The University of Wales Institute in Cardiff has an international reputation for sport, but other areas are also benefiting from a £50-million programme of new facilities.

The £20-million Cardiff School of Management should be open on the Llandaff campus a for the start of the 2010-11 academic year.

A Food Industry Centre opened in 2009 and the Cyncoed campus has a new student centre with a nightclub and all the normal catering and leisure facilities.

UWIC was the most improved university in Wales and had one of the biggest rises in the UK in the 2008 National Student Survey. Initial teacher training, media studies and tourism, transport and travel produced the best results. But applications were still down by 5 per cent at the start of 2009, when most universities were posting healthy increases.

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• The Times University Guide table

Related Links

• University of Wales Institute Cardiff

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• Cardiff University of Wales Institute official site

Access

Two thirds of UWIC’s 10,000 students are Welsh, half of them from Cardiff or the Vale of Glamorgan.

More than 90 per cent attended state schools and, although little more than three out of ten come from working-class homes, the 10 per cent who come from areas sending few students to higher education is close to the “benchmark” set according to the mix of courses. The dropout rate is lower than the average for new universities.

Sport

UWIC is one of Britain’s leading centres for university sport, with team performances to match some excellent facilities. In recent years, the Institute has had British university champions in gymnastics, trampolining, athletics, rugby union, rugby league, boxing, squash, archery, weightlifting and judo.

More than 300 past or present students are internationals in 30 sports, world and Olympic champions among them. The £7-million National Indoor Athletics Centre is UWIC’s pride and joy, but other facilities are also of high quality.

Academically, the large School of Art and Design is the star performer, with 70 per cent of the work submitted to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise rated either world-leading or internationally excellent. Sport also registered some world-leading research and all six teacher training courses are rated as excellent by Estyn, the school inspectorate. UWIC also did well in the Higher Education Academy’s satisfaction survey of postgraduate research students.

Entrance requirements

Entrance requirements are generally modest, but the menu of largely vocational courses means that many students come with qualifications other than A levels. About a fifth are mature students and there are 850 international students from 125 different countries.

Many are among the 23 per cent postgraduates – the largest proportion in Wales. UWIC courses are also taught at partner colleges in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Dhaka.

Campuses

The four Cardiff sites are all within three miles of the city centre. The Cyncoed campus, which houses education and sport, is the centre of activity, particularly for first-year students. The athletics centre is there, together with a multitude of outdoor facilities and also the Welsh Sports Centre for the Disabled. Student facilities, including the Institute’s largest bar, have been upgraded recently. A £2-million learning centre opened in 2005; the IT suite has 250 computers available 24 hours a day.

Howard Gardens is the home of fine art, while the Llandaff campus hosts design, engineering, food science and health courses.

A £3-million student centre at Llandaff, which opened in 2003, includes a dyslexia support unit among a number of advice and representation services, and a learning centre with more than 300 computers. Business, hospitality and tourism are taught at the Colchester Avenue campus.

Students tend to like Cardiff as a city, and UWIC’s enterprising union does its best to make their time there as lively as possible. It owns a nightclub and bar in the city centre to add to the campus choices.

Before the recent expansion, it was possible to guarantee accommodation to all first years, and 90 per cent still live in halls. UWIC is the only university to have been awarded the Government’s Charter Mark four times, the judges commenting particularly on the level of satisfaction among students.

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