University Name:
See all universitiesCardiff University
UCAS Code: C15
Location: Cardiff, south-east Wales Show on Map
Site: All sites near city centre, plus hospital site
World-class research-intensive university; a member of the Russell Group of universities.
Student Population
| Total Students: | 29,685 |
| Undergraduates: | 69% |
| Postgraduates: | 24% |
| FE Students: | 7% |
Undergraduates
| Total undergraduates: | 21,262 |
| Male: | 40% |
| Female: | 60% |
| Full Time: | 77% |
| Mature on Entry: | 15% |
| UK Students: | 89% |
| State school entry: | 83% |
Teaching Staff
1430 full-time, 548 part-time.
Broad study areas
Business; law; health & life sciences; medicine, dentistry & nursing; professions allied to medicine (including occupational therapy, physiotherapy & radiography); physical sciences; engineering; architecture; town planning; humanities & social studies.
Freshers
| Admission Information: | Normally at least 3 A-levels, excluding general studies, required; detailed policy depends on subject area (see website for more detail). |
| Points on Entry (Mean): | 399 |
| Drop Out Rate: | 4% |
| Accommodation: | All first years guaranteed student accommodation (if apply during the normal UCAS cycle). |
Institution
| Founded: | 1883 |
| Site: | Close to Cardiff city centre. Healthcare students also at hospital site, Heath Park Campus, 1 mile away. |
| How to get there: | Cardiff Central Station on the national rail network; coaches to bus station (next to train station); M4 from London and M5 (west country and midlands). For university, frequent trains from Central Station to Cathays station (on campus), local buses from bus station (53, 79, 81 for main campus; 8 or 9 for hospital site). Various park-and-ride services in city. |
Student services & facilities
| Student advice & services: | Student support centres offer general advice, financial support, counselling, services for disabled and dyslexic students, international student support, careers service. Health centre. Chaplains (Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, Muslim and access to local rabbi) work alongside other local faiths/denominations. Day-care centre. |
| Amenities: | Large purpose-built Students’ Union with 9 bars, nightclub, concert venue, cafés, high-tech meeting space, non-alcoholic social lounge, shops, hairdressers, letting agency, bank, print facility, clothing shop, bookshop, jobshop, IT shop and repair service, athletic union, societies, student media centre (radio and television station and student newspaper). |
| Sporting facilities: | Indoor and outdoor facilities on 3 sites. Park Place, on main campus, has 3 squash courts, a fitness centre, comprehensive fitness class programme, a range of fitness services and a well-being treatment clinic. Sports training village, at Talybont student halls site, has 2 large multi-purpose sports halls, martial arts dojo and indoor cricket nets, plus various external facilities. Sports fields, a 33 acre site, with 3 rugby, 1 lacrosse and 6 football pitches, 4 cricket squares, 1 floodlit training pitch and a large pavilion |
| Accommodation: | All first years applying in the normal UCAS admissions cycle are guaranteed accommodation (a few rooms adapted for disabled students, particularly for those in wheelchairs or with a hearing impairment): 5055 self-catering places at £68−£95 per week; 85 catered places (female only) at £100 pw; 193 part-catered places at £82−£94 pw; all September to June (including Christmas and Easter vacations). Most students in private-sector housing for 2+ years, rents locally £60−£65 pw plus bills. |
Study opportunities & careers
| Library & information services: | Integrated library, IT and media services: 14 libraries with over 1.4 million books, 21,000 journals (printed and electronic), access to numerous web-based databases; 3200 study places and 1000 workstations. Specialist collections include Salisbury Library of Celtic and Welsh material; Cardiff Rare Books and Music Collection of British and European works from 1500; Cochrane Archive of evidence-based healthcare; European Documentation Centre. Also special collections in law, architecture, journalism. Information provision, £128 pa spent for each student (FTE). IT network, including wireless access, to all parts of campus, 5500 connections in student residences, 24-hour access. Anytime access to electronic information resources from on- and off-campus through Cardiff Portal. IT and library support (on-site or by telephone, email or online, including interactive enquiry service); IT and information literacy skills courses, some in liaison with academic departments. |
| Other learning resources: | Virtual learning environment used across the university. Free downloadable apps provide key university information and access to useful tools from mobile devices. |
| Study abroad: | 2% of students spend a period abroad. Active Erasmus programme, with 250+ European links. Student exchange agreements worldwide. |
| Careers: | Careers and Employability is dedicated centre offering: advice and guidance from career consultants, an extensive range of careers information and online resources, including a vacancy bulletin and graduate destination statistics. Personal help and advice available from information staff; range of workshops, careers talks, employer presentations, skills sessions and careers fairs. GO Wales programme offers work placements (paid, project based work experience) and tasters (bursts of flexible unpaid work experience). Cardiff Award provides the opportunity to gain recognition for the skills acquired via extra-curricular activities, improve professionalism and employability on graduation. |
Money
| Living expenses budget: | Minimum budget of £6120 (excluding tuition fees) recommended by university for each academic year (Sept–June), £8160 for full calendar year. |
| Term-time work: | Part-time work in university and SU (in bars, restaurants, offices, libraries, labs, sports centre etc) through Unistaff Jobshop; also jobs locally in bars, shops and offices. |
| Financial help: | Bursaries for all UK students whose family income is up to £30k pa, increasing as family income increases so that the bursary combined with the student loan and grant gives a total of £7500 pa; students whose family income is £30k−£42.6k pa receive a bursary that combined with their student loan and grant gives a total of £6750 pa. Further help for care leavers and those from Welsh Communities First areas. 100 scholarships, worth £3000 over course of study, for high-achieving students in particular disciplines (eg physics, Italian, computer science, earth science). |
| University tuition fees: | Students from Wales and the EU pay £3465 for first degree courses, other UK students pay £9000 pa (NHS pays fees on some courses). International students pay £10,700 pa (classroom), £13,750 pa (lab/pre-clinical/music/architecture), £24,500 pa (clinical). |
Courses
Academic features:
4-year integrated sandwich degree programmes, 5-year two-tier degree programmes in architecture and town planning. 5-year medical and dental courses, plus foundation year for those without science backgrounds; clinical teaching throughout Wales.
Awarding body:
Cardiff University.
Main undergraduate awards:
BA, BD, BDS, BMus, BN, BSc, BEng, BScEcon, LLB, MArch, MB BCh, MPhys, MChem, MEng, MPharm
Length of courses:
3 years; others 4 and 5 years
Main subjects offered:
- Accountancy
- Anatomy
- Ancient History
- Archaeology
- Architectural Design
- Architecture
- Astronomy
- Astrophysics
- Banking
- Biochemistry
- Biology
- Biomedical Science
- Business Administration
- Business Economics
- Business Studies
- Chemistry
- Civil Engineering
- Communication Engineering
- Communication Studies
- Computer Engineering
- Computer Science
- Computer Technology
- Computing
- Conservation
- Criminology
- Cultural Studies
- Dentistry
- Earth Sciences
- Ecology
- Economics
- Education
- Electrical Engineering
- Electronic Engineering
- Electronics
- Engineering (General)
- English
- Environmental Engineering
- Environmental Management
- Environmental Science
- Environmental Studies
- European Business Studies
- European Studies
- Exploration
- Finance
- Financial Economics
- French
- Genetics
- Geography
- Geology
- Geoscience
- German
- History
- History/Philosophy of Science
- Human Resource Management
- Information Systems
- International Business
- International Relations
- Italian
- Japanese
- Journalism
- Law
- Linguistics
- Logistics
- Management
- Manufacturing Engineering
- Marketing
- Mathematics
- Mechanical Engineering
- Media Studies
- Medical Engineering
- Medicinal Physics
- Medicine
- Medieval Studies
- Microbiology
- Midwifery
- Molecular Biology
- Music
- Neuroscience
- Nursing
- Occupational Therapy
- Operational Research
- Optometry
- Pharmacology
- Pharmacy
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Physiology
- Physiotherapy
- Plant Science
- Politics
- Psychology
- Radiography
- Religious Studies
- Social Administration
- Social Policy
- Social Science
- Sociology
- Software Engineering
- Spanish
- Statistics
- Structural Engineering
- Systems Analysis
- Theology
- Town/Country Planning
- Urban Studies
- Welsh Language
- Welsh Studies
- Zoology
Student view
Sarah Ingram, Academic and University Affairs Officer (studying law)
Living
What's it like as a place to live? Cardiff is an amazing place to live, it is small enough to walk around, but it has everything in it because it is a capital city. Whether it is sport, theatre or shopping you are looking for, you will find it here, as well as being able to be right in the country within a ten minute drive.
How's the student accommodation? Student accommodation is guaranteed for every first year if they make Cardiff their firm choice. Not only is the accommodation of a really good standard, it is comparably very cheap to other major cities and depending on which Halls of Residence you choose can be very close to the sports facilities, close to the Students' Union, close to town or with plenty of green space around it.
What's the student population like? The student population in Cardiff is very friendly − we have 13% international students and a large Welsh contingency. In the main student housing area, 85% of the houses are rented by Cardiff students.
How do students and locals get on? There are so many students that the locals have to get on with us, there is always a good atmosphere in the city centre, though a lot of locals do come down from the Valleys at weekends, so the city is not as student orientated as it is in the week.
Studying
What's it like as a place to study? The courses at Cardiff are mostly traditional, but there is plenty of flexibility in module choices and the facilities are fine. There are plenty of libraries and resources and staff give up a lot of time to help students if they need extra help.
What are the teaching staff like? Cardiff is a Russell group institution so all the academic staff are research-based. However, they really do care about the students as well and all staff when they come to Cardiff do a University course which focuses on teaching.
Socialising
What are student societies like? We have 150 societies and 62 sports clubs, there are thousands of students involved and you can do anything: if it's not out there already then you just need to set one up.
What's a typical night out? Pub in Cathays (the student living area), then either the Union club or a club in town.
And how much does it cost? From a tenner to fifty – it depends how much you spend on alcohol as places are pretty cheap to get into, especially during the week
How can you get home safely? Taxi – all our taxis have white bonnets, so we know that they are registered and official, so it is easy to find a safe way home.
Money
Is it an expensive place to live? It is the least expensive major city to live in; a house is on average £250 per month, but you can get them for £220 a month pretty easily.
Average price of a pint? £2.
And the price of a takeaway? Depends what takeaway − £2.50 to £3.
What's the part-time work situation? The Union has its own jobshop so as a student part time work is really easy to come across. Most is minimum wage, though it is simple to find jobs slightly above that rate.
Summary
What's the best feature about the place? It has everything in it and it's all really cheap.
And the worst? On match days they shut some of the roads.
And to sum it all up? Cardiff has a fantastic reputation, but at the same time does not have the prices to go with it. Everyone is friendly, there's a great student ethos and it's so brilliant that 40% of undergrad students who come here, stay here for life.
Past Students
Neil Kinnock MP, Glenys Kinnock MEP, Tim Sebastian (presenter), John Peters (former RAF pilot and Gulf War veteran), Doreen Vermeulen-Cranch (anaesthetics), Vincent Kane (presenter), Mark Lamarr (presenter and DJ), Huw Edwards (BBC).
More info?
Cardiff University Students’ Union (Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3QN), tel 029 2078 1419, email studentsunion@Cardiff.ac.uk or check website www.cardiffstudents.com.
Contact
Address:
Cardiff University
Deri House
2-4 Park Grove
Cardiff
CF10 3PA
Tel:
029 2087 4455
Email:
Website:
Student enquiries:
Undergraduate Recruitment Office
Application:
UCAS
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