King’s College London to merge with Cranfield University

King’s College London has signed an agreement to merge with Cranfield University , creating a new UK “super-university” that would rival many of its international competitors in size and research output. The merger would result in KCL taking on another 5,000 mainly postgraduate students and become 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 two institutions would merge by the end of summer 2027, with a name yet to be formally decided. The government has already given preliminary approval for the merger to go ahead, which comes as the higher education sector in England is struggling financially. Last year a merger was announced between the University of Greenwich and the University of Kent, while England’s higher education regulator, the Office for Students, on Thursday warned that universities “remain under continued pressure due to volatile student recruitment patterns and rising costs”. Prof Shitij Kapur, KCL’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. …