Welsh:Prifysgol Caerdydd | |
 | |
Former names |
|
|---|---|
| Motto | Welsh:Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord[1] |
Motto in English | Truth, Unity and Concord[1] |
| Type | Public |
| Established |
|
| Endowment | £53.1 million (2024)[2] |
| Budget | £638.0 million (2023/24)[2] |
| Chancellor | Laura Trevelyan[3] |
| Vice-Chancellor | Wendy Larner |
Academic staff | 3,410 (2022/23)[4] |
Administrative staff | 3,660 (2022/23)[4] |
| Students | 32,725 (2022/23)[5] |
| Undergraduates | 23,970 (2022/23)[5] |
| Postgraduates | 8,755 (2022/23)[5] |
| Location | , 51°29′N3°11′W / 51.49°N 3.18°W /51.49; -3.18 |
| Campus | Urban |
| Colours | |
| Affiliations | |
| Website | cardiff |
.svg) | |
Cardiff University (Welsh:Prifysgol Caerdydd) is apublic research university inCardiff,Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of theUniversity of Wales in 1893. It was renamed University College, Cardiff in 1972 and merged with theUniversity of Wales Institute of Science and Technology in 1988 to become University of Wales College, Cardiff and then University of Wales, Cardiff in 1996. In 1997 it receiveddegree-awarding powers, but held them in abeyance. It adopted theoperating name of Cardiff University in 1999; this became its legal name in 2005, when it became an independent university awarding its own degrees.
Cardiff University is the onlyWelsh member of theRussell Group of research-intensive British universities.[6] Academics and alumni of the university have included four heads of state or government and two Nobel laureates. As of 2023,[update] the university's academics include 17 fellows of the Royal Society, 11 fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering, seven fellows of the British Academy, 21 fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences and 32 fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences.[7]
The foundation of the university college inCardiff that was to become Cardiff University was part of the Welsh university movement of the second half of the 19th century, which also led to the foundation of the colleges at Aberystwyth and Bangor (nowAberystwyth andBangor universities) and the federalUniversity of Wales. The movement began at a meeting in London in 1854 called byHugh Owen, including leaders of Welsh theological colleges and members of parliament. This meeting discussed establishing university colleges in Wales along the same lines as theQueen's Colleges established the previous decade inIreland, and produced a formal proposal, the "Outline of Constitution for Proposed Welsh Queen's Colleges".[8]
Discussions on the founding of a university college inSouth Wales were revived in 1879, when a group of Welsh and EnglishMPs urged the government to consider the poor provision of higher and intermediateeducation in Wales and "the best means of assisting any local effort which may be made for supplying such deficiency."[9]
In August 1880,William Ewart Gladstone's government appointed a departmental committee to conduct "an enquiry into the nature and extent of intermediate and higher education in Wales", chaired bythe 1st Baron Aberdare and consisting ofViscount Emlyn, the Reverend Prebendary H. G. Robinson,Henry Richard,John Rhys andLewis Morris.[10] TheAberdare Report, as it came to be known, took evidence from a wide range of sources and over 250 witnesses and recommended a college each for North Wales and South Wales, the latter to be located inGlamorgan and the former to be the established University College of Wales in Aberystwyth (nowAberystwyth University). The committee cited the unique Welsh national identity and noted that many students in Wales could not afford to travel to University in England or Scotland. It advocated a national degree-awarding university for Wales, composed of regional colleges, which should be non-sectarian in nature and exclude the teaching of theology.[11][12]
After the recommendation was published,Cardiff Corporation sought to secure the location of the college in Cardiff, and on 12 December 1881 formed a University College Committee to aid the matter.[13] There was competition to be the site betweenSwansea and Cardiff. On 12 March 1883, after arbitration, a decision was made in Cardiff's favour.[13] This was strengthened by the need to consider the interests ofMonmouthshire, at that time not legally incorporated into Wales, and the greater sum received by Cardiff in support of the college, through a public appeal that raised £37,000 and a number of private donations, notably fromthe 3rd Marquess of Bute andLord Windsor.[14][15] In April, Lord Aberdare was appointed as the college's first president.[13] The possible locations considered includedCardiff Arms Park, Cathedral Road, and Moira Terrace,Roath, before the site of the Old Royal Infirmary buildings on Newport Road was chosen.[13]
The University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire opened on 24 October 1883 with courses in biology, chemistry, English, French, German, Greek, history, Latin, mathematics and astronomy, music, Welsh, logic and philosophy, and physics. It was incorporated byroyal charter the following year; this was the first charter in Wales to allow the enrolment of women and to specifically forbid religious tests for entry.[15]John Viriamu Jones was appointed as the college's first principal at the age of 27. As the college was not an independent university and could not award its own degrees, it prepared its students for the examinations of theUniversity of London or for further study atOxford orCambridge.[16]
In 1888 the university college at Cardiff and the University College of North Wales (nowBangor University) proposed to the University College Wales at Aberystwyth joint action to gain a university charter for Wales, modelled on that of theVictoria University, a federal university in northern England with colleges in Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool. This led to a charter being granted to theUniversity of Wales in 1893, with the colleges becoming members of the new university. The position of operational head would rotate among heads of the colleges.[15]
In 1885,Aberdare Hall opened as the first hall of residence, allowing women access to the college. This moved to its current site in 1895, but remains a single-sex hall. In 1904 the college appointed the first female associate professor in the UK,Millicent Mackenzie, who in 1910 became the first female full professor at a fully chartered UK university.
In 1901, John Viriamu Jones persuaded Cardiff Corporation to give the college a five-acre site inCathays Park (instead of selling it as they would have done otherwise).[17] Soon after, in 1905, work on a new building commenced under the architectW. D. Caröe. Money ran short for the project, however, and although the side-wings were completed in the 1960s the planned great hall was never built. Caroe sought to combine the charm and elegance of hisalma mater (Trinity College, Cambridge) with the picturesque balance of manyOxford colleges. On 14 October 1909 the "New College" building in Cathays Park (now Main Building) and the "Drapers' Library" (now the Science Library) was opened in a ceremony involving a procession from the "Old College" in Newport Road.[18]
In 1931, the medical school, founded as part of the college in 1893 along with the departments of anatomy, physiology, pathology and pharmacology, was split off to form the Welsh National School of Medicine, renamed theUniversity of Wales College of Medicine in 1984.
The University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire was renamed University College, Cardiff in 1972.[19]
In 1988, University College Cardiff ran into financial difficulties and a declaration of insolvency was considered.[20] This led to a merger with theUniversity of Wales Institute of Science and Technology (UWIST) to form the University of Wales College of Cardiff. The principal of the new institution wasSir Aubrey Trotman-Dickenson, who had been the principal of UWIST. After changes to the constitution in 1996, its name was changed to the University of Wales, Cardiff.
In the early 1990s, the university's computer systems served as the home forThe Internet Movie Database.[21]
The college was granted degree-awarding powers by thePrivy Council in 1997 although, as a member of the University of Wales, it did not use them at that time. In 1999, thepublic name of the university was changed to Cardiff University.
In 2002, ideas were floated to re-merge Cardiff with theUniversity of Wales College of Medicine (UWCM), after the publication of theWelsh Assembly Government's review of higher education in Wales. This set in train a series of constitutional reforms. On 1 August 2004, Cardiff University ceased to be a member of the University of Wales and became an independent "link institution" affiliated to the federal university. The process of the merger with UWCM was completed on 1 December 2004, when theAct of Parliament transferring UWCM's assets to Cardiff University received royal assent. On 17 December it was announced that thePrivy Council had given approval to a new supplemental charter for the keys institution. This was sealed on 11 March 2005, granting university status to Cardiff and legally changing the name of the institution to Cardiff University.[22] Cardiff awarded University of Wales degrees to students admitted before 2005, but has subsequently awarded its own degrees.[23]
In 2005, Wales College of Medicine, as part of the university, launched the North Wales Clinical School inWrexham, in collaboration with theNorth East Wales Institute of Higher Education in Wrexham, theUniversity of Wales, Bangor, and theNational Health Service in Wales. This received funds of £12.5 million from theWelsh Assembly[24] and trebled the number of trainee doctors in clinical training in Wales over a four-year period.
The university also has a Centre forLifelong Learning, which has been teaching a wide range of courses for over 125 years.[25] However, in July 2009, the university announced it was ending over 250 humanities courses at the centre, making over 100 staff redundant. The university has since reintroduced a number of humanities courses for a trial period beginning in 2010.[26]
In June 2010, the university launched three new research institutes,[27] each offering a new approach to a major modern research issue. The Neurosciences and Mental Health Research Institute and the Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute are housed in the purpose-builtHadyn Ellis Building and in the Sustainable Places Research Institute. Another part of the Science and Development Campus, theCardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), opened in June 2016 forneuroimaging research.[28]
On 19 February 2018, Malcolm Anderson, a university lecturer committedsuicide at age 48 by jumping off a university building.[29][30][31][32][33] The inquiry determined that Anderson's suicide was the result of a high-pressure workload.[31][32]
In 2020, Grace Krause, a PhD student employed at Cardiff University started experiencingheadaches andback pain after lengthy work at a computer.[32][34] Shetweeted that "Staff are marking hundreds of essays in an impossibly short time. It is exhausting. Everyone is in crisis mode. Stressed, moody, morose, everyone feels like they’re drowning."[32] Soon after, an email from the university was sent to all PhD students asking for these comments to be deleted, in order to avoid negative media attention, which sparked a debate aboutfreedom of speech between employers and employees.[32]
Cardiff University announced in January 2025 that it had an operating deficit of £31.2 million for 2023–24 and announced a three-month consultation on plans to reduce its academic workforce by approximately 400 full-time equivalent positions, representing around 7 per cent of its total staff, as well as discontinuing programs in ancient history, modern languages and translation, music, nursing, and religion and theology, and merging other academic departments.[35] The Arts and Humanities are expected to suffer most severely, with the remaining workforce to be reduced by approximately 120 full-time equivalent positions, which is around half. The university had around £500 million in unrestricted reserves according to its accounts for 2023–24, which theUniversities and Colleges Union said should be partially used to give a longer period for the university's finances to recover. However, the university said that "unrestricted reserves" was not the same as cash available to spend.[36][37] The university's accounts contain the statement that "Of the University’s £426m of cash and investments as at 31 July 2024, £41m is freely available to spend."[38] A document circulated internally but leaked to the press revealed that further job losses in non-academic staff were expected on top of the 400 academic staff posts and outlined plans for a smaller but higher-quality student intake in future. It also revealed that the projected deficit for 2024–25, if no action was taken, was £65 million, double the deficit for 2023–24, with the cuts designed to reduce the deficit to £28 million.[39]
The university's deficit is part of the wider financial challenges in the UK higher education sector, where universities are facing budget deficits due to factors such as tuition fee caps, rising operational costs, and fluctuations in student enrolment. Other institutions, have also announced staff reductions and course closures.[40][41] The proposed cuts at Cardiff also led to protests at theSenedd, where theWelsh Government said that there was no more money available for higher education despite universities across Wales suffering financial crises and implementing job cuts and campus closures.[42][43][44]
List of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of Cardiff University and its predecessors (shown in brackets):
The university's academic facilities are centred aroundCathays Park in central Cardiff,[45] which contains the university's grade II*listed main building,[46] housing administrative facilities and the science library, previously called the Drapers' library;[47][48] the grade II listedBute building,[49] which contains theWelsh School of Architecture,[50] the grade I listedGlamorgan building,[51] which houses the Cardiff Schools of Planning and Geography and Social Sciences,[52] theRedwood Building (named in 1979 after the Redwood Family of Boverton near Llantwit Major by a 1978 suggestion by J. D. R. Thomas), which houses the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences;[53] the law building which houses theCardiff Law School;[54] and the biosciences building, which provides facilities for both biosciences and medical teaching.[55] TheSchool of Engineering and School of Physics and Astronomy are located in the Queen's Buildings, off Newport Road, the Schools of Computer Science of Informatics and Mathematics at the Abacws Building,[56] and the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at 2 Central Square.
A number of university academic facilities are located at the Heath Park campus, based at theUniversity Hospital of Wales. This covers theCardiff University School of Medicine, the School of Dentistry, the School of Healthcare Sciences, and the School of Optometry and Vision Sciences.[57]
| Buildings of Cardiff University |
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Most of the university's sports facilities are located at the sports training village in the Talybont Halls complex. This includes facilities for football, badminton, basketball, tennis, hockey and gym.[58] Additional gym facilities and squash courts are located at the university fitness and squash centre, near the city centre campus atCathays Park.[59] Extensive playing fields forRugby, football andlacrosse are located at the university playing fields nearLlanrumney.[60] The university also utilises the nearbyMillennium Stadium for rugby fixtures such as the annual varsity tournament.[61]
The 26 academic schools of the university are divided into three colleges: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; and Physical Sciences.[62]
College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
| College of Biomedical and Life Sciences
| College of Physical Sciences and Engineering
|
Cardiff also has a Doctoral Academy,[63] that brings together the work of four previous discipline-based Graduate Schools and the postgraduate research activity of the university's Graduate Centre.
In the financial year ending 31 July 2024, Cardiff had a total income of £638 million (2022/23 – £627.2 million) and total expenditure of £500.4 million (2022/23 – £603 million).[2] Key sources of income included £328.3 million from tuition fees and education contracts (2022/23 – £310.6 million), £83.2 million from funding body grants (2022/23 – £90.2 million), £126.6 million from research grants and contracts (2022/23 – £133.6 million), £11.5 million from investment income (2022/23 – £9.6 million) and £4.5 million from donations and endowments (2022/23 – £1.4 million).[2]
At year end, Cardiff had endowments of £53.1 million (2023 – £46.2 million) and total net assets of £852.6 million (2023 – £679 million).[2]
| National rankings | |
|---|---|
| Complete (2025)[64] | 27 |
| Guardian (2025)[65] | 46 |
| Times / Sunday Times (2025)[66] | 32 |
| Global rankings | |
| ARWU (2024)[67] | 151–200 |
| QS (2025)[68] | 186 |
| THE (2025)[69] | 201–250 |
Cardiff University is a highly renowned for several subjects in its department.Cardiff has produced two Nobel Laureates on its staff, SirMartin Evans andRobert Huber.[70] A number of Cardiff University staff have been elected asFellows of the Royal Society, these includeGraham Hutchings FRS, professor of Physical Chemistry and Director of the Cardiff Catalysis Institute, School of Chemistry,[71]Ole Holger Petersen, MRC Professor and Director of Cardiff School of Biosciences.[72] andJohn M. Pearce, Professor of Psychology.[73]
In 2013, Cardiff University was ranked as one of the best UK universities for supportingLGBT students, by the charityStonewall in its annualGay by Degree guide. The university was one of only two in the UK and the only one in Wales to achieve top marks in a Stonewall checklist of priorities for LGBT+ students.[74]
Cardiff University was ranked joint 168th in Best Global Universities byUS News in 2021.[75] It was ranked 164th among universities around the world bySCImago Institutions Rankings in 2021.[76] The Round University Rankings ranked Cardiff University 162nd globally in 2021.[77] The Center for World University Rankings listed Cardiff University 159th in the world in 2021.[78]
According to QS World University Rankings by Subject in 2021, Cardiff University ranked within the world's top 50 universities in communication and media studies (28), in Architecture and Built environment (37) and Psychology (59).[79] Other subjects ranked within the top 100 are dentistry, and mineral and mining engineering (49) civil and structural engineering, geography, social policy and administration, pharmacy and pharmacology, English language and literature, and sociology.[79]
|
| Domicile[83] and Ethnicity[84] | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| British White | 63% | 63 | |
| British Ethnic Minorities[a] | 15% | 15 | |
| International EU | 3% | 3 | |
| International Non-EU | 19% | 19 | |
| UndergraduateWidening Participation Indicators[85][86] | |||
| Female | 60% | 60 | |
| Private School | 14% | 14 | |
| Low Participation Areas[b] | 9% | 9 | |
According to the 2017Times andSunday Times Good University Guide, approximately 15 per cent of Cardiff's undergraduates come from independent schools.[87] In the 2016–2017 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 76:5:19 of UK:EU:non-EU students respectively with a female to male ratio of 59:41.[88]
The university maintains 15 student halls and a number of student houses throughout the city of Cardiff; providing a total of 5,362 student places in accommodation.[89] They are in a variety of architectural styles and ages, from theGothicAberdare Hall, built in 1895, to the modern Talybont Gate Building, completed in 2014. All first-year students are guaranteed a place in university owned and managed halls.[90] The Cardiff University Halls are:
TheCardiff University Students' Union is a student-run organisation aiming to promote student interests within the university and further afield. The Cardiff University Students' Union building is nearCathays Park, next toCathays railway station. It has shops, a night club and the studios ofXpress Radio andGair Rhydd, the student newspaper. It is democratically controlled by the student body through the election of seven full-time officers, who manage the running of the Union.[91] The Union provides a range of services, including a number of cafes, bars and shops, as well as advice, training and representation. The Union is an affiliated member of theNational Union of Students.[92]
The students' union supports over 200 societies across a wide range of interests[93] as well as 70 sports clubs through the athletic union.[94]
Student activism at Cardiff University has included protests about the university's investments in arms companies in 2009, as part of a larger student movement in the UK at that time,[95] and participating in the2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses.[96] An encampment was established outside the Cardiff University Main Building on 14 May 2024 by students from Cardiff University,Cardiff Metropolitan University, theUniversity of South Wales and theRoyal Welsh College of Music and Drama, joining the Cymru Students For Palestine umbrella group that also included protestors atSwansea University andBangor University.[97][98] The encampment dispersed on 17 July 2024 after the university confirmed that it already met some demands and committed to address some of the others.[99]
The Union provides facilities and support for several student media groups, including:Gair Rhydd, an award-winning, free student newspaper that is released every Monday of term;[100]Quench, a monthly arts and lifestyle magazine that specialises in the local music scene as well as original investigative feature articles;[101] and CUTV, the student television channel.[102]
Xpress Radio is thestudent radio station.[103] It broadcasts daily during term from studios in the Students' Union building, with programming such as comedy panel shows, new music showcases, local music showcases, and film reviews.[104][105]
The Cardiff University Athletic Union is the body that supports student sport at Cardiff, it oversees more than 60 competitive and non-competitive sports clubs, many of which compete in theBritish Universities and Colleges Sport league.[106] The university'sIce Hockey team, the Cardiff Redhawks (which also recruits players from other Welsh universities) competes in theBritish Universities Ice Hockey Association leagues.[107]
The university's sports teams also take part in the annualWelsh Varsity againstSwansea University, which includesthe Welsh Boat Race, and several other sporting competitions.[108] The Welsh Varsity rugby match has been described as "probably... the second biggest Varsity Game next to Oxford vs Cambridge".[109]
Cardiff participates in British Universities and Colleges Sport which manages a sporting framework of competitive fixtures and events for over 150 institutions around the UK. Cardiff registers nearly 100 teams in the various leagues and competitions each year and sees students travelling around the country to represent Cardiff University. In 2013 Cardiff team achieved 15th position overall across the 50 different sports hosting events.
Cardiff University's motto isGwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord. TheWelsh motto translates asTruth, Unity and Concord orTruth, Unity and Harmony. It is taken from the prayer for theChurch militant as it appears in the1662Book of Common Prayer.[110]
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Cardiff University's currentcoat of arms was granted by theCollege of Arms in 1988 following the merger of University College Cardiff and the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology.[110] The coat of arms incorporates features from theheraldry of both former institutions. The threechevrons are derived from the arms of thede Clarelords of Glamorgan. The open book signifies learning; on it are thecrescent andannulet,marks of cadence that indicate that University College Cardiff was the second of the University of Wales' institutions, and that the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology was the fifth.[112]
A notable feature of the arms are thesupporters, which in heraldry are rarely granted to universities. The supporters are an angel from University College Cardiff and aWelsh Dragon from the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology. Thecrest is a Welsh dragon in the stance of a lion; it stands on thehelmet. Both the dragon and the helmet are distinguished by being front-facing rather than in profile as is more usually found inWelsh heraldry.[112]
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