Pioneering projects include the Collaborative Teaching Laboratory — designed to change the way Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) are taught — featuring wet, dry and e-labs with learning space for 1,000 students. The Green Heart is a 12-acre space in the middle of Birmingham’s campus where students can study and socialise or watch performances.

In 2021 the new School of Engineering opened, bringing together the university’s engineering disciplines in 12,000 sq m over five floors, where flexible design and research spaces encourage innovation and partnership projects. The department has a strong record in rail research and the £46.5 million centre has a full-size set of railway points and a test track for the university’s scaled hydrogen-powered train. Next door is a research centre of excellence in digital systems, opened in 2020, which focuses on railway control and cybersecurity. 

In 2023 a Life Sciences Park will open at the Selly Oak campus, two miles from Edgbaston. Drama courses are also based in Selly Oak, where the BBC Drama Village on campus offers opportunities for student placements. In 2024 the School of Chemistry will open a new Molecular Sciences building on the former Munrow Sports Centre site on the main campus. 

Expanding its reach, Birmingham is the first Russell Group university to open an outpost in Dubai. It offers courses in business, economics, computer science, mechanical engineering and teacher training on a new campus, which opened in 2021.

Students in the UK are offered a wide — and growing — range of curriculum options. Seven new degree courses will be introduced in 2023: social anthropology; digital media and communications; film and creative writing; psychology and religion; environmental and engineering geoscience; human sciences; and global environmental change and sustainability.   

The full campus-based, in-person teaching experience has returned at Birmingham, where rates of student satisfaction took a big hit in the pandemic-affected National Student Survey of 2021.  It has clawed back to 79= for satisfaction with the overall experience in our analysis of the latest results.

Outshining several Russell Group rivals to be rated gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in 2016, Birmingham won praise for a strategic focus on research-informed teaching which his highly valued by employers. “All student outcomes are excellent,” the TEF panel acknowledged.

Birmingham’s enduring popularity with undergraduates hit new heights in the 2020 admissions round, in which almost 56,000 students applied — a 5 per cent increase on 2019 and 30 per cent up in a decade. Enrolments are also on the rise, up 13 per cent from 2019-2020  and up 40 per cent in a decade.

Birmingham topped the 2021 High Fliers report, tracking which graduates are targeted the most by top employers, and is consistently in the top five. Work experience opportunities, such as research assistant posts and summer internships, enhance undergraduates’ chances on the jobs market. In our analysis of the latest Graduate Outcomes survey recording the numbers in highly skilled work or further study after 15 months, Birmingham has climbed eight  places to enter the top ten (18th).

A degree apprenticeship in computer science with digital technology — run in partnership with PwC — has taken the earn-as-you-learn route to the next level. The company pays apprentices’ tuition fees as well as salaries throughout the four-year course. Apprentices study and live full-time as students for the first two years, undertaking work experience outside term-time. The entire third year is spent in the workplace, then trainees return to university for the fourth year. A graduate job awaits at the end, subject to performance.

Birmingham is in joint 100th place overall in our social inclusion index and continues its efforts to improve the diversity of its intake. The university makes contextual offers, normally one grade lower than the standard requirement, to applicants who have spent time in care or come from an area with low rates of progression to higher education. The Pathways to Birmingham programme for year 12-13 pupils encourages applications from those from underrepresented backgrounds and provides bursaries that do not need to be repaid.

Bursaries are available to help fund internships, and scholarships may be provided for travel projects even if they are not linked to the student’s main degree.

An official partner of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the university hosted hockey and squash events and its halls of residence at the Vale became the largest of the athlete villages. World-class sports facilities include six glass-backed squash courts, a 50m swimming pool, climbing wall and multipurpose arena with bleacher seating for more than 800 people. There are acres of sports pitches and courts at Bournbrook and Metchley, less than a mile away. The Gillett Centre at Selly Oak has two gymnastics training rooms with sprung floors and the Tiverton gym in the student village has skiing and resistance machines.

One of the UK’s most vibrant cities, Birmingham has earned a reputation as a leading student destination. Rooms in halls are guaranteed for first-years who meet the criteria and 12 per cent of places are catered.