Swansea University guide: Rankings, open days, fees and accommodation
Overview
Swansea University boasts two seafront campuses to tempt students. The Singleton Park campus was joined by the Bay science and innovation campus ten years ago. Swansea challenges Cardiff each year to be the top-ranked university in Wales. It is placed in the UK top 25 for students believing their careers are on track 15 months after graduation. This pedigree attracts applicants from across the country, with half the intake drawn from over the Severn Bridge. The university is organised into three faculties - humanities and social sciences; medicine, health and life science; and science and engineering - and has a broad portfolio of courses that includes a graduate-entry medicine degree. Medical and healthcare students form the largest group on campus, with finance, sport science and social policy among the top performers in our subject rankings. Excellent sports facilities are second only to those at Cardiff Met in Wales. Last September admissions were at their lowest point in the past ten years. However, the university's commitment to making offers to all UK applicants whose predicted grades fall within the offer range for a given course (with the exception of medicine, healthcare and social work) should put the university on the radar.
Paying the bills
Swansea is unusual in not offering any means-tested bursaries, but around one in 11 students still gets some form of financial help. Swansea rewards academic achievement at school and has a hardship support fund for students in extreme need. The latter has been boosted by real-term increases of 16.25% and 21% in the past two years - it awarded more than £560,000 in 2023-24. Swansea's Excellence scholarship, worth £3,000 and paid at a rate of £1,000 per year, is awarded to students who gain AAA or better at A-level (or equivalent), while the Merit scholarship is paid in instalments of £670 per year over three years to students who gain AAB at A-level (or equivalent). Additionally, there are Welsh-medium, sports and music scholarships, with the latter being worth £650 a year and including up to 15 hours of tuition. Caps on hardship award levels have been raised to reflect rising living costs and students can apply for financial assistance to meet the cost of diagnostic testing for dyslexia and other conditions. Students have access to 4,300 rooms across both the Singleton Park and Bay campuses. The cheapest rooms at Singleton Park come in at £6,000 for a 40-week tenancy, rising to a maximum of £8,052 for 44 weeks in the most expensive uncatered rooms. At Bay, the range is £5,940 to £9,240, both for 44-week contracts. Catered rooms are also available, priced between £6,920 and £7,240 for 40 weeks.
What's new?
A new teaching space is being created in former staff offices in Swansea's Union House on the Singleton Park campus. It will feature a 78-station PC lab alongside two new teaching rooms. Several degrees with foundation year or year-abroad options are being launched for this upcoming academic year. Applied medical science, medical pharmacology, microbiology and immunology, and population health and medical sciences are all offered with or without a foundation year, and a new astrophysics with foundation year degree is also being launched. Four degrees with years abroad - in psychology, criminology and psychology, sociology and psychology, and education and psychology - will also run for the first time starting this September. The university continues to work towards creating a sustainable campus through the installation of more than 4,200 LED movement-sensor lights across the Singleton Park campus. The 24-hour library has seen energy savings of up to 80%, with 60% savings achieved in lecture theatres. Swansea sits among the top 25 universities in the latest People & Planet rankings based on universities' environmental and ethical performance. Catering across all sites is being upgraded, too. At Singleton Park, the old refectory and adjoining areas have been transformed into the new Harbwr Fulton social space, which features a games room and a terrace overlooking Swansea Bay. A new food and coffee counter is being created at the Swansea Social Hideaway on the Bay campus, while improvements are being made to catering facilities in the Taliesin Arts Centre at Singleton Park.
Admissions, teaching and student support
Swansea provides wraparound mental health and welfare support for its students. This can be accessed via faculty-based student experience officers who are often the first port of call for students dealing with difficulties, as well as Residence Life officers and security services. All staff are required to complete safeguarding training and have access to a suite of mental health and wellbeing resources to help them assist those in need. All students are encouraged to download the Safezone app which gives them immediate access to security staff. The university also offers a range of therapeutic interventions such as talking therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy and emotional freedom techniques. Swansea has a specialist service for those seeking support with autism, too, and it runs specific transition and orientation events for these students. The Togetherall app provides 24/7 access to trained clinicians and resources on anxiety, sleep, depression, stress and other conditions. All UK applicants are guaranteed to receive a conditional offer if their predicted grades fall within the offer range for the course they have applied for, but there is no broader contextual offer scheme. If it is thought an applicant is unlikely to achieve the grades required for the course they have applied for, they will be offered an alternative course, possibly including a foundation year (for which there are several new options, see What's new above). Reduced-grade offers are available to prospective students from Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea who complete the Step Up To Swansea outreach programme for students who could succeed at university but, because of family, personal or other circumstances, are experiencing barriers that may prevent their progression to higher education.