Introduction
The University of South Wales is a public university in Wales, with campuses in Cardiff, Newport, Pontypridd and Dubai. It was formed on 11 April 2013 from the merger of the University of Glam organ and the University of Wales, Newport. The university is the second-largest university in Wales in terms of its student numbers and offers around 200 courses. The university has four main faculties across its campuses in South Wales.
The university can trace its roots to the founding of the Newport Mechanics’ Institute in 1841. The Newport Mechanics’ Institute later becomes the University of Wales, Newport. In 1913 South Wales and Monmouthshire School of Mines was formed. The school of mines was later to become the Polytechnic of Wales, before gaining the status of the University of Glamorgan in 1992. The name for the new merged university was chosen following a research exercise amongst interested parties and announced in December 2012 by the prospective vice-chancellor of the university, Julie Lydon.
Campus
The university has three main campuses located across south Wales and a satellite campus in Dubai:
Cardiff
The Faculty of Creative Industries is based at the Cardiff Campus, along with a smaller number of courses from the Faculty of Business and Society. The Atrium Building is the main building at the campus, originally opened by the University of Glamorgan in 2007 the building was recently extended at a cost of £14.7 million to replace the Caerleon campus. The building re-opened during September 2016. The campus also includes the Atlantic House building.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The new campus in Dubai opened in September 2018 at Dubai South located near Al-Maktoum International Airport. The courses offered will be British Bachelor degrees which include Aviation Maintenance Engineering. In 2018 the University was criticized by human rights campaigners when it awarded honorary doctorates to two senior figures in the UAE government, Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum and Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, at the campus’ opening ceremony.
Newport
The university’s newest campus is the £40 million campus on the west bank of the River Usk in Newport city centre. The ‘City Campus’ was built for the University of Wales, Newport and was opened in 2011 by Sir Terry Matthews. Originally built to house a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate courses for the Newport Business School, Newport Film School and the universities art and design department, it now hosts courses from the Faculty of Life Sciences and Education, including teaching, social work and youth work as well as some courses in business together with the National Cyber Security Academy.
Pontypridd
This was formerly the main campus of the University of Glamorgan. It is the university’s largest campus, with a range of facilities, including an indoor sports centre and students’ union.
Former campuses
Caerleon
Caerleon is located on the northern outskirts of Newport. Formerly the second-largest campus, it hosted a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate courses, including education, sports, history, fashion design, art and photography. The campus had extensive sports facilities, library, students’ union shop and a students’ union bar. It was formerly the main campus of the University of Wales, Newport. In 2014, it was announced by the University of South Wales that the Caerleon campus would close in 2016. The university cited the need to invest around £20 million to improve and upgrade facilities as the primary reason for its closure.
London
In 2014, USW spent an estimated £300,000 developing a campus in the Docklands area of London, but in January 2015 cancelled the project before taking on any students. The university described this as a test of the market but blamed problems created by new UK visa regulations.
Programs
The University of South Wales offers many exciting opportunities for undergraduate and postgraduate candidates to STUDY ONLINE for the following programs of study:
• MBA – Master of Business Administration
• MA Education (Innovation in Learning and Teaching)
• MSc Psychology
• LLM (Master of Laws)
• BA (HONS) – Business Studies (Top-up degree)
An integral part of the university approach is the learning design of e-learning courses and the institutional commitment to help students develop higher-order skills of critical analysis, reflection, and problem-solving.
Campus life
Students’ Union
University of South Wales Students’ Union is the students’ union of the university. It exists to support and represent the students of the university. It is a member-led organization and all students are automatically members.
Accommodation
Pontypridd has halls of residence and facilities on its Treforest campus. Students studying at the university’s Cardiff campus have access to private halls of residence, which are shared with the city’s other universities. The Newport City building has nearby private student halls of residence.
