Overview

Founded in 1920 by King George V, Swansea University has almost 100 years of research and teaching experience. The first British university to employ a female professor; research conducted by our School of Engineering contributed to the world's first supersonic car; our campus is next to the UK's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty: the Gower Peninsula; we have arguably one of the most beautiful campus locations in the UK.

Swansea University was awarded the Best Student Experience in Britain by the Times Higher Education Supplement in 2005. Over 10,000 undergraduates assessed their universities in the survey. Swansea University emerged the overall winner with high ratings for its facilities, prospects and social life, beating 170 other institutions to top the poll.

Swansea University was one of The Sunday Times University Guide's Top 20 academic institutions in the UK for the quality of its teaching. The University was rated 16th for 'Teaching Satisfaction' in the 2005 Guide. This research reinforces the results from the 2005 National Student Survey, which showed that 65 per cent of subjects offered by the University were rated in the top 25 per cent across the country.

Swansea University provides international students with outstanding opportunities to earn money, gain work experience and enhance their employment prospects. . An outstanding 95% of Swansea University graduates are employed or pursuing higher degrees within six months of graduating, among the most sought after by UK employers.

The Times university 2008 Top 100 league table listed the University as the 46th best university in the UK (out of a total of 109), up from 50th position in 2004 but down from 42nd in 2005. In addition, the University picked up the 2005 Times Higher Education Supplement Award for the UK's "best student experience".

Swansea has an excellent range of international activities including: International Friendship House -a charitable organization run by British locals to show hospitality to international students; International Night held in Llanelli (10 miles from Swansea) on every first Friday of the month; free training for international women students by MEWN (Minority Ethnic Women's Network) www.mewnswansea.org.uk ; SCVS (Swansea Community Voluntary Service) www.scvs.org.uk has a huge database of voluntary activities in the community and welcomes participation from international students; different community centres hold special events for Bangladeshi, Chinese, Indian, African and Korean students; Swansea City Council holds international events throughout the year.

Location & Facilities

Library
Library & Information Services at Swansea provides a combined library, IT and Careers service. The main Library & Information Centre on the Singleton campus has over 800,000 books and periodicals, along with a wide range of electronic resources including over 23,000 electronic journals. There are over 1,000 study spaces, almost half of which are equipped with networked PCs. LIS was awarded the Charter Mark in 2006.

Sports centre
Swansea University's sports centre is located near the main campus on the western side of Sketty Lane.

Xtreme Radio 1431AM
Xtreme Radio is the radio station of the University, run by students. It was founded in November 1968 as Action RadioIt broadcasts to various areas around campus, around Swansea itself on 1431AM and worldwide on the internet.

Museum of Egyptian Antiquities (Egypt Centre)
Located within the Taliesin building, the Egypt Centre is a museum of Egyptian antiquities open to the public. There are over 4000 items in the collection. Most of them were collected by the pharmacist Sir Henry Wellcome

Student accommodation
Swansea University provides approximately 3400 places in University halls and can normally offer accommodation to over 98% of new Undergraduate students who require it. Accommodation is also available for all International Postgraduate students.
Swansea University maintains on-campus and off-campus halls of residence and the purpose built Hendrefoelan Student Village. Several new halls of residence were completed in 2004 and in 2008.

There are also a number of University Managed Properties in the Uplands and Brynmill areas of the city.

Hendrefoelan Student Village
Hendrefoelan Student Village is the University’s largest residence site where 1644 students live in self-catering accommodation.

Campus halls
There are nine halls that make up the campus residences providing accommodation to around 1226 students.