The University for the Creative Arts is a specialist art and design university in the south of England. The university was formed in 2005 as University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester, through the merger of the Kent Institute of Art & Design and Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College. It was granted full university status by the Privy Council in May 2008 and adopted its current name officially in September 2008. The origin of the university lies in a number of independent public art and design colleges in the counties of Kent and Surrey, almost all of which had origins in the Victorian period. In the 1990s these merged to form multi-campus art and design institutes in their respective counties, before merging into one organisation in 2005. Following the election of a Coalition government, the decision to raise tuition fees to a maximum of £9,000, and the commencement of cuts to the Higher Education sector, the University for the Creative Arts was revealed to be the fourth worst cut university in England with a cut of 7.8% (10.2% in real terms).