A condition of the government's original £3m investment in 1966 in the new University was that a site of at least 300 acres should be acquired. Private donations, including those from local people and businesses, provided the funds to secure the vital landholding on the slopes of Stag Hill and also at Manor Farm less than a mile away. After a Public Enquiry, planning permission was given to the University to develop its site over the period from 1966 and into the 21st Century.

Money from what was then the government funding body, The University Grants Committee (UGC) and a £1 million grant from Surrey County Council were used to develop the buildings that formed the University's initial phase on Stag Hill. Completed by 1968, this provided the core facilities, academic buildings, student residences, and recreational areas. It also included construction of the Cathedral roundabout and associated A3 road intersection - a planning requirement to link the two parts of the campus at Stag Hill and Manor Farm.

Following the Public Enquiry in 1965, the decision letter from the Minister responsible for land use planning in the UK in 1965 noted that it would be 30 years before the whole Manor Farm landholding would be required. In fact, some of this land was brought forward for the Surrey Research Park in the County Structure Plan of 1981 as it was recognised that the University of Surrey needed to extend its links with industry and the concept of Science and Research Parks were emerging as developments through which this would be achieved.