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University of Bristol

NATIONAL
RANK

83.1%

FIRSTS
2:1s

95.5%

COMPLETION
RATE

Key Stats

n/a

TEACHING
QUALITY

84th=

STUDENT
EXPERIENCE

7th=

RESEARCH
QUALITY

11th

GRADUATE
PROSPECTS

Contact details

ADDRESS

Senate House,
Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TH View on map >

Telephone

0117 928 9000

ug-admissions@bristol.ac.uk

Website

www.bristol.ac.uk

Open days

contact the university

University Profile

Among leading universities, Bristol, alongside Birmingham, has benefitted the most from the relaxation of restrictions on recruiting the brightest students (those holding ABB at A-level or better). However, increasing the size of Bristol’s intake by more than 1,000 students – as the university has done over the past two years – has helped also to attract even more applicants. Already the most oversubscribed multi-faculty university in Britain, it saw the demand for places grow by another 9% in 2013.

There are now more than 14,000 undergraduates, although Bristol remains among the smallest institutions in the Russell Group. The university’s official strategy is to “stay relatively compact and nurture the collegial atmosphere that makes it a true community as well as an ambitious and challenging place to be.”

Bristol has long been a natural alternative to Oxbridge, favoured particularly by independent schools. In order to broaden the intake, departments may make slightly lower offers to the most promising applicants from the bottom 40% of schools and colleges at A-level. Over 500 students came from such schools in 2013, and one entrant in seven came from a low socio-economic group (although this

was still well under the one in five expected given the university’s subject mix).

The university has spent more than £15m since 2006 on recruiting and supporting students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Some 600 local students take the Access to Bristol course while at school or college, for example, and receive a substantial bursary if they go on to a Bristol degree and their family income is less than £25,000. Yet curiously, 40.6% of entrants in 2012 came from independent schools, more than Cambridge and the highest proportion in the UK outside Oxford and St Andrews. It is also five percentage points higher than before it launched its strategies to diversify its intake.

Bristol has a powerful academic reputation – the new QS rankings keep it in the top 30 in the world. Entry standards are high and Bristol continued to live up to expectations in the last Research Assessment Exercise, when almost two-thirds of the work submitted was rated in the top two categories. Epidemiology and public health, health services research, chemistry, mathematics, drama, mechanical engineering and economics produced the best results.

There are 33 Fellows of the Royal Society and similar numbers in other learned societies. The latest research development saw the opening in 2013 of an £18m Centre for Power Electronics that will focus on delivering the underpinning science and engineering behind many low-carbon technologies.

Student City

Jo Woods, students’ union officer

The university celebrated its centenary in 2009 and launched a fundraising campaign with a £100m target. The previous campaign helped the university to create new chairs and embark on a number of building projects, including a well-appointed centre for the highly-rated chemistry department. Both chemistry and medical sciences were chosen to house national teaching and learning centres, and the university was also awarded four centres to train doctoral scientists and engineers.

The largest estate investment programme in the university’s history is currently underway, with £200m of projects due to be completed by 2016. A £54m Life Sciences Building was completed this year, providing new teaching and research facilities for Biological Sciences and a range of related disciplines. A new hall of residence at Stoke Bishop has added 320 places, ensuring that the university continues to guarantee accommodation for all first years. A rolling programme of refurbishment is under way to modernise the existing halls.

An impressive sports complex with a well-equipped gym has been developed at the heart of the university precinct, where the careers centre has also been refurbished. The students’ union houses one of the city’s biggest live music venues as well as a café, bars, theatre and swimming pool. A £31m refurbishment and redesign will be complete this year, providing more space for community activities and the 180 student societies and 50 sports clubs, as well as an extended café bar.

Until now, the students’ union has been less of a social centre than in some universities, partly because of the intense competition from nightclubs. Bristol possesses a vibrant youth culture and, as one of the country’s most prosperous cities, offers job opportunities to students and graduates alike. The university merges into the centre, its famous gothic tower dominating the skyline from the junction of two of the main shopping streets.

Despite its hills, Bristol is England’s first Cycling City and was named this year by The Sunday Times as the best city in the UK in which to live. It will also be European Green Capital for 2015. Most students enjoy life in Bristol, although the high cost of living can be a drawback.

The 3.5% dropout rate is among the lowest in Britain, and one student in five stays in the city after graduation. The university would be ensconced safely among the overall top 10 in our rankings were it not for student satisfaction scores that continue to lag well behind the university’s standing in all our other performance measures. Bristol students are clearly a hard lot to please.

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Detailed Statistics

PERFORMANCE