The University of Kent is a public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1965 and is recognised as a Beloff's plate glass university. It is a member of the Santander Network of European universities encouraging social and economic development, Association of Commonwealth Universities and Universities UK.

The university has a rural campus north of Canterbury situated within 300 acres of park land, housing over 6,000 students, as well as campuses in Medway and Tonbridge in Kent and European postgraduate centres in Brussels, Athens, Rome and Paris. As a result of its extensive ties with and geographic proximity to the continent the university brands itself as "The UK's European University".

In 2014 the university was ranked 80th in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings in Top 100 Universities Under 50 Years. Additionally, Times Higher Education also ranked the university 20th in the United Kingdom in 2015 though aggregating multiple ranking results into a comprehensive table of ranking tables. It is among a group of institutions to consistently score 90% or above for overall satisfaction in the National Student Survey. In 2013, nearly 28,000 students applied to the university through UCAS and 5,190 accepted offers of places. The average UCAS score achieved by entrants in 2014/15 was 363.