Aberystwyth University (Welsh: Prifysgol Aberystwyth) is a public research university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding member institution of the former federal University of Wales. The university has 8,970 students studying across three academic faculties and 17 departments.
Founded in 1872 as University College Wales, Aberystwyth, it became a founder member of the University of Wales in 1894, and changed its name to the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. In the mid-1990s, the university again changed its name to become the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. On 1 September 2007, the University of Wales ceased to be a federal university and Aberystwyth University became independent again. The annual income of the institution for 2024–2025 was £124.8 million of which £19.2 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £130.3 million.
Contents
History
In the middle of the 19th century, eminent Welsh people were advocating the establishment of a university in the principality of Wales. One of these, Thomas Nicholas, whose book, Middle and High Class Schools, and University Education for Wales (1863), is said to have "exerted great influence on educated Welshmen".
Funded through public and private subscriptions, and with five regional committees (London, Manchester, Liverpool, North and South Wales) guaranteeing funds for the first three years' running costs, university college opened in October 1872 with 26 students. Thomas Charles Edwards was the principal. In October 1875, chapels in Wales raised the next tranche of funds from over 70,000 contributors. Until 1893, when the college joined the University of Wales as a founder member, students applying to Aberystwyth sat the University of London's entrance exams. Women were admitted in 1884.
In 1885, a fire damaged what is now known as the Old College, Aberystwyth, and in 1897 the first 14 acres of what became the main Penglais campus were purchased. Incorporated by royal charter in 1893, the university installed Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, as chancellor in 1896, the same year it awarded an honorary degree to the former British prime minister, William Gladstone.
The university's coat of arms dates from the 1880s. The shield features two red dragons to symbolise Wales, and an open book to symbolise learning. The crest, an eagle or phoenix above a flaming tower, may signify the college's rebirth after the 1885 fire. The motto is Nid Byd, Byd Heb Wybodaeth ('a world without knowledge is no world at all').
In the early 1900s, the university added courses that included law, applied mathematics, pure mathematics and botany. The Department for International Politics, which Aberystwyth says is the oldest such department in the world, was founded in 1919. By 1977, the university's staff included eight Fellows of the Royal Society, such as Gwendolen Rees, the first Welsh woman to be elected an FRS.
The Department of Sports and Exercise Science was established in 2000. Joint honours psychology degrees were introduced in September 2007, and single honours psychology in 2009.
Organisation and administration
Departments and Faculties
The university's academic departments, as well as the Arts Centre, International English Centre and Music Centre are organised in three faculties:
The Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) is a research and teaching centre which brings together staff from the Institutes of Rural Sciences and Biological Sciences and the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER). Around 360 research, teaching and support staff conduct basic, strategic and applied research in biology.
The institute is located in two areas; one at the main teaching Penglais campus and another rural research hub at the Gogerddan campus.
In 1998, the Department of Economics (founded in 1912), the Department of Accounting and Finance (founded in 1979) and the Centre for Business Studies merged to create the School of Management and Business. In 2013, the School joined the Department of Information Studies and the Department of Law and Criminology at a new campus at Llanbadarn Fawr. The school was shortlisted for "Business School of the Year" in the Times Higher Education Awards (2014). In 2016, the institute, minus the Department of Information Studies, was renamed the Institute of Business and Law, the remaining departments being renamed Aberystwyth Business School and Aberystwyth Law School.
The Department of Computer Science (founded in 1970), conducts research in automated reasoning, computational biology, vision graphics and visualisation and intelligent robotics.
AberMUD, the first popular internet-based MUD, was written in the department by then-student Alan Cox. Jan Pinkava, another graduate, won an Oscar for his short animated film Geri's Game.
The Department of Geography and Earth Sciences (IGES) was formed, in 1989, from the former Departments of Geography (established in 1918) and Geology. It houses the E. G. Bowen map library, containing 80,000 maps and 500 atlases.
The College of Librarianship Wales (CLW) was established at Llanbadarn Fawr in 1964, in response to a recommendation for the training of bilingual librarians that was made in the Bourdillon Report on Standards of public library service in England (HMSO, 1962). The college grew rapidly, developing close links to the Welsh speaking and professional communities, acquiring an international reputation and pioneering flexible and distance learning courses. It claimed to be Europe's largest institution for training librarians. The independent college merged with the university in August 1989 and the department moved to the Penglais campus a quarter of a century later. Following the merger, the new department took over responsibility for existing offerings in archives administration and modern records management.
Campuses
Penglais
The main campus of the university is situated on Penglais Hill, overlooking the town of Aberystwyth and Cardigan Bay, and comprises most of the university buildings, Arts Centre, Students' Union, and many of the student residences. Just below Penglais Campus is the National Library of Wales, one of Britain's five legal deposit libraries. The landscaping of the Penglais Campus is historically significant and is listed at Grade II* on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. The CADW listing states, "The landscaping of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth campuses, particularly the earlier Penglais campus, is of exceptional historic interest as one of the most important modern landscaping schemes in Wales...One section of the Penglais campus was designed by the well known landscape architect Brenda Colvin and is one of the very few of her schemes to have survived. A number of women have played a key role in the development and planting of the whole site."
Llanbadarn
The Llanbadarn Centre is located approximately one mile to the east of the Penglais Campus, near Llanbadarn Fawr, overlooking the town and Cardigan Bay to the west, with the backdrop of the Cambrian Mountains to the east. Llanbadarn Centre hosted Aberystwyth Law School and Aberystwyth Business School, which together formed the Institute of Business and Law. The Department of Information Studies is also based there. Additionally, the Llanbadarn Campus is the site of the Aberystwyth branch of Coleg Ceredigion (a further education college, and not part of the university).
Gogerddan
At Gogerddan, on the outskirts of town is located the university's major centre for research in land based sciences and the main centre for the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Science.
School of Art, Edward Davies Building
The School of Art is located between the Penglais Campus and the centre of Aberystwyth, in what was originally the Edward Davies Memorial Chemistry Laboratories. A listed building, the Edward Davies Building is one of the finest examples of architecture in Aberystwyth.
Old College
The site of the original university is the Old College, currently the subject of the "New Life for Old College" project which aims to transform it into an integrated centre of heritage, culture, learning and knowledge exchange.
Aberystwyth Mauritius
The university opened an international campus in Mauritius in 2015 operating as Aberystwyth University (Mauritian Branch Campus) and registered with the Tertiary Education Commission of Mauritius, but closed it to new enrolments two years later due to low enrolment numbers. Fewer than 200 students enrolled with the Mauritius campus, which had the capacity for 2,000 students, before its 2018 closure and the university lost more than a million pounds as a result of the venture.
Student residences
Most of the student residences are on campus, with the rest in walking distance of the campus and Aberystwyth town centre. Accommodation ranges from "traditional" catered residences to en-suite self-catered accommodation, and from budget rooms to more luxurious studio apartments. All have wired access to the university's computer network and a support network of residential tutors.
Cwrt Mawr (self-catered flats, single rooms, capacity 503)
Neuadd Pantycelyn (Welsh speaking traditional catered hall, refurbished in 2020, capacity 200)
Penbryn (used for catered conferences, capacity 350)
Rosser (self-catered en-suite flats, capacity 336),
Rosser G (postgraduate flats following 2011 expansion to Rosser, capacity 60)
Trefloyne (self-catered flats, capacity 147)
Almost 200 individual houses arranged in closes and cul-de-sacs. Each house typically accommodates five or six students. The total capacity is 1,003.
Purpose-built student accommodation with studio apartments and en-suite bedrooms (total capacity 1,000). An area of accommodation within the Fferm Penglais Student Residence is set aside for students who are Welsh learners or fluent Welsh speakers and who wish to live in a Welsh speaking environment.
Seafront Residences (self-catered flats located on the seafront and Queen's Road, overall capacity 361). The original Seafront residences, Plyn' and Caerleon, were destroyed by fire in 1998.
Seafront residences include Aberglasney, Balmoral, Blaenwern, Caerleon, Carpenter, Pumlumon, Ty Glyndwr, and Ty Gwerin Halls.
Reputation and academic profile
Aberystwyth University is placed in the UK's top 40 universities in the main national rankings. It is ranked 38th for 132 UK university rankings in The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide for 2023, and the first university to be given the prestigious award "University of the year for teaching quality" for two consecutive years, in 2018 and 2019.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings placed it in the 301—350 group for 800 university rankings, compared with 351—400 the previous year, and the QS World University Rankings placed it at the 432nd position for 2019, compared with 481—490 of the previous year. In 2015, UK employers from "predominantly business, IT and engineering sectors" listed Aberystwyth equal 49th in their 62-place employability rankings for UK graduates, according to a Times Higher Education report.
Aberystwyth University was rated in the top ten of UK higher education institutions for overall student satisfaction in the 2016 National Student Survey (NSS).
Aberystwyth University was shortlisted in four categories in the Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards (THELMAs) (2015).
Aberystwyth University has been awarded the Silver Award under the Corporate Health Standard (CHS), the quality mark for workplace health promotion run by Welsh Government.
The university has been awarded an Athena SWAN Charter Award, recognising commitment to advancing women's careers in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) in higher education and research.
In 2007, the university came under criticism for its record on sustainability, ranking 97th out of 106 UK higher education institutions in that year's Green League table. In 2012 the university was listed in the table's "Failed, no award" section, ranking equal 132nd out of 145. In 2013 it ranked equal 135th out of 143, and was listed again as "Failed, no award".
Officers and academics
Presidents and chancellors
Principals and vice-chancellors
Academics
Alumni
Royalty