Award-winners, industry leaders and a whole lot of success!
About The University of Kent
Organisation type:
- University
Challenges solved:
- One integrated system to manage a large number of bedrooms and events.
- Reduced manual data input and duplication errors.
- A central location for all teams to view internal operations.
- Improved internal communications and increased awareness of other departments' activities.
- A smooth and easy student arrival process.
- A simple solution for students to book their accommodation.
Size of operation:
- 20,000+ students
- 5,500+ residential students
- £120m invested in accommodation
- £47m in annual commercial turnover
Client since:
- 2001
Product suites:
- Conferencing & Event Management
- Student Accommodation Management
- Residential Management
- Catering Management
What makes The University of Kent special?
One of the largest residential campuses in the United Kingdom
Won the 'Commercial University of the Year’ at the CUBO awards 2018
Winners of 'Best Accommodation for Groups' award since 2008 at the Group Travel Awards
Achieved an annual 4/5 star rating for campus accommodation by VisitEngland
Located in the historic city of Canterbury is the University of Kent. With over 20,000 students and more than 5,500 being residential, the university has invested over £120 million in their accommodation in recent years, positioning them as one of the largest residential campuses in the United Kingdom.
The University of Kent is home to some fantastic facilities, including lecture theatres/concert halls for 20-500 delegates, up to 200 meeting and seminar rooms, a cinema, 14 catering outlets, and extensive sport and leisure facilities. During summer 2018, they sold over 200,000 bed nights and hosted more than 495 events/groups.
Future goals and aspirations
The mission of the university from a commercial service perspective is to deliver an unrivalled service and a campus lifestyle with passion, pride, and professionalism.
With an annual turnover of £47million, the commercial services activity is key to the overall success of the university. Summer conference business generates £4.5 - £5.2m through a range of market sectors and one of the innovative ways the university generates additional income is by working closely with the academic departments and delivering a ‘one-stop-shop’ event management service for them.
“Academic departments were coming to my team saying they want to hold a conference with us, but they simply didn’t have the administrative resource to handle it. This was a perfect opportunity for us to offer them a one-stop full event management service using KxRegistration,” says Sheena Butterworth, Kent's Conference Office Manager. From setting up web pages, dealing with payments, organising the badges and more, Sheena and her team generate further revenue by charging up to £35 per head for this service. In 2018, they organised more than 20 ‘one-stop-shop’ event management service packages for their academic departments.
The future of Commercial Services at Kent is exciting. A 150/200 bed hotel and conference centre is in the pipeline and the construction of the new “Kent Indoor Tennis and Events Arena” capable of holding up to 2000 delegates will be completed in December 2019 in good time for the Lambeth Conference who are returning to Kent in July 2020. The British Open Golf Tournament also returns to Sandwich in Kent in 2020 and the university's accommodation and facilities are also used comprehensively for this event.
Strong Partner
Kinetic is proud to support The University of Kent's operations, by providing them with student accommodation, conferencing and event management, catering and residential management software.
With the help of Kinetic, The University of Kent manage more than 5,500 bedrooms for both students and conference guests. With banqueting for up to 1,200 people and up to 200 meeting and seminar rooms, Kinetic allows them to manage any booking from the initial enquiry, proposal stage, invoicing through to event delivery.
"There were a few reasons why we chose Kx. The main reason for me personally was having the confidence in the company that they would deliver what they promise. I had that confidence at the time and it's turned out to be the right decision,” says Kevin. Over 15 years later, they now have more than 14 Kx products.
In October 2018, Kevin was presented the ‘Kinetic Legend’ award at the User Forum 2018. Rob Turner, Managing Director at Kinetic, said “Kevin is well recognised in the industry for running an incredibly successful student and commercial team. He’s a huge advocate for Kinetic and is greatly respected by the team.”