Our University is an energetic connected community, committed to excellence in research and education, embracing the opportunities of today’s world and addressing its challenges. Knowledge and experience are connected in the search for understanding and solutions; study and practice are connected through high-value placements and strategic partnerships to prepare excellent students for future success; and students and staff are connected in an inclusive, collegial, ambitious learning community. To belong at Bath is to be connected, and together to build for our future.
The University of Bath has evolved considerably since 1966, when it was established to advance learning and knowledge by teaching and research, particularly in science and technology, and in close association with industry and commerce.
More than 50 years on, we are proud that the University has grown in both size and reputation, highly ranked in all three main national league tables. Awarded Gold in the first Teaching Excellence Framework, with an excellent track record on student experience and employability, we attract some of the best and brightest students in the world. Engagement with employers remains fundamental to ensuring that our students are particularly well prepared for future careers. Our reputation for applied research, with real-world impact, is prized by our partners and highlighted by the numerous prestigious awards won by our academic faculty. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, 87% of our submitted research was found to be world-leading or internationally excellent.
As a ‘dual intensive’ University, we equally value both teaching and research as core strengths and these will continue to be at the heart of our strategy. Commitment to quality remains central to our institution.
Although much has changed since its establishment as Bath University of Technology, the vision of our founders remains as critical today as it was in 1966. At the outset, the description of technology as “the point at which science intersects society” was used to frame the activities of the University. The empowering of a University community to draw on understandings of science and society to address the key challenges of our time remains as important as ever, whether to seize opportunities in advancing digital technologies or to tackle the threat of climate change, or to address health crises.
Through Our University, Our Future, a wide-ranging engagement exercise with our students, staff, and alumni, we explored the meaning of our mission and our future potential. The feedback affirmed our founding principles, sense of community, and current strengths, but surfaced a real desire to progress in response to a rapidly shifting external environment, and an appetite for greater partnership-working, and recognition, at national and international levels.