Such positive results signal that LJMU’s investment in the student experience appears to be paying off. The £64.5 million Student Life Building and Sports Building opened on Copperas Hill in 2021. It houses the students’ union and student-facing services across five storeys. Giving LJMU the student hub that it did not previously have, the Student Life Building building has also become the focus point for careers advice, information on international exchanges and wellbeing support. There is also a chaplaincy, a café and a study area as well as general teaching spaces.

Next to it, the Sports Building provides access to a modern gym and two multipurpose halls — including an eight-court hall complete with a viewing gallery. Another project has provided nursing and allied health students with an extension at the Tithebarn Building, adding six technology-enhanced simulation suites, two flexible-use 75-seat lecture theatres and three IT suites.

Other specialist learning facilities include the Liverpool Screen School, housed at the £37.6 million Redmonds Building (along with the schools of business and of law), which has links with the region’s creative industries such as the BBC in Salford and ITV Northern Lights. Students use industry-standard television and radio studios, undertake placements and benefit from industry guest speakers.

Through the business faculty’s Liverpool Business Clinic, students work in a consultancy team tackling real challenges presented by the region’s businesses. Similarly, law undergraduates can gain real-world, pro bono experience from the first year of study at the university’s Legal Advice Centre.

LJMU has a silver rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework. Assessors complimented its “highly effective institutional strategic drive to improve satisfaction with assessment and feedback”, strong recognition of teaching excellence and a consistent commitment to student engagement.

Post-pandemic, no programmes are being delivered online other than specified distance learning courses. Facilities to record teaching sessions are available in all settings. 

One of the pioneers of degree apprenticeships, LJMU has reduced its portfolio of programmes from 17 options in our guide’s previous edition to 11, at the last count — although student apprentice numbers remain at about 2,000. The earn-as-you-learn options are registered nurse; social worker; chartered manager and police constable. 

Undergraduate courses include work-based learning opportunities, from placements to sandwich years. Graduate prospects are improving, according to our analysis of the latest Graduate Outcomes survey, published in summer 2022. Based on the proportion of graduates in highly skilled jobs or further study 15 months after completing a degree, LJMU rises 12 places year-on-year to joint 74th.

LJMU falls nine places in our research quality index to 76= against improvement across the sector in the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021). However, the university furthered its burgeoning research reputation, submitting work from more than 600 academic staff (up from 242 in the previous national assessment in 2014). Nearly three-quarters (73.1 per cent) of the submission to REF 2021 achieved the top ratings of world-leading or internationally excellent. Astrophysics; sport and exercise sciences; engineering; and English produced some of the best results.  

Researchers and students use the university’s robotic telescope in the Canary Islands, which is set to be joined by a second £24 million, four-metre-diameter telescope built by an international consortium led by LJMU. Closer to home the Football Exchange (FEX) at the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences has engaged in research and consultancy projects for several Premier League clubs and governing bodies such as Uefa.

Applications increased by about 10 per cent in the 2021 admission cycle, year-on-year — taking them to a new high. The number of new students starting courses also increased, by about 5 per cent. From September 2023 three new degrees launch: forensics, policing and investigations; policing and investigations; and environmental science. 

With roots that can be traced to the Industrial Revolution, university status came in 1992 and with it the John Moores moniker, in honour of the Liverpool entrepreneur and philanthropist who helped to fund LJMU’s forerunner institutions. 

The university's intake has a relatively high proportion of white working-class male students, he most underrepresented group in higher education (10.8 per cent) — ranking fourth on our newest measure of social inclusion.  Its outreach work has helped to recruit more students from Northern Ireland than any university outside the province itself. The proportion of students recruited from deprived areas (17.8 per cent) is within the top 25 universities. 

In the Times Higher Education’s Young Universities Rankings 2022, which rate universities that are aged 50 years and under, LJMU took sixth place among the UK institutions and joint 109th globally.

Financial help includes the £500 LJMU Progression Bursary, paid automatically to eligible students for each year of study. Among a range of merit-based awards available for 2023 entry is the £1,000 per year LJMU Community Excellence Scholarship, given to applicants who can demonstrate excellence and sustained commitment to extracurricular activities such as volunteering, sport and performing arts. 

The university endorses 4,000 residential spaces in privately operated halls of residence. All first-years are guaranteed a room in the heart of the city and each hall of residence has an accommodation mentor to help new students to settle in.