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University of Bath

NATIONAL
RANK

80.2%

FIRSTS
2:1s

95.2%

COMPLETION
RATE

Key Stats

n/a

TEACHING
QUALITY

2nd=

STUDENT
EXPERIENCE

23rd=

RESEARCH
QUALITY

3rd

GRADUATE
PROSPECTS

Contact details

ADDRESS

Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY View on map >

Telephone

01225 383 019

ask-admissions@bath.ac.uk

Website

www.bath.ac.uk

Open days

contact the university

University Profile

Bath is established in the top 10 of our league table and continuing to go from strength to strength in terms of popularity. There has been a 12% rise in applications in 2014, repeating the previous year’s increase and far outpacing the national average. The demand for places at The Sunday Times’ University of the Year for 2011-12 is strong both in the UK and overseas, and those who win places generally do not regret it: Bath had the top score in the 2013 National Student Survey, and finishes joint second this year under our analysis of the responses from final-year students. With its origins as a technological university established in the 1960s, Bath is still a relatively small institution with a high proportion of postgraduates. The modern campus on the edge of Bath cannot live up to the magnificence of the city’s architecture, but the 200-acre site has pleasant grounds, with academic, recreational and residential facilities in close proximity. The Claverton campus features a modern student centre and a dedicated centre for postgraduates with the worst

aspects of its 1960s concrete origins now tempered by modern structural additions. The university is rated among the top 20 in the world in the GreenMetric environmental ranking. The sports facilities are outstanding and this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow saw 27 athletes who train or have links with Bath land medals – five golds, 14 silvers and eight bronze. Had the university been a country, it would have ranked 13th in the final medals table. The university’s lottery-funded £35m Sports Training Village was chosen to host the Paralympics GB team ahead of the 2012 London Games and will do so again before Rio 2016. Sport at Bath is not just for the athletic elite, however, with over 1,500 students competing regularly at every level from regional leagues to national tournaments. There is a 50-metre swimming pool, indoor running track, multipurpose sports hall, eight indoor tennis courts, an indoor jumps and throws hall, air pistol and fencing sale, a judo dojo and a simulated bobsleigh track. There is even a skeleton start area, as used by Lizzy Yarnold, the 2014 Olympic gold medallist, and her predecessor Olympic champion Amy Williams. The university pioneered sports scholarships more than 20 years ago and there is a wide range available for 2015. The university is in the midst of a four-year £150m capital programme to provide new teaching and research space, student accommodation and a new arts centre. Additional teaching accommodation for 2,000 students opened in 2013 and is connected to the main campus parade by a "skywalk" bridge. A £43m student accommodation complex providing 708 additional en-suite bedrooms in 75 flats will be available for 2014 entrants. The new Centre for the Arts will open by the end of the year and contain a theatre, performance and rehearsal studios, a gallery and teaching facilities. Two more academic buildings are due to open by September 2015, one for engineering and the other for psychology. In addition, the university is refurbishing the central 1 West building, which will have new learning facilities, computer laboratories, research facilities and offices. Research is Bath’s greatest strength: 60% of the work submitted for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise was judged to be world-leading or internationally excellent. Social work and social policy, business and management, physics, maths and pharmacy did particularly well, but there were good results in a number of areas. The university’s research grants and contracts portfolio is worth £117m. Most degree courses have a practical element, and assessors have praised the university for the work placements it offers. Most undergraduates take courses with placements or a period of study abroad, which helps to produce consistently outstanding graduate employment figures. Bath has become the first UK university to join the Magalhaes Network of leading universities from Latin America, the Caribbean and the EU, opening up new opportunities for engineering and architecture students. Student entrepreneurship is actively encouraged through a number of initiatives and projects. Recent additions to the portfolio of courses include integrated undergraduate master’s degrees in sport and exercise science and also in psychology, which can be taken over four years, or five with a placement. There is also a new suite of management degrees and a BSc in Biomedical Sciences, with input from specialists in biology and biochemistry, health and pharmacy and pharmacology. New programmes in Physics and Astrophysics are planned for 2015. Bath is popular with independent schools, whose students make up more than one quarter of its undergraduates, considerably higher than might be expected from the subject mix here. Bath is not a large city and students in search of a more diverse social scene take advantage of the nightlife in nearby Bristol, which is only a few minutes away by public transport. The two cities have a combined student population of more than 60,000. The popular students’ union, has a Gold Best Bar None award for the management of its bar and nightclub, and has also been commended for its provision for international students. The university’s support services for students include a new virtual learning environment and centralised provision of advisory services.

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Detailed Statistics

PERFORMANCE