent.

[6] The university was envisaged as being a collegiate establishment, with most students living in one of the colleges on campus, and as specialising in inter-disciplinary studies in all fields.

[29] The University of Kent set its tuition fees for UK and European Union undergraduates at £9,000 for new entrants in 2012, which was approved by the Office for Fair Access (OFFA).

[36][37] The partnership aims to support KSU during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, providing academic and technical assistance, including online English classes, guest lectures, and research collaboration.

This decision raised concerns among students and staff regarding the potential impact on academic diversity and future career opportunities.

[39] In response to the proposed course closures and the planned elimination of 58 jobs, staff at the university voted in favor of strike action.

The North West of the site is heavily forested, including pockets of ancient woodland, while the Southern Slopes contain a mix of wildflower and hay meadows, and there are seven ponds spread across the campus.

The upstairs area was originally used a live music venue, known as The Lighthouse and then the Attic, but has since been replaced with the Student Media Centre which hosts Inquire, KTV and CSR.

The adjacent Colyer-Fergusson Building, which opened in 2013, includes an adaptable format concert/rehearsal hall with retractable seating and variable acoustics and practice rooms.

The closest railway station to the campus is Canterbury West which is, as of 2009, served by Southeastern services to London St Pancras.

The accommodation building includes a Tesco Express, Subway, and Domino's Pizza, and Cargo, a bar showing sports, live music, and entertainment.

In 1982 the university established the School of continuing education in the centre of Tonbridge, extending its coverage to the entire county of Kent.

This proved an especial problem in Natural Sciences, where many Mathematics students had not studied Chemistry at A Level and vice versa.

[45] Substantial change to this structure did not come until the 1990s, driven more by national government policy than curricular demands, which were, after all, very flexible by nature.

When departments were formed in the early 1990s this led to a great deal of reorganisation of staff, and destroyed many existing inter-disciplinary relationships.

This quickly evolved into undermining the interdisciplinary context further, as departments sought to control finance by increasing the amount of specialist teaching in the first year.

In 2020, because of financial pressures caused by a combination of the 2000 demographic dip and the 2020/21 COVID-19 pandemic, the university abolished the faculties and reorganised itself into 6 divisions (see below).

There was much discussion about the names adopted for most of the colleges with the following alternative names all in consideration at one point or another: for Eliot: Caxton, after William Caxton; for Keynes: Richborough, a town in Kent; Anselm, a former archbishop of Canterbury; and for Darwin: Anselm (again); Attlee, after Clement Attlee, the post-war Prime Minister; Becket, after Thomas Becket, another former archbishop (this was the recommendation of the college's provisional committee but rejected by the Senate); Conrad; Elgar, after Edward Elgar; Maitland; Marlowe, after Christopher Marlowe; Russell, after Bertrand Russell (this was the recommendation of the Senate but rejected by the council); Tyler, after both Wat Tyler and Tyler Hill on which the campus stands.

The name for the college proved especially contentious and was eventually decided by a postal ballot of members of the Senate, choosing from: Attlee, Conrad, Darwin, Elgar, Maitland, Marlowe and Tyler.

[63] In the Times Higher Education's assessment of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, the History department at Kent was ranked first in the country.

In 2013 work began to extend, refurbish and completely modernise the Templeman Library, including the addition of study space, along with the creation of a new purpose-built lecture theatre.

The Union also operates the Park Wood bar Woody's and a 1,500 capacity nightclub The Venue which, unusually, is located on the central campus.

[73] Kent Union also co-ordinates over 200 sports clubs and societies, as well as media outlets, volunteering and charity activities, and provides student welfare services.

Approximately 400 students marched out of the Cornwallis Building to present a set of demands that were handed by Union President David Lawrence to the University Registrar Mr Eric Fox.

[77] In the early to mid-1970s, along with other plate-glass universities, the Union had a reputation for revolutionary politics, leading to demands for law changes from some staff trade unionists.

In 2010, ahead of a parliamentary vote on issues concerning raising tuition fees, the Union took part in the national demonstrations.

Whilst the university is secular, there is a chaplaincy consisting of permanent Anglican and Catholic priests and a Pentecostal minister, as well as part-time chaplains from other denominations and faiths.

The chaplaincy runs the annual Carol Service that takes place every year in Canterbury Cathedral at the end of Autumn Term.