Established in 1946 as the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield University saw a lot of development in the 1950s and 1960s in aircraft design and research. This gave rise to diversification into manufacturing and management. It finally changed its name to Cranfield University in 1993. In the following years, the university gained a lot of appreciation, and recently, Defence Academy, UK came into partnership with the university.

The academic schools under the university are Cranfield Defence and Security, School of Aerospace, Transport Systems, Manufacturing, School of Water, Energy, and Environment, and School of Management. Cranfield University has two campuses, one in Cranfield and the other in Shrivenham. Both of them are set in the English countryside, close to several places of interest. The campus promotes students to bond and helps each other out. It offers ample opportunities for sports, social activities, or recreation. The accommodations range from single student apartment blocks to family homes. The Shrivenham campus is a secure military site and has a variety of modern facilities for the students, staff as well as their families. Cranfield is filled with places to shop, eat, and drink. It is about 50 miles from London, while Shrivenham is 80 miles away from the capital city.

The university welcomes students from all over the world. As of 2020, the university had 54% of students from the UK and 16% from other EU countries. About 30% of the students were from other parts of the world. It also has one of the best teacher-to-student ratios in the UK, with one academic staff member for five students. Cranfield University is responsible for the education of more than half of the UK's aerospace engineering master's students. It provides placements in HSBC, Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte, and other big companies.

Cranfield University boasts of its 60,000+ alumni base, and some of the notable personalities include Former Group Chief Executive at Barclays Antony Jenkins, Executive Director of Oxfam International Winnie Byanyima, CEO of Aston Martin Andy Palmer and CEO of Rolls-Royce Holdings Warren East. Some of the other notable alumni are former Prime Minister of Jordan Nader Al-Dahabi, Former CEO of Royal Jordanian airlines Samer Majali, James Vowles who is the Chief Strategist of Mercedes Formula 1 team and Crispin Blunt, Member of Parliament for Reigate.

Cranfield University, also known as the UK Specialist Postgraduate University, has established its foundation in not only teaching excellent programmes but also as an impeccable research centre. Additionally, the university has been honoured with the Queen's Anniversary Prize six times. As an interesting fact, 96% of Cranfield graduates are either employed or pursuing their further studies.

The university has successfully partnered with or established close links with more than 130 universities within and outside America - other countries being Asia, Oceania, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Cranfield has also collaborated with Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) on its Bachelor of Engineering in Aerospace Systems programme.

What many students do not know about Cranfield is that the university has connections with some of the Indian universities as well. There are four such institutions are Defence Institute of Advanced Technology in Pune, Indian Institute of Technology of Kharagpur, Manipal University in Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore.