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Overview

Cardiff Met, our Welsh University of the Year, is benefiting from its home city's current status as one of the UK's hottest student destinations. Serving a more local market than its Russell Group neighbour, with more than half of all UK-resident students coming from Wales, a record 12,500 applications were received for courses starting in September 2023. The number admitted was beaten only by the year before. Breaking records is something that comes naturally for this most sporting of universities, which regularly ranks in the top 30 for sport in the UK despite its relatively small size. (There are around 8,500 undergraduates). Its outstanding facilities include a new strength and conditioning suite and the National Indoor Athletics Centre. As well as the two teaching campuses, Cyncoed and Llandaff, there is a third residential campus, Plas Gwyn. The school of education and social policy is based at Cyncoed, to the north-east of the city centre, while the schools of management, technologies and art and design are based at Llandaff. The school of sport and health sciences is split across the two. Cardiff Met was named University of the Year by Times Higher Education in 2021.

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Paying the bills

Cardiff Met has cut many of the hidden costs of studying. Students have free use of fitness facilities; library fines have been removed; assessments do not need to be submitted in hard copy (except where essential) to save on printing; laptops can be borrowed for free; a partnership with a Cardiff taxi company allows students to travel even if they cannot pay; and monthly 'community days' offer the likes of free haircuts, free clothes swaps and a free bookshop. The university has raised its maximum award from its financial support fund for students in need from £1,500 to £2,000, in light of the cost-of-living crisis. Cardiff Met's Study Life bursary, worth up to £950 per year, is paid to those from homes with an income of less than £30,000, and who live in an area that sends the fewest students to university. Sports scholarships of between £1,000 and £5,000 per year are also given to 40 students across men's sport, women's sport and disability sport, as well as those from an area with low rates of participation in higher education. Accommodation is a little pricier than at nearby Cardiff University, with self-catered rooms costing between £5,920 and £6,160 this year on a 40-week contract. 

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What's new?

A drone research studio at the Cardiff School of Technologies will be completed this year, providing a fully enclosed facility with the latest Quanser kit, vehicles, cameras and control stations. A rolling programme of upgrades to the university estate will continue into next year to improve learning spaces and social spaces with health and wellbeing activities, decarbonise facilities and infrastructure and 다파벳가입 enhance biodiversity. Cardiff Met sits sixth in the UK for environmental and ethical performance, according to the latest People & Planet league table. A number of new degrees are planned for September 2025. These include BAs in game art and interior architecture, MEng and BEng options in electrical and electronic engineering, and a BSc in psychology and criminology within the school of sport and health sciences. The university is working with partners on developing a new degree apprenticeship for those in analyst roles, bringing together data science with economics and policy. This would add to existing apprenticeships in applied cyber security, applied software engineering and applied data science.

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Admissions, teaching and student support

The university answered our survey questions on student culture and safety more comprehensively than any other - a reflection of the considerable efforts it puts into providing a safe, secure environment for its students. Before being given the keys to their accommodation, Cardiff Met students must complete a compulsory halls induction online, which includes an animated film covering consent, drugs and alcohol misuse. Compulsory components in these areas are rare in universities. The messaging is reinforced through initiatives such as the university's Being Well Living Well online platform that includes advice on forming and maintaining healthy social relationships. The students' union's #NotAnExcuse campaign is aimed at changing the culture in society regarding sexual misconduct. The university's diligence extends to students' mental health, too. Working with other higher education institutions in Cardiff and the local NHS trust, a team of NHS mental health nurses support students on campus every week (the first such collaboration with the NHS in Wales). Cardiff Met also has a 'cause for concern' process in place to allow students, staff and members of the public or family to report concerns about students. The university's contextual admissions policy across all degree courses offers a one-grade reduction (or Ucas points equivalent) on its standard offers to - among others - all first-generation students, those recruited from the 40% of postcodes with the lowest levels of participation in higher education or from schools with low university progression rates, care leavers and those who have taken part in a widening participation programme at the university.