University of Nottingham guide: Rankings, open days, fees and accommodation
Overview
Nottingham is a member of the prestigious Russell Group, has a highly respected medical school and strength right across the academic disciplines, and has built a formidable name for itself on university sports pitches. It recruits from across the UK and competition for places is fierce. In light of the university's stiff entry requirements, the student population is notably mixed, with good representation from ethnic minorities (around one third of last year's intake) and non-selective state schools (around two thirds). Centred on University Park, a 300-acre green lung at the heart of Nottingham, it has impressive facilities in a mixture of period and modern buildings. A short distance away, the Jubilee campus is home to the business school, the schools of education and computer science, and the Nottingham Innovation Park. Following the murder last year of Barney Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, two first-year students who were stabbed while on their way home from an end-of-term party, work was completed earlier this year on a memorial woodland walk on the University Park campus to commemorate all students who have lost their lives.
Paying the bills
With more than £10m distributed in bursary, scholarship and hardship payments in 2022-23, around one in three students gets some form of financial assistance from the university. The University Core bursary is worth £1,000 per year to students from homes where income is up to £35,000 - a ceiling for eligibility £10,000 higher than in many universities. Students who have gained their place via an access route or have financially dependent children and are within the £35,000 household income limit, and (with no income limit) those who have participated in one of several outreach programmes used to diversify the student intake, qualify for an additional £1,000 per year through the Nottingham Potential bursary. A further 200 or so entry-year scholarships are offered. These tend to be subject to means-testing, but are also often linked to either academic achievement, specific subjects or living in the local area. Gold, silver and bronze sports scholarships yield £8,000, £4,000 and £1,000 cash bursaries respectively, in addition to free access to facilities, physiotherapy, strength and conditioning, nutrition and sports psychology services. Nottingham has more than 8,500 places in accommodation. The cheapest self-catered rooms cost £5,500 for a 44-week contract, while a term-time, 31-week contract for a catered room starts at £6,906.
What's new?
Product design and manufacture students have become the first in the UK to benefit this year from a new type of virtual reality (VR) classroom that revolutionises the teaching of VR software. The classroom within the Engineering and Science Learning Centre enables remote communication between lecturers and students in a way that has never been done before. The largest ever single grant in the university's history - £29.1m - was given to establish the UK's most powerful Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner, which will give researchers and doctors unrivalled insights into brain function and the mechanisms of disease. Construction of the magnet hall should begin at the end of the year. The new Castle Meadow campus, close to the city centre, is expected to open fully in early 2025 following the renovation of the Central Building. The university has taken over the site's Grade II-listed buildings from His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. It will host business incubation spaces to give students, academic entrepreneurs and local businesses the chance to mix, develop and learn side by side. Next year the business school will open another base there.
Admissions, teaching and student support
Schools are targeted locally using data on social deprivation, low levels of participation in higher education, and prevalence of free school meals to identify those most in need of support to raise aspiration and attainment. Post-16 students who complete summer schools or take part in Nottingham's Pathways programmes, Ambition Nottingham and the national Realising Opportunities access programmes can qualify for an enhanced two-grade reduction from the standard offer. The more common contextual offer is a one-grade reduction, which applies to other students whose personal circumstances may have restricted their attainment at school. Roughly one third of Nottingham's applicants last year were eligible for a contextual offer. There is plenty of support available to students once they enrol; Nottingham invests more than £1m annually into mental health and wellbeing services. The MyWellbeing platform established in the past year allows students to book appointments directly with the support and wellbeing team and access resources and information on wellbeing events. Support staff are based in the academic schools and university residences, so are readily accessible to students. Awareness-raising sessions are run during induction week so that students know from the start what help is on offer. All staff in student-facing roles are provided with comprehensive mental health and wellbeing training and are also required to complete safeguarding training.
