The University of South Wales was created in April 2013 after a merger between the University of Wales, Newport and the University of Glamorgan. The University is one of Britain’s most exciting new universities and a major player in higher education. One of the top ten campus universities in the UK by student number, it attracts a cosmopolitan mix of students from 122 countries and all backgrounds.
The University’s main campus was founded in 1913 as a School of Mines while parts of the Institution’s Newport campus date back to the creation of a mechanics institute in 1841. The Institution gained University status in 1992.
The University has five campuses across the South Wales region including new state-of-the-art campuses in Cardiff and Newport city centres. Rail and road links are excellent across all campuses.
The University of South Wales is unusual in the UK in bringing together the broadest range of provision and the widest access to education. It offers a full range of qualifications from further education level to degrees and PhD study.
As a major university it delivers the full range of STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), from engineering and mathematics to computing and surveying as well as being an experience provider of teacher’s training courses. Lecturers range from award-winning poets, authors and historians to computer scientists, engineers, and journalists. Because many of them are still active in their professions, they bring a real understanding of the world of work into the classroom.
Students learn how their profession works in real life, exploring their field through courses taught in unique hands-on environments including in their own airliner, moot court room, TV studios, stock exchange trading room, simulated hospital ward, and scene of crime house.
Sports students train and play on facilities used and endorsed by world champions such as the All Blacks.
The University is a powerhouse in applied research used to shape major decisions.
As a major public policy think-tank, it offers independent advice to government, industry and employers across the UK on health, education, economic growth, social policy, and governance.
It provides a partnership platform for ideas and debate with major think-tanks such as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and NESTA.
As a member of the St David’s Day Group, the University of South Wales is recognised as one of Wales’s major research universities in key areas of specialist research, such as sustainable energy, educational development, health, creative industries and the arts, mobile communications, humanities, sports injury and performance, new business incubation, and innovation for technology and start-up companies.
The University of South Wales is renowned for its partnerships with major employers, from British Airways to the National Health Service. Its relationship with employers as a leading university for careers is reflected in the high employment rate of its graduates, with 93% of students in employment or further study within six months of graduating.
The University is a major player in the arts, with an internationally acclaimed film school, industry-standard animation facilities, broadcasting studios, one of the UK’s oldest photography schools, a strong reputation for theatre design, award-winning poets, scriptwriters and authors, and the national music and drama conservatoire, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, within its group.