1947 heralded the start of Canterbury Technical College being established as a separate entity;
This is when the decision to split further education classes from secondary school work, (Mr Hines was the principal of the Institute as well as being the Headmaster of the school), in this year two major departments weere established, engineering and building. However, the college did still share the Longport building with the Boy’s Technical School, and would do so for a further seventeen years. The Girls Technical School moved from Longport to Barton Court site in 1945. There was then a change of principal at this time Dr. Orr took the role of Principal for the Institute and Headmaster for the Technical School for Boy’s.

1950 - 1959
Temporary workshops for Engineering, Mining and Building were erected on the Barton Court site in 1950. The college was fortunate that East Kent had such a diverse occupational work force, which focused heavily on vocational qualifications.
This coincides with preliminary designs by Sir Hugh Wilson for the new college. Unfortunately the plans for the new college were abandoned in 1955.

In 1959 a report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Schools (HMI’s) reported there was an urgent need for a new college for 2,000 students, the college was then organised into two departments one of which had four sections, the first department was Building and Engineering consisting of four sections which included Commerce and Professional Studies, Mining, Science, Mathematics and Technology. The second department consisted of Women’s subjects.

At the time of the report the staffing at the college consisted of the Principal, Two Heads of Department, and 37 full time and 95 part time teachers.

1964 -
1964 the first phase of the new college was opened. It had taken three years to complete the building and the cost of the building was £465,000.  This is the site that Canterbury College is using to this present day. Technical Colleges across the country were on the incline.  This was due to a period of considerable growth and development of Further Education.

The college only consisted of a hall, library, typing rooms, workshops, laboratories, staff rooms and administrative offices. Kitchens still remained at the Longport site. In this year there were a total of 200 full time students and 3,300 part time students enrolled.

1971
Phase II, the second phase of the college began in 1971, the college now had specialist rooms which replaced the facilities found at Longport.  This consisted of a sports hall, common room, refectory and a horticulture unit at Spring Lane.  In the same year there was a change in Principal.  Mr. Hook retired and the new Principal was Mr. Howitt.

In 1972 there was a change of name from Canterbury Technical College to Canterbury College of Technology.

1973 was the year that the college’s first Vice – Principal Mr. Boyle was appointed.

In 1974 proposals for Phase III were put forward for a new block.  This was to hopefully ease increasing pressure on accommodating 700 full time and 3,900 part time students that were now enrolled with the new Technical College.

This year the college promoted new courses such as nursing, although existing courses such as Medical Secretaries, Automobile Engineering and Fabrication and Welding had grown considerably.  At the same time there was an increasing amount of interest into micro-processors and computers.

In this year teaching staff rose fourfold, due to an increase of students, this increase of students was found to be the move from evening classes which were part time to full time day attendance.

After a twelve month postponement the building of the new block started in 1979. The total of staff employed at the end of the 1970’s had increased by 200%. The Figures now stood as Principal, Six Heads of Departments, and 101 lecturers. At this time there were 1,200 full time students and 7,700 part time students.

1982 - 83
In the early 80’s the college departments where reorganised on a faculty basis to meet ever changing social and educational needs. In 1982 there were three faculties with departments attached to those faculties. Firstly the Faculty of Academic and Administrative Studies which comprised of departments such as, Business Studies, Management and Communications and Science and Humanities, secondly the Faculty of Community Studies which comprised of the following departments, Adult Education and Catering and Health. And Lastly Faculty of Technology which comprised of departments in Construction and Land use, Electronics and Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering and Mining.

In 1982 the cohort of enrolled students increased to 1,457 full time students and 6,639 part time students. This was double the amount of students enrolled in 1974 for both full and part time courses.

1983 bought about the formal opening of the new building (by Lord Boston of Faversham), this was Phase III, and approval for the extension had been passed in 1980. The teaching blocks were named by letter A – H, K, L, T, W and X, each letter was the surname of Archbishops for example, A, = Augustine.

1990 - 92
Susan Pember was appointed Principal in October 1991, Miss Pember was the youngest woman college principal in Kent and possibly the only female college Principal of that time;
In 1991/92 there was around 1,500 full time students and nearly 4,000 part time students who were are studying either on a day or evening course and studying on a range of courses.  The college was able to offer seven different subjects which were, Mechanical and Motor Vehicle Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Building and Civil Engineering, Science, Computing and General Education, Business and Management, Hotel Management and Catering and lastly Care in the Community.

2006 - 2009
January 2006 saw the appointment of Alison Clarke as Principal of Canterbury College.  This was the year the college buildings were redesigned.  2007 saw the completion of Phase 1 of the buildings redevelopment, which included the new Children’s Centre, Technology Centre, Land Based Centre, Motor Vehicle Centre and the Post 16 Centre which houses modern class rooms, study rooms and science laboratories.

Phase 2 of the redevelopment, completed in December 2007 gives the college a unique, street-like layout which has ‘front of house’ services open to the public including a snack shop, a travel shop and restaurant complete with training facilities.

2010 -

Phase 3 of the building redevelopment starts.