The university also hosts the National Centre for Computer Animation and students also have access to Games PC and Mac laboratories, a critical listening lab and seminar and workshop facilities.  

Research in communication, cultural and media studies, and leisure and tourism — two of Bournemouth’s most well-regarded areas — performed well in the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021). The breadth and volume of the university's submission was substantially increased since the previous assessment in 2014 and involved three times as many staff. However, Bournemouth has dropped 16 places to rank 80th in our research quality rating based on the latest results, against stronger gains at other universities. 

Health students practise their burgeoning skills in simulation suites in another Gateway building recently opened on the main Lansdowne campus — replicating an operating theatre, hospital wards, a birthing room and a residential flat for practising at-home care.

Bournemouth pledges to provide a professional work placement during every undergraduate degree in the UK or abroad. Dedicated university staff help students to find the ideal posting from four weeks to a year in a range of workplaces. The university has cultivated links with more than 70 institutions worldwide, enabling Bournemouth students to have opportunities to study abroad too. Bournemouth’s Skills Development Programme — an extracurricular activity with a focus on employer-led skills and achievements — is tailored to help students shine as graduates anywhere in the world. 

The university has gained eight places year-on-year to enter the top 50 for graduate prospects, reaching 48th place. Our analysis examined the proportion of students in highly skilled work or further study 15 months after finishing their degree. 

Good progression to highly skilled employment contributed to a silverrating for Bournemouth in the Teaching Excellence Framework. Assessors highlighted student retention and the success of the university’s mentoring programme, which ensures that all first-years are offered advice from student representatives who are further along in their chosen course.

Bournemouth was using remote teaching technology before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, having installed the £6 million Brightspace virtual learning environment in 2017. It did not stop a huge slump in student satisfaction during the pandemic, contributing to a 38-place tumble in our academic table in 2021. Although Bournemouth has recovered somewhat in our analysis of student satisfaction, derived from the latest National Student Survey, published in summer 2022, it remains outside the top 100: it ranks 103= (up 21 places) in terms of the wider undergraduate experience, and 109th (up 18 places) for satisfaction with teaching quality. 

In-person teaching has now returned, supplemented by recorded lectures and seminars to which students may listen back remotely. 

Applications to study at Bournemouth rose 14 per cent year-on-year in the 2021 admissions cycle, restoring them to former levels. The university’s subject mix, seaside location and promising graduate prospects are a reliable drawcard. Enrolments have remained fairly steady over the past decade and edged up a little in 2021. 

Bournemouth is in 66th place overall in our social inclusion index measuring efforts to widen participation for underrepresented groups. The AccessBU contextual offer system makes allowances for the most disadvantaged students, who may be accepted with lower grades.

On the Talbot campus, students can get in shape with pole fitness, yoga, boxercise, Zumba and spin. Bournemouth runs a huge range of activities including basketball drop-in sessions, courses in the martial art jiu-jitsu, surfing and kayaking.

Chapel Gate is the university’s recently acquired 65-acre sports facility near the airport, where students can compete in football, rugby, hockey, table tennis, cricket, archery and rifle shooting. 

First-years are guaranteed one of 3,640 study bedrooms allocated on a first come, first served basis, not far from Bournemouth’s seven-mile sandy beach.