The combination of a leading research university and a charming cosmopolitan city that’s within easy reach of most of the country makes Bristol one of the most consistently popular destinations for students. A bonus: the academic year starts earlier here than at many other universities, on September 15 for 2025-26, meaning that mid-year assessments take place before Christmas and students can enjoy a holiday season without revision stress.
On the main campus in Clifton, Georgian buildings are set against the green spaces of the Downs and the Avon Gorge straddled by the Clifton Suspension Bridge. The campus landscape will be reframed from September 2026, however, when the doors open to the university’s £500 million Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus (TQEC), for teaching and research in the fields of digital, business and social innovation, next to Temple Meads railway station. The site will give students access to cyber teaching rooms, a financial trading computer room and a makerspace.
What is the University of Bristol’s reputation?
An outstanding performance in the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) reinforced Bristol’s research pedigree: 94 per cent of the work of 1,500 eligible staff across 28 subject areas was rated world-leading or internationally excellent, with notable achievements in engineering, medicine, law, chemistry, geography and environmental science, dentistry, modern languages, natural sciences, social policy, and social work. The university ranks sixth in our research quality index on the strength of its results.
Climbing three places in the QS World University rankings year-on-year, Bristol was rated the 51st best university on the planet in the 2026 edition. In our UK guide it has broken into our top ten.
In the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF 2023) Bristol achieved silver overall and silver for student experience.
The first higher education institute in England to admit women when it was founded, as University College Bristol in 1876, the university is expanding its AI offering, launching four new degrees in the field this year, following its crowning as AI University of the Year at the National AI Awards 2024. Furthering its push towards supercomputing is the new Isambard-AI research facility, which houses Isambard 3, one of the UK's most powerful CPU-based supercomputers.
Links with more than 150 universities — including the University of Copenhagen, the National University of Singapore and the University of California — create opportunities for students to study abroad for a semester or year. Summer schools and shorter programmes are also offered, with scholarships and other funding available.
The university has been making strides in environmental sustainability and ethical performance; despite this it has dropped ten places in the latest People & Planet league table to sit at 26= (it is fifth among its Russell Group peers).
What degree courses have been discontinued and what new courses are available?
Among the 27 new courses for 2025 and 2026 are AI programmes, design engineering, applied anatomy, economics and data science, and a suite of dual-honours degrees in subjects including English, film, and philosophy, all offered with modern languages.
At the same time, the single-honours French, Spanish, Russian, Italian, German and Portuguese courses are being discontinued, and will instead be available within the university’s restructured modern languages programme.
What are the University of Bristol’s entry requirements — and my chances of getting in?
Places at Bristol are in demand more than ever. Last year a record of more than 63,000 applicants chased fewer than 7,500 undergraduate spots. Students need to achieve grades of A*A*A at the top end, down to BBC. Standards are high but the university is also a pioneer of contextual offers: students who meet a range of criteria may receive an offer one or two grades lower than standard across most courses. Contextual offers accounted for more than four in ten offers in 2024 — up from about a third during the previous two admissions cycles.
Few Russell Group universities have undergone similar expansions of student numbers following the lifting of the cap on student recruitment a decade ago.
What are the graduate prospects?
A degree from Bristol carries weight in the jobs market: the university was the fifth most targeted institution by the largest number of top employers, according to the latest High Fliers graduate market report in 2024. The national Graduate Outcomes survey paints a similarly promising picture, with Bristol ranking 17= in our analysis, based on the numbers of students in high-skilled jobs or further study 15 months on from finishing their degree course.
What is the University of Bristol’s campus like?
Bristol’s neogothic Wills Memorial Building spire, where graduates collect their scrolls, has commanded the skyline since 1925. Added to the new TQEC, other recent standout facilities include the £56.5 million Life Sciences building, with its chemistry laboratories certified as a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. Seven of Bristol’s eight libraries are at the Clifton site, including one with late opening hours in the Wills Memorial Building. The Richmond building houses the students’ union, two theatres and one of the city’s largest gig venues.
A new teaching block at the Langford Campus is nearing the end of construction and will provide a boost to veterinary sciences provision. There are developments to the Arts and Social Sciences Library, too, along with extra space for cybersecurity teaching and study in the Merchant Venturers building.
Further afield, in Stoke Bishop, the university has a botanic garden with more than 4,500 plant species.
When can I visit?
Everything you need to know about the University of Bristol’s student life and wellbeing support
The students’ union offers more than 300 student-run societies, sports clubs and support networks. You name it, you can join it, from baking and hot-air ballooning to free speech groups.
Students are well served by pubs and clubs, and with job opportunities on the doorstep many graduates find no reason to leave.
Bristol sports teams came 10th in the 2025-26 British Universities and Colleges Sport (Bucs) overall points table. The Indoor Sports Centre at the heart of Bristol’s campus includes two gyms, a sports hall, an indoor running track and a sports medicine clinic, and a nearby swimming pool. In Stoke Bishop, to the north of the main campus, is the 38-acre Coombe Dingle sports complex, the site of most training and competition, while the university boathouse is at Saltford on the River Avon.
Students are asked to complete an induction module covering issues including sexual consent, freedom of speech, drugs and alcohol, and being an active bystander.
Investment of £5 million a year in wellbeing services funds support including self-book appointments. There are mental health nurses at the university GP surgery, and in conjunction with the University of the West of England and the NHS, Bristol has developed The Student Liaison Service — an NHS mental health service, designed specifically to support students. Its Residential Wellbeing Service operates throughout the year and includes a night team, who can offer direct support to students living in halls and via the phone to all students.
What do the students say?
“My favourite aspect of the course was the practical component. Bristol has it all: socials, academics and opportunities to find your true self, and there are opportunities to work part time while studying.”
Shannon, BEng engineering mathematics
What about student accommodation in the University of Bristol?
Bristol guarantees accommodation to first-years who apply by the end of June.
How diverse and inclusive is the University of Bristol?
Efforts to diversify the intake include gateway programmes for Bristol’s medicine, dentistry and veterinary science degrees appealing to underrepresented or disadvantaged groups and with entry criteria lower than contextual offers. Outreach activities include the Schools Engagement Strategy, supporting schools with lower than average progression rates, and the Advancing Access partnership — helping teachers guide students in underrepresented and remote areas toward competitive Russell Group universities.
The university has made modest gains in our social inclusion index in recent years but slips from 101st to 110th this year.
Everything you need to know about scholarships and bursaries at the University of Bristol
Bristol has a generous bursary and scholarship scheme: about three in ten of the intake qualifies for some form of financial award. Around 4,000 students (from households with an income below £50,000) receive a bursary of up to £2,500 per year of study.
The Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship awards up to £100,000 in a year to 30–40 students who demonstrate exceptional talent in sport, music, or the performing arts.
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