The University

Birmingham has undergone a major transformation in the last decade. A city of historical interest and contemporary vision, it has a rich and diverse community that creates a vibrant and exciting place to live and work.

The city is home to the internationally renowned Birmingham Royal Ballet and one of the world’s greatest concert venues: Symphony Hall.  The City Museum and Art Gallery houses the world’s finest collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, alongside other major collections, while the iconic Bullring  is one of the largest dedicated shopping facilities in Europe.  Sports and recreation are also well served; the city offers international Test cricket, top-flight football, international championship golf and tennis, and top-class rugby.  As a multicultural city, Birmingham is also renowned for the breadth of its cuisine and has more Michelin starred restaurants than any other English city outside London.

The University has a significant international presence. Birmingham was one of the founding partners of, and remains highly active in, the Universitas 21 global network of research intensive universities.  In China, we have developed a broad range of activities, including a signature collaboration with the Guangzhou Municipal Government, and have well developed research collaborations in many parts of the country; we also have a dedicated China Institute to further these partnerships.  Having established ourselves in Dubai, we are about to open a landmark new campus to house our growing staff and student population. As a global university with a civic outlook, we are committed to contributing to UAE society – as a leading provider of education and through our research strengths. 

Our decade of partnerships with key Brazilian institutions through our Brazil Forum has helped to advance research into sustainable cities, communicable diseases and smart transportation. In North America, the University has a major collaboration with the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign underpinned by a flourishing network of faculty-to-faculty relationships.  In partnership with Siemens we are combining digital sensor and analytics technologies, artificial intelligence, decentralised energy generation and storage plus renewable energy and concepts that help change users’ behaviour, to transform the University’s Edgbaston and Dubai campuses into the world’s smartest global campus, creating a ‘Living Lab’ where research, teaching and learning all benefit from access to new data and connectivity.  More information about our strategic global engagements and international research focus can be found on our website.

At Birmingham, we have a clear vision, ambitious leadership, world-leading academic strengths, and a secure financial base.  With an annual turnover exceeding £650 million, we use our financial strength to invest in the intellectual and physical future of the University.  Our £1 billion estates plan is well underway and our staff, students and wider community are already benefiting from a number of signature buildings, including a best-in-class library, a showpiece sports centre, a major new Teaching and Learning Building, The Exchange city-centre hub, a spectacular School of Engineering, a state-of-the-art student services hub, an extensive addition to the University Business School, a stunning Green Heart parkland area at the centre of our campus, a modern Hotel and Conference Park, a multi-award-winning Collaborative Teaching Laboratory, and a “one of its kind” National Buried Infrastructure Facility.  Significant capital investment continues and further flagship developments include the Birmingham Health Innovation Campus, which will open in 2022.  A virtual tour of our campus is available here.  

The University is one of the UK’s most successful institutions in terms of attracting research funding.  Our research record speaks for itself; the total value of research funding won by the University in 2019/2020 was £220 million, and we are looking to double our research income by 2026.  The majority of our research is internationally excellent or world leading and our global impact is apparent in a broad range of areas, from Psychology, History, and Education to Chemical Engineering.  We also enjoy robust industrial partnerships.  We have strengthened our commitment to tackling the issues of energy and climate change by launching the Birmingham Energy Innovation Centre at Tyseley.  Part-funded by the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GSLEP), the Centre’s cutting-edge work in waste, energy and low-carbon vehicles will help to create a greener and cleaner ecosystem for Birmingham and the West Midlands. 

We have been encouraging bold, independent thinking and providing exceptional academic programmes that stretch and challenge for more than a century.  We are proud of our excellent teaching which was recognised in the University’s outstanding performance in the Quality Assurance Association’s (QAA) Higher Education Review.  Having been recognised many times over the years for the quality of our education provision, in The Graduate Market in 2021 we achieved first place on the list of universities most frequently targeted by top employers seeking to recruit graduates. The Guardian University Guide 2021 ranked us 11^th in the UK for employability while we were placed 85^th in the world for employer reputation in the 2021 QS World University Rankings. 

We understand that every student is individual with a unique learning style, and have invested in the latest learning facilities and technologies.  As a result, we attract students with the finest academic credentials. Year on year, applications for our undergraduate places are growing rapidly and more impressively than they are nationally or for comparable universities.  We are committed to delivering a first-class experience for our students in every aspect of their university life. 

Sport is integral to life at Birmingham (we are regularly ranked in the top five in the UK for the quality of student sport) and we are proud to count Olympians and Paralympians amongst our current students and alumni.  Our new sports development includes the City of Birmingham’s first 50-metre swimming pool – an asset not only for our students and staff but for the wider community.  We worked closely with partners regionally and nationally to secure the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham as well as the 2023 International Blind Sport Federation World Games.  As the official partner of the Birmingham 2022 Games, we were delighted to be chosen as the venue for the Hockey and Squash events and that our Student Vale facilities will be used as one of the competitors’ villages.

The University structure comprises five Colleges - College of Life and Environmental Sciences, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, College of Social Sciences, and College of Arts and Law – each with a distinctive identity and areas of renown.  Each Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of College is a member of the University Executive Board (UEB).

A diversity of perspectives and lived experiences is key to the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate that is at the heart of our academic mission.The University is committed to a programme of activity to increase its diversity, address under-representation at all levels and remove the structural barriers that can prevent the achievement of individual potential. We strive to create an organisational culture in which issues of equality, diversity and inclusion are central and where understanding these issues is a key competency for all of our staff and students. 

We support flexible and hybrid working. 

Find out more about our work to promote equality, diversity and inclusion:

https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/equality