Loughborough is accustomed to podiums. The university’s medal count at the Paris Olympics stood at four gold, four silver, and eight bronze — putting it in 16th place on the medal table if it were a country — ahead of Brazil, Austria, South Africa and Jamaica. At the Paralympics, Loughborough athletes brought home 19 medals, including seven golds, which would have put it in the top 20 as a country.The UK’s leading sports university counts the cyclist Sophie Capewell — a member of the Team GB women’s team sprint trio which smashed the world record to win gold — among its current students. The triathletes Beth Potter, a Loughborough alumna, and Alex Yee, who is based at the British Triathlon Performance Centre on campus won bronze in the mixed team relay, while Yee went on to secure gold in the men’s triathlon. The swimmer Daniel Wiffen, another current student, claimed gold for Ireland in the men’s 800m freestyle, becoming the first athlete from Northern Ireland to win Olympic gold in 36 years. 

Loughborough is quite a lure for elite students with what it describes as “the country’s largest concentration of world-class facilities across a wide range of sports”. Among them is its 50m, eight-lane pool — one of two British Swimming National Centres — which has served as a base for world-beaters including Adam Peaty. He won silver in Paris — and already had a haul of three gold medals and one silver since his Olympic debut at Rio 2016. Keeping up with the times, the pool is undergoing a £2 million decarbonisation project to install electric air source heat pumps. Loughborough’s campus hosts the governing bodies of six sports: England Netball, England and Wales Cricket, British Weightlifting, British Swimming, British Triathlon, and British Athletics.

What is Loughborough University’s reputation?

A university since 1966, the former Loughborough Technical Institute keeps up with the leading pack in assessments ranging from student satisfaction to graduate employment. 

Away from the sporting arena, the university also won triple gold in the government’s latest Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF 2023) with the highest rating for student experience, student outcomes and overall. The TEF panels commended “the embedding of outstanding teaching, feedback and assessment practices that are highly effective in supporting students' learning, progression, and attainment” and highlighted “outstanding rates of progression for [Loughborough’s] students and courses.

Loughborough’s students also gave glowing feedback in the latest National Student Survey (NSS). The university is fourth for satisfaction with the wider undergraduate experience in our new NSS analysis, up one place year-on-year, and 32nd for satisfaction with teaching quality (up 26 places). 

Our Sports University of the Year 2025, Loughborough is the perpetual champion of interuniversity sport in the UK. Its teams topped the British Universities and Colleges Sport (Bucs) points table in 2023-24 for the 43rd consecutive time. This is the fourth time Loughborough has taken our sporting title and it has also been named our University of the Year twice, as well as notching up more shortlistings for our awards than any other university. 

For sports-related degrees, Loughborough is peerless. In 2024 it led the QS World University Rankings for sport for the eighth consecutive year. Research in sport and exercise sciences contributed some of Loughborough’s best results in the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021). But although 91 per cent of the submission was rated world-leading or internationally excellent, the top two categories, the university fell four places to 34th in our table against greater gains elsewhere. 

What degree courses have been discontinued and what new courses are available?

Energy engineering launches in 2025, offered as a four-year full time integrated master’s or with the option of placement year on top. No courses are closing in 2024 or 2025.

What are Loughborough University’s entry requirements – and my chances of getting in?

Applicants need to achieve BBC up to A*AA at A-level to bag a place on Loughborough’s undergraduate courses. A revised contextual offer scheme began in 2022, lowering the high asking rate on many courses for eligible applicants. For applicants who narrowly miss their offer, Loughborough will take contextual information into account before giving a final yes or no. The annual number of new students accepted on to courses dipped by 5 per cent to just under 4,300 in 2023, 7 per cent entering through clearing.

What are the graduate prospects?

More than 2,000 undergraduates take work placements in a typical year, with employers such as Walt Disney, BAE, Unilvever and L’Oréal. Those hoping to start their own business can apply for a post under the Year in Enterprise programme. Loughborough University runs one of the largest careers fairs in the UK, attracting more than 70 companies such as Mercedes, Aldi, Leicestershire Police, Teach First and Nestlé. Loughborough Talent Match, the university’s internship programme, pairs students with placements lasting from 50 hours to four weeks, all of which helps Loughborough to rank 12th in our analysis of the latest Graduate Outcomes survey, with 86.3 per cent of graduates in highly skilled work or postgraduate study 15 months after finishing their degree. 

What is Loughborough University campus like?

The university occupies a 523-acre campus on the edge of the market town. Investment of more than £60 million over two decades has created a sporting environment where anyone of national and international standard can flourish, while raw talent can be uncovered and developed.

The purpose-built facilities keep getting better. The Powerbase gym extension has doubled its elite strength and conditioning facilities to 34,400 sq ft. Used by Olympic, Paralympic and world champion athletes, the single-level gym has been designed for accessibility. As well as outstanding practice areas, Loughborough’s human performance laboratories, nutritional analysis and sports medicine services are world-class.

Teaching facilities have been improved across disciplines. Three new digital laboratories will have XRL, 3D data and motion capture, robotics and simulation, modelling and AI technologies to support teaching and research. The university’s graphics and design disciplines are moving into renovated spaces in Martin Hall and the English department is relocating to the School of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Loughborough also has an east London campus at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, where the focus is on postgraduate and executive courses, research and enterprise.

Everything you need to know about Loughborough University’s student life and wellbeing support

Think of any sport … Loughborough will cater for it. Students can sign up for gym membership for between £144 and £230 per academic year or pay as they go (fitness sessions or a swim for £5.50). Fine facilities include an indoor athletics centre and outdoor stadium, sports halls and all-weather pitches, a 50 metre swimming pool, squash, badminton and netball courts, an indoor tennis centre and outdoor courts, and two state-of-the-art gyms. 

It's not all sport, sport, sport, though. The extracurricular LU Arts programme hosts live performances, workshops, artists’ talks, exhibitions and more across a range of creative forms from pottery, painting and creative writing to music, dance and drama. The university’s African violet sports kit colourway casts a purple haze across most campus goings-on and the students’ union goes above and beyond to ensure that Loughborough social life competes with bigger cities. Leicester and Nottingham are not far away.

Loughborough runs the Personal Best skills development programme to help first-years find their feet. For those struggling with their mental health, a duty assessment team responds in a crisis and there is one-to-one or group mental health therapy.

What do the students say?

“We excel academically as well as in providing an outstanding student experience. Whether it’s hosting international sporting events or joining one of our 100 societies, you can do it all here. Students often describe the campus as its own world, brimming with year-round events — from nightlife and volunteering to socialising and career-boosting pathways.”
Molly Page, students’ union president 23/25, and fine art graduate

What about student accommodation at Loughborough University?

Loughborough has more than 6,000 rooms across 17 halls of residence, 42 per cent of places catered — a rarity on UK campuses. The university guarantees accommodation to all first-years who apply by the July deadline.  

How diverse and inclusive is Loughborough University?Loughborough is in the lower ranks of the top 100 (96th) for social inclusion overall with just 68.2 per cent of students drawn from non-selective state schools (101st). It has done better on reducing its black awarding gap (-13.5 per cent) and is in the top 25 in England and Wales.

Everything you need to know about scholarships and bursaries at Loughborough University

Generous schemes provide between £1,000 and £17,100 over three years for eligible students from low-income households, areas of low participation in higher education and those who have left care, as well as high-performers in music, science and sport.