Based in southwest London near Putney and Hammersmith, Roehampton’s 54-acre campus blends historic buildings, woodland walks and ponds with modern facilities. The pioneering spirit of Digby Stuart, Froebel, Southlands and Whitelands (Roehampton’s founding colleges, some of the first to train women as teachers) lives on in its future-facing ambitions, with the introduction of degrees in sustainable engineering and technology (from 2025), civil engineering, architectural technology, and construction management. Roehampton was an early adopter of esports courses, and draws students by offering dedicated scholarships and what it bills as “the largest gaming arena of any UK university”. Next it plans to launch more programmes that can be studied online. The university balances all this innovation with impressive research: it places in our top 50 in this measure, which makes it the highest-placed non-specialist modern university for research.

What is the University of Roehampton’s reputation? 

Its academic pedigree is in evidence in Roehampton’s impressive performance in the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021), in which more than three-quarters of the research across 11 subject areas was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent. The arts and humanities fared especially well, with dance, drama and education producing some of the best results, as well as allied health.  

Education courses remain a significant focus for the university, which has partnerships with more than 700 schools. Training for primary teachers was rated outstanding by Ofsted in 2023. Secondary-age teaching, a smaller area for the university, was rated good.

The university earned triple silver in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF 2023), and the assessors noted that “exceptional support for staff professional development and excellent academic practice [was] embedded” across the university. This finding is despite a controversial restructuring project that involved the university dropping some arts and humanities degrees, and required more than 100 academics to reapply for their jobs.

Roehampton has slipped back outside the top 100 of our league table, from 99th last year to 118th, largely because of lower rates of graduate employment, in which metric it places in the bottom three nationally based on the latest Graduate Outcomes survey. But student feedback was positive about the teaching quality and the broad university experience, and the results of the National Student Survey (NSS) put Roehampton comfortably in the upper half of the table nationally.

A church minister degree apprenticeship launched in September 2024 and it will be followed next year by courses in civil engineering, physiotherapy and cyber security technical professional, among others.

The university also has study centres in central London, Birmingham and Manchester, where business and computing degrees are taught by staff from QA Higher Education, a private company.

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

Roehampton’s course restructuring has created space for new options. From 2024 these include animation; games art; computer games programming; games design; computing and digital technologies; history and English; international relations and economics; politics, international relations and history; English and journalism; computing and business; finance and accounting; law with politics; early childhood studies; sports therapy; neuroscience; psychology and cognitive neuroscience; psychology and sociology; civil engineering; architectural technology; and construction management. From 2025 it will offer pre-registration degrees in occupational therapy and in physiotherapy.

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

The standard requirement is 112-120 Ucas tariff points, with up to 16 points knocked off for applicants who are eligible for a contextual offer. In some specific cases, unconditional offers are given. New student numbers have fallen: in 2023 just under 1,500 first-years started courses at Roehampton, down 42 per cent compared with a decade ago. More than a quarter entered through clearing.

What are the graduate prospects?

Having risen to 112th last year, Roehampton has fallen to 129= for graduate prospects with only 58.1 per cent of graduates in high-skilled jobs or further study 15 months after finishing their degree.

What is the University of Roehampton campus like?

Billing itself as “London’s campus university”, Roehampton prides itself on having the friendly atmosphere of a traditional campus just 20 minutes from the capital’s bright lights. The parkland site houses the £13 million Sir David Bell Building, opened as a digital media hub in 2020, where students have access to industry-standard film studios, editing suits and newsrooms, with facilities for photography and sound production. There is also a business laboratory and a Bloomberg trading room on campus. For creative industry events, there is a gallery area where students can also display their work, plus a cinema and computing facilities.

Everything you need to know about the University of Roehampton’s student life and wellbeing support

Students are all members of one of the four colleges — Digby Stuart, Froebel, Southlands and Whitelands — which form a social hub and host formal dinners and balls in winter and summer. More than 50 student clubs and societies include a vegan society, LGBTQ+ society and the long-running drama group the Roehampton Players, which has produced West End performers. The sports facilities include four dance studios and a resurfaced multi-use games area. Gym Roehampton, on campus, is run by Nuffield Health.

A ten-minute walk to the railway station and a 20-minute train ride to London Waterloo brings students into all that the centre of the capital has to offer. Bus services between the campus and local stations at Barnes and Wimbledon, e-bikes and “college kitchens” make life easier for students who commute.  

The university has a team of dedicated student wellbeing officers, as well as a team of counsellors and specialist mental health advisers available every day of the week.

What do the students say?

“We’re a close-knit community, with an incredible green and open campus, while at the same time we’re a stone’s throw from the centre of London. We have four historic colleges at Roehampton, each with their own mascot, and every student is assigned to one depending on where they live or which course they study. In my role as president, I’ve taken great joy in seeing graduates cross the stage at the Royal Festival Hall, ready to embark on the next chapters of their careers as Roehampton alumni.”
Amy Hopkins, students’ union president, education studies 

What about student accommodation at the University of Roehampton?

With more than 1,600 rooms on campus, first-years who apply by the deadline are guaranteed accommodation.

How diverse and inclusive is the University of Roehampton?

Ranking 35= in our social inclusion index, Roehampton recruits the 11th-highest proportion of students from non-selective state schools (97.2 per cent) and almost seven in ten (68.8 per cent) students are from black and ethnic minority backgrounds (a top ten proportion). More than half of new students are the first in their family to go to university (27th). But there is work to be done on its black awarding gap, which at minus 25.6 per cent places Roehampton 77th out of 115 universities in England and Wales.

Everything you need to know about scholarships and bursaries at the University of Roehampton

The £1,000 Roehampton Bursary is awarded automatically in the first year to students who receive the full maintenance loan. Roehampton launched the UK’s first esports scholarships and Europe’s first Women in Esports scholarships, both worth £2,000 a year.

There are merit-based scholarships for students who show promise in music and sport.There are also Academic Excellence Scholarships, worth up to £3,000 over the course of a degree for those with more than 144 points in the Ucas tariff (equivalent to AAA at A-level) or £2,000 for those with 136-143 Ucas points (AAB).