School and Education Awards: Cardiff Metropolitan University

Here at Cardiff Met, we feel passionately that higher education should be accessible to all, including those members of our community who, for whatever reason, may have previously felt university wasn’t for them.

In doing so, we fully support the Argus’ drive to turn the spotlight on the establishments and individuals making a real difference to the children, young people and mature students in our communities, and those initiatives encouraging a love of learning.

As Welsh University of the Year in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021, and enjoying an enviable city location, Cardiff Metropolitan University welcomes over 16,000 students from more than 140 countries worldwide.

Our over-arching purpose is to deliver high quality, high impact education, research and innovation in partnership with our students and industry. You could say that our USP is our size – we’re small enough to be friendly and supportive, yet big enough to compete with the best in terms of the breadth of our courses, our world-class research and innovation and growing number of accolades and league table results.

We’re a close-knit community where our students are more than just a number. With small class sizes and supportive, inspiring tutors, Cardiff Met offers the personal touch.

Our Widening Access team is committed to attracting applicants to our courses from the most under-represented groups and low participation communities, compared to the UK as a whole. Our ethos is that a university education should be available to everyone. It is about offering every person, regardless of circumstances, the opportunity to access a higher-level learning experience.

Student wellbeing is a priority at Cardiff Met and to this end free, impartial, non-judgemental and confidential counselling and advice is available covering subjects such as managing finances, wellbeing, careers advice, mental health, and disability and dyslexia support.

Academic and sporting excellence

Based across two campuses, Cardiff Met delivers career-focused, practice based and professionally recognised courses within its five academic Schools – Management, Art and Design, Sport and Health Sciences, Education and Social Policy, and Technologies.

Our teaching excellence earned us Silver status in the 2017 Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) – in fact, we’re one of only four universities in Wales to achieve this accolade.

Sporting excellence is part of our DNA - throughout our history we have supported and developed a wide range of Olympic and International level athletes and continue to develop our programmes in the pursuit of excellence. Indeed, we are proud to see alumni currently playing international rugby and cricket, as well as being well represented in the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games.

Our priorities

As a values-driven University, we work in partnership with our students to deliver what we call the Cardiff Met ‘EDGE’. In today’s competitive employment market, that means equipping each of our graduates with the Ethical, Digital, Global and Entrepreneurial skills to prepare them for life after University, and the workplace.

Students are at the centre of everything we do. We’ve invested more than £70m in our student facilities in recent years, including opening our School of Technologies in 2018. Most recently, we have created a dedicated hub providing a one-stop shop for students to access services, socialise, work and relax.

And building on the success of the ERASMUS programmes, the Global Wales Welsh higher education partnership is just one of the study abroad opportunities available to our students.

WE have been shortlisted in the prestigious University of the Year category at this month’s Times Higher Education Awards 2021.

Speaking about the nomination, President and Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff Metropolitan University, Professor Cara Aitchison said: “Being nominated for this distinguished award is all due to the hard work and dedication of the staff at Cardiff Met – from lecturers and technical demonstrators, to professional services and support staff.

“This nomination is especially encouraging as it shows us to be a highperforming, impactful and collaborative university and recognises that we have made these advances while simultaneously becoming a more compassionate community.”

This high-profile nomination follows a number of recent successes, including being named Welsh University of the Year by The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021, the second highest rise in the UK in The Complete University Guide 2022 and the institution’s highest ever rise in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021.

Cardiff Met climbed 10 places in this year’s Guardian University Guide following on from its highest ever rise – 41 places – in last year’s guide.

The National Student Survey 2021 once again showed our students are happy, with Cardiff Met receiving an overall satisfaction rate sitting one per cent above the national average.

Cardiff Met was the highest ranking post-1992 institution in the last Research Excellence Framework.

A quarter of all our research was identified as ‘world leading’ with 4* research identified in all units of assessment, highlighting Cardiff Met’s significant impact on the economy, society, culture and wider public policy.