Next on the horizon in Huddersfield's development  programme is the institution's National Health Innovation campus, due to open in 2024. This will bring specialist clinical teaching facilities along with a health and wellbeing academy for health-related entrepreneurial activity plus new research facilities. 

Huddersfield is the largest provider of apprenticeships in nursing and allied health in Yorkshire and the Humber, as well as being one of only two universities contracted to deliver Health Education England’s 2021-launched distance learning nursing degree. The university’s portfolio of degree apprenticeships gains a programme in enhanced clinical practice in September 2023, which will bring the number of courses offered to 12. Established programmes include a suite of nursing options as well as paramedic science, physiotherapy and podiatry.

An academic restructure in 2021 merged the university’s School of Art, Design and Architecture with the School of Music, Humanities and Media to create the School of Arts and Humanities. The new department encompasses the university’s Yorkshire Film and Television School, which has a 300 sq m film studio along with live broadcast television studios, virtual reality and motion-tracking sensors and the latest in music and sound production facilities. Its newest degrees include film-making; television studies and production, performance for screen, and screenwriting. From September 2023 the portfolio of drama-related courses will gain a performance element. 

The constant refreshing of the curriculum is evidence of Huddersfield’s commitment to maintaining the same level of teaching and learning experience for students that earned it gold in the government’s Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). When awarding their top accreditation the TEF panel commended the university’s effective use of learning analytics to target timely interventions that boost students’ results. It also praised an institution-wide strategy for assessment and feedback, which ensures that all students are challenged to achieve their full potential. 

Student feedback in the National Student Survey (NSS) backs up the TEF’s warm review. Our analysis of the results of the latest National Student Survey, published in 2022, ranks Huddersfield 52= for satisfaction with teaching quality, rising 54 places on 2021. Teaching has returned an in-person, on-campus model, supported by lecture capture facilities that have been in place since pre-pandemic times. The university has also improved from 112th place to 59= for how students feel about their wider experience.

Having done well in the previous Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014), when the arts and social sciences flourished, Huddersfield falls 18 places to 79th in our research quality index, based on the results of the latest national assessment, REF 2021, although strong performances were noted in music, creative writing, building, land and property management, and town and country planning. The university’s Institute of Railway Research won a coveted Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2019. 

A link with Santander promotes internship opportunities that have often resulted in permanent positions for graduates, the university notes. All undergraduates may undertake work-related experience during their studies — such as placements, industry-standard projects and real-world case studies. Other employability initiatives include an alliance with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) that provides all students with a CMI leadership qualification. Companies at which Huddersfield students undertook work placements in 2021-22 include boohooMan, Jaguar Land Rover, Bank of America and HMRC. 

A strong record in our social inclusion index continues for Huddersfield, which rises three places to rank 17=. More than half (57. 2 per cent) of new students are the first in their family to go to university and 95 per cent are educated at non-selective state schools. 

About three in ten new undergraduates qualify for financial aid through a bursary or scholarship. Supporting a proud tradition for widening access to higher education and the professions, Huddersfield has a range of outreach activities including the year-long Progression Module, a skills-boosting programme worth 12 Ucas tariff points. The points can be used towards entry requirements at Huddersfield, Leeds Beckett and Leeds Trinity universities.

There is also the Aspire to Uni ten-year outreach programme for pupils from target primary schools, designed to improve their results and progression from Sats up to post-16 courses. Headstart Huddersfield offers applicants who qualify under widening participation criteria an extra eight Ucas points, plus support including guaranteed interviews and help deciding where to apply.

Digs is Huddersfield’s preferred accommodation provider. It has 1,367 rooms in the Storthes Hall Park student village where prices start at just £82.50 per week per person for those willing to share a twin room. First-years are guaranteed a space and can make requests such as living with friends, or for a single-gender flat or in a quieter area of the accommodation. Where possible, Digs allocates at least two students on a similar course in the same flat.

At the £22.5 million Student Central building, sports facilities include an 80-station gym, two multi-purpose studios, a physiotherapy treatment room and a double sports hall with seating for 500 spectators. The town’s leisure centre is within ten minutes’ walk of campus. 

Huddersfield offers a lively social life for its student body of nearly 20,000, while Leeds and Manchester are accessible by train.