Portsmouth has always been among the leaders of its generation of universities.

Strength in teaching has been recognised with the award of two national centres of excellence and four subjects reached grade 5 of the last research assessments: biomedical and biomolecular studies, cosmology, European studies and Slavonic studies.

No former polytechnic managed more, and three grade 4s in that exercise left 45 per cent of the researchers in the top three of the seven categories.

Every faculty was involved in research, and the 38 per cent of academics entered for the assessment was among the most in the new universities.

Prospects

Graduate employment is healthy, especially for a university where a high proportion of the students take arts subjects. Languages are Portsmouth’s traditional strength – one student in five takes a language course at some level – and the facilities rival those of many traditional universities.

About 1,000 Portsmouth students go abroad for part of their course, and at least as many come from the Continent. French achieved a near perfect teaching score and its research was rated internationally outstanding.

However, it is in health subjects that the university’s reputation has been growing most obviously. A national teaching centre reflects the broader range of subjects available in recent years.

The new School of Professionals Complementary to Dentistry is one example of this. A £4-million building houses one of the first new dental education facilities in England for 50 years.

New degrees

Other additions to the portfolio of degree courses include subjects as diverse as dental hygiene and dental therapy, counter fraud and criminal justice studies and watersports science. Portsmouth leapt from halfway into the top 15 in the latest National Student Survey, with extremely high levels of satisfaction in history and archaeology, sports science and politics.

Teaching quality assessments were variable, but there was a marked improvement in later years of the cycle. Pharmacy recorded a maximum score, while education and politics, radiography and psychology all came close. Portsmouth academics have won National Teaching Fellowships in three of the last six years and, in addition to the health centre, the university is to lead on the development of teaching Foundation degrees.

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