Bath is in the throes of a £70-million “campus enhancement plan” and the next few years will see the addition of further facilities for science, extra student accommodation and more teaching space.

But, for the moment, it remains a relatively small university with 9,000 undergraduates.

The additional places will cater to some degree for the burgeoning demand at an institution that enjoys both an attractive location and a high academic reputation.

Although applications were down by more than the national average in 2008, they had shot up by almost 16 per cent a year earlier, continuing a trend that lasted throughout a period of rising entrance requirements.

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Bath’s healthy showing in league tables may be one reason for its popularity – it has never been out of the top 20 in The Times League Table. Students like the “small and friendly” image the university projects, and one of the lowest dropout rates in Britain suggests that they are well supported. The library is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Few can fail to be impressed by the magnificence of the city’s architecture. The modern campus on the edge of Bath, with some undistinguished buildings dating from its origins as a technological university in the 1960s, offers an unfortunate contrast. But the 200-acre site has pleasant grounds and is functional, with academic, recreational and residential facilities in close proximity.

Development

New teaching facilities for chemistry were added in 2003, followed by a £2.8-million physics facility, and 468 new study bedrooms have also been added recently. More lecture theatres and computer laboratories have eased the pressure on teaching space.

The university has abandoned plans for a campus in Swindon and has withdrawn from a small site there, which catered for 300 full and part-time students, bringing higher education to one of the few remaining counties without a university. Research is Bath’s greatest strength, with applied mathematics, mechanical engineering and pharmacy all rated internationally outstanding in the last assessments.

Teaching

Teaching assessments confirmed the university’s excellence in science and technology, with biosciences, physics, mathematics and statistics all achieving maximum points. Arts and social science ratings were mixed, but there were successes in management economics and politics, while European languages and architecture scored well in the 2007 national student satisfaction survey.

The latest academic developments have seen the establishment of a School for Health and an Institute for Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts, both engaged in teaching as well as research. Most courses throughout the university have a practical element, and assessors have praised the university for the work placements it offers. The majority of students take sandwich courses or include a period of study abroad, which helps to produce consistently outstanding graduate employment figures.

The university’s other great claim to fame lies in its sports facilities, which were already among the best in Britain before the addition of a £30-million training village, funded with Lottery money. The campus acquired a 50-metre swimming pool by this route, to which it has added an indoor running track, a new multipurpose sports hall, eight indoor tennis courts, an indoor jumps and throws hall, air pistol and fencing sale, a judo dojo and even a simulated bobsleigh and skeleton start area.

Sport

There is a strong tradition in competitive sports: the university pioneered sports scholarships more than 20 years ago, and they are now worth up to £12,000 a year for performers of international calibre. There are also courses to do the facilities justice, as recognised in a near-perfect score for teaching quality in sport and leisure. Bath claims that its students have access to more free sports facilities than any other university in Britain, from the swimming pools to badminton, squash and tennis courts to grass and astroturf pitches.

Students – nearly a quarter of whom were educated at independent schools – may find the campus quiet at weekends and struggle to afford some of Bath’s attractions, but they value its location. When they tire of the beauty of Bath, the nightlife of Bristol is only a few minutes away. The two cities have a combined student population of more than 50,000. The students’ union is active and the university has been upgrading its student support services, for example through the introduction of a new virtual learning environment and the provision of laptops adapted for use by students with disabilities. More than nine out of ten students surveyed say they would recommend the university to family and friends.

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