Good University Guide 2023

University of Nottingham

National rank

30
th=
85.3
%
Firsts / 2:1s
93.9
%
Completion rate

Key stats

107
th=
Teaching quality
95
th
Student experience
22
nd
Research quality
19
th=
Graduate prospects
University of Nottingham

Contact details

Address

University Park, Nottingham , NG7 2RD,

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Telephone

Prospective students attending Nottingham’s open days receive what the university claims to be the world’s first microprospectus. A QR code takes them to key resources online, saving an estimated 72 tonnes of paper and more than 18,000kg of CO2. It reveals an internationally-minded university in the throes of a new phase of growth. 

In the long run, that will include a new campus at the foot of Nottingham Castle to give the university more of a presence in the city centre. The Castle Meadow site was bought in 2021 for the business school and Digital Nottingham, the university’s civic, research and innovation hub.

There has been plenty of development at the main campus — most recently the modernisation of Nottingham’s first female hall of residence, dating back to 1928, which will reopen in January 2023. The 330-acre University Park is one of the most attractive campuses in the UK, winning 18 Green Flag awards for environmental quality. 

For the past five years it has shared the environmental honours with the Jubilee Campus, a former industrial site with four lakes. The Power Electronics and Machine Centre opened there in summer 2022 with ambitions to become a world-leading hub for low-carbon aerospace innovation.

Students enrolling in 2023 will find new facilities at the expended School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at the Sutton Bonington campus, 12 miles south of the city, which now has two intakes per year. There is a new mock veterinary practice facility and refurbished teaching facilities for courses in food, nutrition and dietetics. 

Applications and enrolments are running at record levels after four increases in a row. Only four British universities took more undergraduates in 2021 and there was another 3 per cent increase in applications in a snapshot of the present admissions round at the end of March 2022.

Student satisfaction is yet to recover from the slump that afflicted most universities during the pandemic. Declining scores in the latest National Student Survey, published in summer 2022, have left Nottingham outside the top 100 for satisfaction with teaching quality (107=), and only just inside it for the broader student experience (95th). Its position in our overall table, where it shares 30th place with the University of Reading, is the lowest it has occupied for many years.

Results improved in the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) — but Nottingham has slipped two places outside the top 20 in our research quality index weighing up improvements across the sector since the previous national assessment in 2014. The university's submissions in pharmacy and health sciences, and economics showed excellence and across all subjects, 90 per cent of the work was rated world-leading or internationally excellent, the top two categories. 

The university has always been among the favourite recruiting grounds of large employers. The latest High Flyers survey places Nottingham in the top two in 2021-22, and it is in our top 20 for the proportion of new graduates landing highly skilled jobs or going on to further study within 15 months.  

Nottingham was rated gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework, with praise for high student engagement with advanced technology-enhanced learning. 

Two new degrees in computer science with cyber physical systems began this year, and a BSc in health promotion and public health is planned for 2023. Numbers on the five degree apprenticeship programmes, which include architecture, data science and electro-mechanical engineering, are expected to rise from 300 to 400 by 2023.

Nottingham was the UK’s main pioneer of overseas campuses, opening at scale in China and Malaysia, where its campuses are centres of research as well as teaching. Undergraduates are encouraged to transfer between campuses and, with thousands of international students coming to Nottingham, the university markets itself as a global institution. It was our 2019 International University of the Year.

However, the university struggles in our social inclusion index, finishing in 106th place this year. About 30 per cent of UK undergraduates qualify for bursaries worth £1,000 a year because they have annual household incomes of less than £35,000 a year, and another £1,000 is available for those who meet a range of other criteria. 

The university is involved in a number of schemes designed to widen participation in higher education and about a third of the offers it makes are below the published norm in recognition of social and/or financial disadvantage.  But almost a third of Nottingham’s students still come from independent or selective state schools and the proportion of white working-class male students, the most underrepresented group in higher education and our newest measure, is among the lowest in the country. 

First-year undergraduates are guaranteed one of the 11,200 residential places. Sports facilities are excellent at the £40 million David Ross Sports Village and Nottingham was The Sunday Times 2019 Sports University of the Year. 

The city is popular with students and the main campus offers a lively social life.

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Performance

Category Score Rank
Ranking - 30= (28)
Teaching quality 71.9 107th=
Student experience 69.5 95th
Research quality 56.1 22nd
Ucas entry points 148 32nd=
Graduate prospects 83.8 19th=
Firsts and 2:1s 85.3 23rd
Completion rate 93.9 17th=
Student-staff ratio 15.8 54th=
World ranking - 114 (103)

Vital statistics

Undergraduates

Full-time

27,506

Part-time

250

Postgraduates

Full-time

6,147

Part-time

1,882

Applications/places 55,375/8,710
Applications/places ratio 6.4:1
Overall offer rate 71.9%

Accommodation

Places in accommodation 11,208
Accommodation costs £112 - £242
Catered costs £204 - £265
Accommodation contact nottingham.ac.uk/accommodation

Finance

UK/EU fees £9,250
Fees (placement year) £1,850
Fees (overseas year) £1,385
Fees (international) £11,600 - £33,250
Fees (international, medical) £28,000 - £46,500
Finance website http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/fees/tuition-fees-student-services.aspx
Graduate salaries £26,500

Sport

Sport points/rank 6451.5, 2nd
Sport website https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/sport/sport.aspx

Social inclusion and student mix

Social Inclusion Ranking 106
State schools (non-grammar) admissions 64.3%
Grammar school admissions 15.9%
Independent school admissions 19.8%
Ethnic minority students (all) 30.4%
Black achievement gap -18.2%
White working class males 3.1%
First generation students 30.4%
Low participation areas 8.3%
Working class dropout gap -2.5%
Mature 6%
EU students 2.8%
Other overseas students 12.7%

Student satisfaction with teaching quality

Veterinary medicine 95.5%
Classics and ancient history 86.4%
Liberal arts 84.7%
History of art, architecture and design 83.2%
Bioengineering and biomedical engineering 82.5%
Subjects allied to medicine 82.1%
Electrical and electronic engineering 81.9%
Civil engineering 81.1%
Drama, dance and cinematics 80.9%
Chemical engineering 79.9%
Anatomy and physiology 79.3%
Social work 79.2%
Pharmacology and pharmacy 78.8%
Physics and astronomy 78.4%
Education 76.8%
English 76.8%
Physiotherapy 76.6%
Natural sciences 76.5%
Food science 76.3%
Architecture 76.2%
Agriculture and forestry 76%
Music 75.3%
Communication and media studies 75.1%
Philosophy 74.9%
Archaeology and forensic science 74.7%
Biological sciences 74%
Theology and religious studies 73.8%
Animal science 73.7%
Building 73.3%
History 73.1%
Law 72%
Chemistry 71.2%
German 70.9%
Aeronautical and manufacturing engineering 70.3%
Mechanical engineering 70.1%
Computer science 69.7%
Mathematics 69.3%
Politics 69%
Psychology 68.9%
Geography and environmental science 68.2%
Criminology 67.7%
Sociology 67.7%
East and South Asian studies 67.1%
Business, management and marketing 67%
French 66%
Iberian languages 65.8%
Nursing 65.8%
Economics 65.1%
American studies 64.9%
Accounting and finance 64.1%
Social policy 63%
Medicine 59.9%
Russian and eastern European languages 54.5%
Sports science 37.6%