Skip to main content

Improve your employability with a Bath placement

Choose an undergraduate placement degree from Bath to gain valuable work experience and make contacts for your future career.

Placements at Bath

Over 50 years ago the University of Bath was established to fuse academic thinking with practical experience. This is still at the core of what we do today. Bath graduates are highly valued and sought after by leading graduate employers.

Two-thirds

The majority of our undergraduates choose a placement or to study abroad.2

Top 5

We’re ranked 4th for graduate prospects by the Complete University Guide 2024
93%

93% of our UK-based graduates are in high-skilled employment 15 months after leaving the university.1

Top 100

Placed in the top 100 in the world by the QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2022

Why placements

Doing a placement is an opportunity to get your CV off to a great start, have some fun, and gain the skills and experience that set you apart from other graduates.

All our undergraduate course areas 3, 4, 5 offer a placement (sometimes called an internship or year in industry) or a study abroad option6.

During your placement, you'll pay a reduced tuition fee to the University instead of the full year's fee. Some placements are paid so you could earn a salary while you work.

Going on a placement gives you the opportunity to work in a business or organisation, apply your academic knowledge and gain practical work experience. Your work may make an impact on the world before you even graduate.

Placements can last between six and twelve months depending on your course and employer. You can even take a placement in different parts of the world.

The majority of students take a placement or study abroad so, when you return to finish your degree, you'll be back with people you know.

Discover our placement opportunities

Watch a video about the placements opportunities you could have at Bath.

Benefit from dedicated support

Bath's placements teams are well-placed to help you find the placement that’s right for you. They work with a range of organisations and have developed lasting relationships with the companies and charities they've placed students with in the past.

The team will work alongside you to identify your personal objectives, develop your CV, and help you to find a suitable placement. They will also organise practice interviews to help you get the placement you want.

If you're disabled, your placements team will work with your employer to understand any adjustments that need to be made and help you to apply for any grants you're eligible for.

A placement student talking with her supervisor

Get transferable skills

A placement gives you the opportunity to learn from experts who’ll share their knowledge with you. As part of a workplace community, you’ll get to meet colleagues and learn more about what the organisation does.

You’ll also learn how to solve problems, manage your time, and work to deadlines. Employers value these transferable skills highly.

Going on a placement will help you to improve your understanding of an employer and industry before you commit to a future career.

A student working on a machine

Build valuable professional connections

Here are some of the organisations our students have earned placements with.

Banking and consultancy

  • BNY Mellon
  • Deloitte
  • EY
  • Citi
  • Oliver Wyman
  • PWC

Charity and non-governmental organisation (NGO)

  • Great Ormond Street Hospital
  • Development Initiatives
  • SafeLives

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and retail

  • Ferrero
  • Kraft Heinz
  • L’Oréal
  • Unilever
  • Vita Coco
  • Wild Cosmetics

Pharmaceutical and Science

  • Abbott Diabetes Care
  • GlaxoSmithKline
  • Merck Sharp & Dohme
  • Science Technology Facilities Council

Public sector

  • House of Commons
  • Metropolitan Police
  • NHS
  • Home Office
  • Office for National Statistics

Technology and Design

  • Amazon
  • IBM
  • Nomura

Sports and education

  • Millfield School
  • Southampton F.C.
  • London Sport
  • Hawkeye Innovations

Research placements

  • Harvard University
  • Yale University
  • Swedish Winter Sports Institute
  • Auckland University of Technology

As a student, you have a variety of placement options to suit your career plans. Our students have previously completed placements at organisations7 including multinational corporations overseas, small to medium-size businesses in the UK, and start-ups in the local area.

Depending on the course you choose, you could do a research-focused placement, or work for a non-governmental organisation or charity.

On placement, you'll get the opportunity to work with other employees or volunteers, helping you to build valuable professional connections. They could help you with your future career by giving you references for job applications.

If you work really hard and impress your employer it may even lead to a full-time job when you graduate.

Simona Koleva
‘My manager nominated me for the ‘Best Placement Student’ category at the National Undergraduate Employability (NUE) Awards. It is really rewarding to have won it and have that recognition!’
— Simona Koleva BSc (Hons) Economics and Politics

Explore undergraduate courses with placements

Find a course

  1. Compared to 73% of employed graduates nationally - data from the Graduate Outcomes Survey for 2019-20 leavers relating to full-time UK-domiciled first-degree graduates entering work in the UK 15 months after leaving university.  ↩

  2. Over two-thirds of Bath-based undergraduate students graduated from a course with a placement or study abroad option in the 2020/21 academic year  ↩

  3. Based on undergraduate courses starting in the 2022/23 academic year  ↩

  4. Social Work and Applied Social Studies, and Pharmacy have mandatory work-based learning as part of the degree, not year-long placements  ↩

  5. FdSc Sport (Sports Performance) has a placement when taken with a Bachelors top-up  ↩

  6. Placements are not guaranteed  ↩

  7. Company names and logos do not constitute any endorsement or sponsorship by the companies ↩