Wales’s top-ranked institution and our Welsh University of the Year 2026 is the only Russell Group university in Cymru. A Cardiff education may now be accessed not only from the heart of the Welsh capital but also at its first overseas campus. The new Kazakhstan site offers four-year programmes with foundation years in computer science, civil engineering, exploration geology and business management. The main action remains around Cardiff’s city centre campus, where a £600 million upgrade — the biggest for a generation — has boosted the undergraduate experience.
Tracing its history to 1883, Cardiff brings academic clout coupled with a hard-to-beat student location in this lively, walkable city with a thriving music scene, big sporting events and hip enclaves. Its charms are evident in Ucas figures, which show applications to Cardiff tipping over 46,000 for the past three years, and a record year for admissions in 2024, when more than 8,000 new first-years enrolled.
What is Cardiff University’s reputation?
Glowing results in the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021), with 90 per cent of its submissions rated world-leading or internationally excellent. Philosophy; communication and media studies; education; and architecture were among the subjects that lifted Cardiff 13 places to 21st for research, one of the biggest risers among Russell Group universities.
However, in common with many research-intensive institutions, Cardiff has tended to receive lukewarm responses in the National Student Survey. In our new analysis it has risen to 99= for teaching quality from 117th last year, but has improved in feedback about the wider undergraduate experience (51=, up from 83rd).
For the first time since its founding, the university has a female vice-chancellor, Professor Wendy Larner, a social scientist from New Zealand whose research focus is on globalisation, governance and gender. Under its new “Our Future, Together” strategy, Cardiff has set out its ambitions to future-proof students’ knowledge and skills to help them flourish in an increasingly digitised and interdisciplinary world.
It is already investing £5.4 million in five new research and innovation institutes in the fields of digital transformation; net zero; neuroscience and mental health; security, crime and intelligence; and systems immunity.
In early 2025, Larner announced plans to merge several schools and cut course provision at the university, in response to the “precarious financial position of many universities, particularly in the context of declining international student applications and increasing cost pressures”. However, she later backtracked on planned course closures, “albeit with revised structures and with a smaller staff base”.
The Kazakhstan campus signals Cardiff’s ambition to make an impact across the world, with other transnational education opportunities being explored, including in China, India, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States.
What degree courses have been discontinued and what new courses are available?
Cardiff has committed to retaining its nursing and music courses, but with some revisions to intake. The university will discontinue the teaching of German, Italian, religious studies and ancient history in 2026. September 2025 marks the final intake for these programmes.
What are Cardiff University’s entry requirements — and my chances of getting in?
Offers range from A*AA to BBC. Contextual offers — received by about 28 per cent of UK entrants — reduce standard requirements by one grade except for medicine and dentistry, where applicants may be given extra points in the interview process instead. Of Cardiff’s new undergraduates in 2024, 13 per cent entered through clearing.
What are the graduate prospects?
Cardiff ranks 12= for graduate prospects, based on 85.1 per cent of leavers in highly skilled work or further study 15 months after finishing their degree. Students benefit from the university’s strategic partnerships with industry and public or third-sector organisations — such as the Office for National Statistics, Amgueddfa Cymru (Museum Wales), Takeda Pharmaceuticals, the Airbus Centre of Excellence for Cybersecurity Analytics and the insurer Admiral — for internships, work placements and secondment opportunities.
Student entrepreneurship gets a boost via Cardiff’s innovation culture, which connects students with industry and research.
What is Cardiff University’s campus like?
Pale stone buildings on the tree-lined avenues around Cathays Park are the elegant heart of the campus. Cardiff’s £600 million campus upgrade has boosted the undergraduate experience. The Centre for Student Life opened in 2021, bringing study space and a lecture theatre under the same roof as support services in a £50 million project.
The £39 million Abacws Building combines the School of Computer Science and Informatics and the School of Mathematics. A £17 million modernisation project at the Bute Building, the home of the Welsh School of Architecture, has added a “living lab” where researchers can work on projects with community and industry input. Studios have been relocated to make room for the architectural robotics laboratory.
The Sbarc (Spark) Building on the Innovation Campus is a place where researchers and entrepreneurs work together on spin-outs and start-up companies. The Translational Research Hub, a 12,000 sq m research base on the Innovation Campus, brings industrial partners alongside researchers to design, develop and test new cleaner, greener products and processes. It houses the well-established Cardiff Catalysis Institute and the Institute for Compound Semiconductors.
The healthcare sciences share a 53-acre campus at Heath Park with the University Hospital Wales. A new facility opened early in 2024 with a mock hospital ward and operating theatre where students can learn in authentic environments. Technology-enhanced learning has been embraced by Cardiff, and its school of dentistry (the only one in Wales) has modern training facilities including a simulation suite.
When can I visit?
Everything you need to know about Cardiff University’s student life and wellbeing support
There are more than 200 student societies, not least for performance and artistic pursuits. Cardiff’s live music scene, bars and clubs and its relative affordability create an upbeat student vibe. The Millennium Stadium hosts big matches all year. From Cardiff, adventures on the coast and Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) national park are not far away.
More than 60 sports teams keep students on their toes. At the Talybont campus, a key halls of residence hub, the Sports Training Village has floodlit outdoor courts and pitches and two indoor sports halls. Studio 49, the university’s dance studio, runs popular Pilates, yoga, Zumba and spin classes. The redevelopment of the university’s Llanrumney sports fields has created five floodlit all-weather pitches — two of them up to Fifa and International Rugby Board standards — as well as spectator stands and a warm-up area. The university has a three-floor fitness centre at the heart of the main campus.
Students can access self-help resources, group counselling, peer-to-peer support and one-to-one counselling. There is tailored help for groups of students including trans or non-binary students who are transitioning at university, those who have experienced trauma, and neurodivergent students. For those living in halls, the Residence Life team organises social activities for students to meet and broaden their friendship group and interests. Access to the TalkCampus service provides support including a round-the-clock crisis line.
What do the students say?
“Alongside engaging seminars and hands-on learning, being in one of the UK’s most affordable and student-friendly cities has made university life so enjoyable and I have made lifelong friendships.”
Eve Chamberlain, BA philosophy and MA digital media and society
What about student accommodation at Cardiff University?
All first-years who apply in the main Ucas cycle as a firm applicant and meet the deadlines are guaranteed a single occupancy room. Among Cardiff’s 6,365 rooms, rents start at £126 a week for self-catering and go up to £179 a week for catered accommodation.
How diverse and inclusive is Cardiff University?
In our social inclusion index, Cardiff has slipped out of the top 100 (106th, down from 98th) and is 14th out of the 21 members of the Russell Group in England and Wales.
Outreach activities designed to widen participation include the Sutton Trust, Discovery and Reaching Wider programmes. Widening participation work experience bursaries of £2,000 are available to support eligible students on a placement year.
Everything you need to know about scholarships and bursaries at Cardiff University
The main Cardiff University bursary, worth £500 per year of study, is for students from lower-income households, while there is also targeted support for students who are unpaid carers, have served in the armed forces, are leaving care or who are estranged from their families. The Cowrie Foundation scholarship (up to £8,000 a year plus mentorship) benefits financially disadvantaged black British students.
Merit-based scholarships are offered for engineering and Welsh, its study as a subject or if students choose to study part of their course in the language.
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