Facilities for chemical engineering have benefited from a £5.3 million upgrade that opened to students at the start of the year, with specialist and design laboratories and an immersive virtual control room that simulates industrial facilities among resources. Research within chemistry has also benefited from a £1.1 million upgrade to crystallography equipment, bringing a new goniometer and high-powered focusing optics.

The Avenue campus houses most humanities departments and clinical medicine is based at Southampton General Hospital. Winchester School of Art and the National Oceanography Centre are among the university’s other sites. Overseas, the university has a campus in Malaysia — originally dedicated to engineering, it also offers business courses.

As well as providing modern teaching and learning facilities Southampton is leading from the front on issues of student welfare, having made consent training mandatory for all students. Many other institutions offer advice to undergraduates on issues including sexual consent but few have made such guidance a formal requirement. Active bystander training is also offered, while the “Welcome to Southampton” module supports academic transition for new students. An anti-spiking campaign run with local clubs included “stop tops” and drink testing kits.

The student-friendly initiatives are paying off. In our analysis of the latest National Student Survey outcomes Southampton is up eight places to rank joint 34th for students’ assessment of the wider undergraduate experience. Conversely, it has lost ground for their evaluation of teaching quality but remains in the upper half of UK universities on this measure.

Southampton holds a silver award in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), whose assessors highlighted the support it provides all new undergraduates as they transition to university, as well as a strategic commitment to enhancing teaching quality. Investment in physical and digital resources, excellent student progression rates and effective employability initiatives also came in for praise by the TEF panel. 

The first neuroscience students began their courses this term, as did those on the chemistry and medicinal sciences course. From 2023 degrees in population sciences and a suite of biomedical engineering and medical engineering degrees will be offered. 

The university ranks 78th in the 2023 QS World University rankings and secured another strong performance in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework — an assessment conducted every six to seven years to evaluate the quality of research across UK universities. Engineering; allied health subjects; and computer science produced some of Southampton’s best results. Overall, about 90 per cent of its work was rated world-leading or internationally excellent. Southampton sits 14th in our research quality index, a seven-place drop in the face of rising research standards elsewhere. 

The National Infrastructure Laboratory houses the latest teaching and research facilities for geomechanics, heavy structures, solid mechanics and infrastructure engineering. The laboratory is located at the £140 million Boldrewood Innovation Campus, which is dedicated to marine engineering and engineering sciences and was developed jointly with Lloyd’s Register.

Most Southampton degrees offer a year in employment and undergraduates are encouraged to spend time studying abroad. The university does well in our measure of graduate prospects, with four in five graduates in high-skilled jobs or postgraduate study 15 months on from finishing their degrees.

Southampton is only just inside the top 100 in our social inclusion ranking, although this represents a more diverse intake than all but five other Russell Group universities. Just under a quarter of students are from ethnic minority backgrounds, according to the latest figures, and about seven in ten students went to non-selective state schools. Bursaries of £1,000 or £2,000 per academic year are based on UK students’ household incomes of less than £30,000 and awarded throughout their academic career. A number of merit-based scholarships are offered too. 

A ten-year investment in Southampton’s estate is launching with more than £40 million committed to new and improved sports facilities. Existing facilities include an indoor sports complex next to the students’ union and a 25m pool. There are numerous gyms at halls of residence, while the outdoor sports complex has multiple grass and synthetic pitches. Flying Formula is the university’s Sigma 38 yacht, available for taster sessions or bareboat charter.

The university guarantees accommodation for all new entrants who apply by the deadline. Its proximity to sandy beaches and the New Forest adds to Southampton’s kerb appeal, while the local nightlife has a lively reputation.