Winchester stresses its ‘human scale’, with fewer than 6,000 students and an emphasis on providing a supportive community for students to unlock their potential.

Successive finishes around the top 30 in the National Student Survey suggest that the approach has struck a chord.

Sports science had the second-highest satisfaction levels in the UK in 2008, when education, business and history also did well.

Applications were up again the official deadline for courses beginning in 2009.

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• The Times University Guide table

Related Links

• University of Winchester

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• University of Winchester official site

History

The university traces its history as an Anglican foundation back to 1840 and has occupied its King Alfred campus since 1862. The compact site is on a wooded hillside overlooking the cathedral city, ten minutes walk away, with views of the surrounding countryside.

A second centre, which opened in 2003, occupies a large 18th-century rectory in nearby Basingstoke and concentrates on lifelong learning. It offers Foundation degrees in community and creative industries, cultural studies, education and social sciences.

Known as King Alfred’s College until 2004, the university is still best-known for teacher training, which accounts for about a third of the places.

Courses

It is one of the largest providers of primary school training in England, but courses on the main campus also span business, arts, health and social care, and social sciences.

Degrees range from choreography and dance, through social work, business, accounting, law, media and teacher training to ethics and spirituality.

Street arts, global tourism, sustainable development management, philosophy, and health and wellbeing were added in 2009. Ancient, classical and medieval studies, modern liberal arts, and vocal and choral studies are among the innovations planned for 2010.

Winchester improved on already respectable grades in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, when it was ranked second among the new universities in history, with over half of its submission considered world-leading or internationally excellent.

Overall, more than a third of the university’s work reached the top two categories and there was some world-leading research in four of the six subject areas.

The university is particularly proud of its low dropout rate. At less than 12 per cent, the last official projection was below the national average for the subjects and entry grades, although the university puts the true figure lower still.

Nearly 97 per cent of the British students are state-educated and about a third are from working-class homes. Male undergraduates are heavily outnumbered and there are about 150 overseas students from a range of countries. Winchester students can take advantage of exchange schemes with American universities in Maine, Oregon and Wisconsin, as well as with Beppu University in Japan.

Campus

The main campus is well equipped, with its own theatre, sports hall and fitness suite now supplemented by the £3.5-million Winchester Sports Stadium, which opened in 2008. Open to local people as well as students, the stadium has an Olympic standard 400-metre eight-lane athletics track with supporting facilities for field events and also a floodlit all-weather pitch.

A four-storey University Centre opened in September 2007, transforming the students’ union, adding a nightclub, cinema, catering facilities, a bookshop and a supermarket at a cost of £9 million. A “learning café” creates an informal working space with networked PCs and wireless Internet access. An award-winning extension to the library made room for 200,000 books, 450 study spaces and 150 computers.

A £12-million student village provides nearly 1,000 residential places – enough to guarantee accommodation for all first years, as well as those from overseas. Another hall of residence, with en suite rooms arranged in cluster flats with shared kitchen facilities, is under construction.

Students value the close-knit atmosphere and find the city livelier than its staid image might suggest, with a number of bars catering to their tastes. London is only an hour away by train and Southampton less than half that for those who hanker after the attractions of a bigger city.

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