Ratings and Reviews
As a student at the University of South Wales, I have found my experience to be quite fulfilling in various aspects. The campus environment is vibrant and welcoming, with a strong sense of community that makes it easy to feel at home. The lecturers are knowledgeable and approachable, always willing to offer guidance and support. The university offers a broad range of resources to support academic success, including well-equipped libraries, online learning tools, and workshops to enhance skills. The diversity on campus also adds to the experience, fostering a culture of inclusion and exchange of ideas. One of the highlights for me is the balance between theoretical learning and practical application. There are ample opportunities for hands-on experience through placements, internships, and collaborations with local businesses. This focus on employability is one of the reasons I chose USW, and I feel confident about entering the job market after my studies.
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University of South Wales (Prifysgol De Cymru) Hall Rankings
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Students' Union at University of South Wales (Prifysgol De Cymru)
StudentCrowd Students' Union score: 3.48 / 5
Ratings and Reviews
As a student at the University of South Wales, I have found my experience to be quite fulfilling in various aspects. The campus environment is vibrant and welcoming, with a strong sense of community that makes it easy to feel at home. The lecturers are knowledgeable and approachable, always willing to offer guidance and support. The university offers a broad range of resources to support academic success, including well-equipped libraries, online learning tools, and workshops to enhance skills. The diversity on campus also adds to the experience, fostering a culture of inclusion and exchange of ideas. One of the highlights for me is the balance between theoretical learning and practical application. There are ample opportunities for hands-on experience through placements, internships, and collaborations with local businesses. This focus on employability is one of the reasons I chose USW, and I feel confident about entering the job market after my studies.
Applying to University of South Wales (Prifysgol De Cymru)
- Entry Requirements
80-120 UCAS Points
Average range for University of South Wales (Prifysgol De Cymru) entry requirements. Varies depending on the course.
University of South Wales (Prifysgol De Cymru) Reputation
The University of South Wales (USW) is a multi-campus university with sites in Cardiff, Newport and Pontypridd, all found in South Wales. 26,180 students are enrolled at USW:
- 18,925 of these students come from the UK
- 470 come from EU countries
- And 6,380 are students from non-EU countries.
(Source: HESA 2022/23)
The graduate outcomes for University of South Wales (Prifysgol De Cymru) show that six months after leaving university, 88% of graduates are in work or further study. The typical graduate salary six months after leaving University of South Wales (Prifysgol De Cymru) is £24 - £27K a year.
(Source: HESA Graduate Outcomes Data Survey 2023 for 2020/21 graduates)
Updated: 4th October 2024
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Overall good experience except the Career service because being an international student it is difficult to find a job.
Academic excellence. A great institution
As a student at the University of South Wales, I have found my experience to be quite fulfilling in various aspects. The campus environment is vibrant and welcoming, with a strong sense of community that makes it easy to feel at home. The lecturers are knowledgeable and approachable, always willing to offer guidance and support. The university offers a broad range of resources to support academic success, including well-equipped libraries, online learning tools, and workshops to enhance skills. The diversity on campus also adds to the experience, fostering a culture of inclusion and exchange of ideas. One of the highlights for me is the balance between theoretical learning and practical application. There are ample opportunities for hands-on experience through placements, internships, and collaborations with local businesses. This focus on employability is one of the reasons I chose USW, and I feel confident about entering the job market after my studies.
It’s an ok uni, in the process of redoing buildings, but current students are suffering as a consequence. Not too many societies, but student union is ok. Teaching is varied, and not too much academic support.
This University is a nice place. Every faculty member's are friendly also there are a lots of facilities for an International student.
The school accommodation is a good place which I'd highly recommend.
Not a good location. poor teaching and poor course planning
The locations is too quiet and distance from city
Honestly the best accomodation I could find
Good large school, ok teachers that are willing to help
Good excellent infrastructure good career advice
The campus is nice, a good range of group seating areas and solo areas to peacefully do work
Perfect place to study. Had the best three years of my under grad life.
A very fun experience with quite a satisfying experience and a lot of friendly people.
The uni is very supportive in term of well being especially international students
Great university, helpful staff but need to be more approachable for international students
Great time. The staffs are friendly
not have many exposure on the student union or society
Overall good course and nice facility
Overall nice experience and good infrastructure
Excellent area and large social areas
lots of support and excellent facili
Studying at USW Newport, no idea the other campuses
Good campus in a pretty building
good atmosphere and friendly people and staff
Perfect for students. Need a bit more attention on floor cleaning
It lacks an up to date curriculum
The university is student-friendly. The staff is very supportive, and the support systems are fantastic. The library is hassle-free.
I do fancy the uni very much!!!
University campus is great! Location is good
I had a good time studying in my university.
Good campus, mostly good lecturers
Nice like the place Getting a degree
Student union presence is very lacking
Great facilities and activities.
nothing about the uni is worth any praise
No students union. I know it’s a satellite site but some student union activity would at least be nice.
Nice university building with a range of event and opportunities
Good experience, enjoyed my time
USW Newport has no students Union, but the course itself if very good.
Jake and John on night shift are great, Olivia and Fran during the day are great as well
Very good uni, facilities need to be better though
Wifi is great and super easy to get to places and do things around here. I keep walking around the place its great
good staff and facilities, honestly just a pretty general usual university. hardly any societies for cardiff, they’re all located at the other USW campuses which is inconvenient so most people never join a society. the student union has regular student gigs. only complaint is that the uni shuts at 8pm weekends and 10pm weekdays, as a library that’s open later or even 24 hours would be great.
campus location is very convenient.
The uni is fantastic but the uni bar needs to be cheaper, otherwise fantastic
Good university, amazing lectures
Studying at RWCMD lovely campus and staff so far
Good experience with facilities of the university.
University is pretty but I’ll tell you something better WADE
I enjoyed my time at university of south wales, the campus is big and easy to get around. Not many food spots on campus but in an ideal location so it’s quick and easy to walk into the city centre
The campus u go to has a very creative atmosphere so it has like minded people to talk to which can inspire you for projects. The course I’m on has lectures who are supportive and very interactive with you. They also organise fun socials to get all the years on the course interacting so you can learn so much more.
Not had a great experience here - feel like the university doesn't really care about the Cardiff campus at all just the Trefforest one.
Enjoying my time as a student here, the lecturers are very nice and helpful. The facilities is also enough for the students. A bit improvement needed for activities that students can participate without going to different campus location. Overall, it was amazing
It's been a new experience for me!
Really enjoyed my three years still think we should get money back from first year I didn’t get anything from that
Good university. Decent lecturers. I think it could be better and more engaging with more lessons and more qualified teachers
Nice uni very fun to study at and good location
Great University with tonnes of facilities
I really love my course and the facilities are great.
Good staff, sometimes bad course management in my experience although my final year was much better. No cafeteria anymore :/ Not many societies that are Newport based or are made known to students It's a really nice and updated building, library is great Internet is near none existent 😅 other than uni computers
Great uni. i enjoy my time here and it’s fun and i enjoy
Good spaces for studying but not enough clubs
Alright it could have better things
The only issue I have is the computers tend not to work
Amazing uni I love it sooo much
I very much enjoyed my first year of Computer Animation program at this university
Course material is good. Not very good social life, campus is a bit far from city centre cardiff.
Very supportive environment, teachers and students
Good uni, staff always keen to help!!
Beautiful uni with alot of resources and stuff to do
The one in pontyprydd is awesome and is essy to navigate around
plenty of facilities, i feel like there’s often not much going on at the actual uni as there’s only a couple of active societies and none align with my interests.
I do love it, it’s comfy vibes
Not a bad uni, good location and ok staff
Absolute awful do not go to this uni
Very good university there is a lot of support from lecturers and other members of staff for students, the enviroment is lovely too
Usw newport doesn’t have anything as close to treforests social life.
There is a lot of propaganda and marketing around mental health and student wellbeing both on site and social media. Its all for show. Most of the admin staff cant/wont help. Countless times they put their hands up and 'say nothing to do with me' when you seek help or advise with any issue. Also, the majority of lecturers dont bother to ever respond to emails. I am in my final year and was due to submit my dissertation recently. There has been an administrative error when they claim I haven't paid for the course. (my finance was delayed till just before Easter) Instead of resolving this issue they took down my access to the student portal without warning so I was not able to submit my dissertation and therefore cannot pass the degree. No doubt they will try to charge me to resit this module next year. Also they have an overpriced 'SU' shop on campus that is more expensive than Tesco and Sainsburys and preys on international students that don't know any better.
Good uni. Staff are always helpful and good resources available
Nice campus, few issues with teaching here and there.
A nice university up in the hills, lovely stuff.
It's a really good university to start a career, because of this I can finally move to London to look for something better for me, it gave me good contacts for the future definitely and I learn a lot with these people! Definitely, is a good place to start a good future.
It is okay however the hill might kill me off before I graduate
My uni is pretty decent I think yeah
A good University, that has helped opened doors for myself.
The definition of underrated, one of the few unis that put the student before the pay check
The university is very nice I especially love the campus
Study remotely so not much experience of the facilities
It is true that it is half an hour away from Cardiff by train, but it is a wonderful university and it has a wonderful teaching staff and their treatment is elegant.
I actually attend USW in Trefforest, not Cardiff. The campus is good but on the Glyntaff campus where I spend most of my time the services are much more limited - not as good a canteen or services!
I think covid definitely meant a slow start for the university, im hoping my third year is better than the last two.
Decent University. Good staff but the double check degree prospects
My experience at the University of South Wales was poor. I joined the course in its third and final year and found that I had little to no support throughout the year. I was not able to properly access learning materials for the year and my tutors and lecturers, despite being notified throughout the year, never resolved this. The facilities and equipment for the film course are very outdated (they are older than I am so take of that what you will!). I often found I had difficulties with the lecturers being rude, dismissive, sexist and just generally bigoted. Wouldn't recommend studying here however I have made some great friends while in Cardiff.
Covid stunted to ability to a good introduction, but overall my time here has been pleasant
Generally very good. Very good libraries to all campuses
Great University with nice teachers. The animation course is interesting and fun and honestly I have no issue with it
Could do with more changes and could support people better with mental health to problems I haven’t revived any support
It’s a good uni with good location
My University is great, everything is awesome
I've had fun at USW, but the facilities are underwhelming and the in-house Cafe is really expensive. It's got a great social atmosphere though.
The lecturers are kind, and they treat us well
The University of South Wales is great, location is good, and the engineering lectures are awesome.
Enjoyed my time here, many professional creative facilities to use like studios :)
a srandard experience not much to say overall
The university has been fantastic, in university learning has been very good and helpful
The university provided me with lots of opportunities to advance in my career, and improve my skills. The building has lots of useful facilities with a library that provides a wide range of educational books and journals.
Great uni, final year of studying and was great both in person and online throughout the pandemic.
A great university that gives you all the opportunities yo succeed and discover your true colours and focus on developing you great skills for the future
Very approachable stuff. Good facilties. Nice experience overall
My first year of uni in business studies has been good. I have found some subjects harder than others while studying, however I have received the required support.
It felt hard to do sport because of the travelling, because of the time and location it meant I had to get off at the industrial state station which has no lighting down the road and made me feel very unsafe especially late at night in winter in the dark as there are no lights.
Didn’t feel like I got the most out the education of what we could’ve had comsidering the facilities that were shown off during open days. being in the cardiff campus it felt very disjointed from the main one in treforest in terms of opportunities to join clubs as all the socials are usually in tref so I couldn’t get there and back myself as it was expensive and as a female I didn’t want to be walking back alone in the dark every time.
Everything is fine!Learning atmosphere is very good
Very small and located in a very difficult area. Annoying to do weekly shop as you have to get a train and slog it all up the side of a hill unless you can find a free slot to get it delivered. Poor quality lecture slides mean if you miss anything you are screwed as the slides have next to no information on them. Student Union is minuscule and overall the quality is poor, the nightlife is non existent unless you travel into cardiff city centre. If you go in to the centre you then have a £30 minimum taxi back home which as a student makes going out very difficult. Overall I regret coming to this University, go somewhere else, literally anywhere.
After refusing to continue my course, I was automatically enrolled onto a resit year without being asked. I then, received a CCJ from USW for £800 in the middle of the lockdown period for the tuition for a resit that I didn't want to sit or ask to resit. It's made my life a living hell quite frankly, the worst possible thing you can do to any human being, student or not. Their WiFi doesn't work half the time, the lectures involved you being spoken at rather than with... Nit picking rubbish all the time about spelling and grammar towards a student who's dyslexic and entitled to get extra support... But never actually received it. The courses claim to be 'involving you working in industry placement'. USW do not live up to this promise. Unless you study medicine of course. I wouldn't bother getting your hopes up kids. It's all a complete lie, get a job and work your way up because places like this play on your dreams like a wet fish.
This uni has been nothing but welcoming to me. It doesn't pander to university elitism and the teaching is to a great standard. I've felt at home at this uni - don't pass down a uni soley because it isn't a "big name".
Poor, unclear and unsupportive
Had to submit a complaint about my course. No support or empathy given it was a PG Diploma in cognitive behavioural psychotherapy. Course unclear and benchmarks continuously changed: working toward benchmarks of a BABCP course when accredited by BACP. Even though They acknowledged confusion, still battling 6 months later with complaint. Majority of students had to leave due to lack of support, clarity and being treated with no positive regard. In some cases students made to resit assignments: not through fault of their own but due to staff errors and not acknowledging responsibility. Unnecessary pressure on an already difficult course: no support leading to high drop out numbers.
I studied psychology here 10 years ago when it was University of Newport. Sadly I had to drop out in the 2nd year due to 2 members of my family passing away and mental health issues I had developed. I wanted to return to university the following year and repeat year 2.the University were unsupportive of my decision. Made no effort to contact me or speak to me. Just told me I could not return until a year later by which point after spending more than a year out from studying I did not feel confident to return. I have received no "after care" or communication, nor any ceritication of what I had achieved. Seems like these places are all to keen to take your money and give you awful service in return!
I did a Masters of Buddhist Studies, actually had no choice but to quit and leave after the second year. The reason is due to the administration. They have the worse administrative team I have ever come across out of 5 universities. Lectures were good, content was good, everything else was good. Actually I'd give that a 5 star. But the admin team is a minus 5, if there is such a rating. The admin team are lazy beyond measure and useless at their job.
Everything could be improved, but it is definitely above average!
Not good. I'm at Cardiff campus and have found my course to be very unorganised
Best place to learn. I actually love everything about this uni..the people are nice and friendly as well.
I would not recommend this university especially to international students.. the lecturers are worst markers in essay.. they dont teach students properly.. lectures are all useless better to self study.. they keep on changing the class schedules.. worst support system as well..
I came here not really knowing the university and a bit cautious but since being there for the last 2 years I have thoroughly enjoyed everything! The staff are incredible and have been so helpful with every problem.
Good uni, terrible course. I done BA Hons Photography and had so much rubbish from my lecturers. They would put me down and make me feel rubbish about my work. They didn’t care to help students and done their job to the minimum. All they care about is getting paid. Would not recommend at all!
They could do better. SU is aimed at party people and the only opportunity to get yourself into any societies was at the start of the year, and all people cared about was the free Dominos.
I can't speak for other campuses but the Cardiff campus is truly a shambles. Terribly run courses, unqualified lecturers who copy and paste lecture slides from google - a waste of £9,000/yr. If you're on a more academic and less 'artsy' course, they'll lie to you on open day about which building your lectures will be - you'll be shown the lovely, modern Atrium building and told you'll be in there, when in reality you'll be in Atlantic House, the dark, dirty secret of USW Cardiff campus. AH is not shown in the prospectus or any promotional photos, and isn't even mentioned on open day. However, come freshers week you'll look at your timetable, see 'AH' on it and wonder "what the hell is Atlantic House?" When you get there you'll be horrified to see it's a 90's build office block (shared with an actual business) which has no canteen and no soul. If you don't like crisps, chocolate and fizzy drinks from a vending machine for your lunch, then you're out of luck and will have to starve.
At the atrium campus I find you get so much less than you do a treforest. All the sports teams are there, never been to the student union as it's a 40 minutes drive or train, don't even know if the atrium has one.. things that are good is the wifi, good location- close to town, good food, three options of restaurant/cafe and helpful staff. Library is okay, if you want a good table though you better get there before 9!
This university has caused me many issues. From deteriorating health, to lack of support and guidance. Would not recommend this university to anyone at all.
Atrium is a great modern campus, the facilities for media students are fantastic. Depending on course the lecturers can be brilliant and the location in general is ideal for those wanting to experience Cardiff and the city centre. The societies in the atrium are limited but there are a lot more at the treforest campus. The su was recently added to the side of the building which is a major upgrade from the shed at the back which was terrible. The biggest downfall is the careers service really felt there was little to no support with trying to find employment upon graduating and many course mates felt the same way. Some course leaders will offer better support but the actual careers advisor are not ver helpful.
Excellent University in teaching and co-ordination with students. Quick Response against any query. Course work is good. Grading system is very tough. Recommended.
I was really disappointed about this university. I paid a lot for my course - MBA, and they advertised that they would give me a CMI certification after I finished my course. However, I just received my MBA certification and there was no CMI certification like they said. When I asked them, they tried to make an excuse and refused to give it to me. I advise all of new students who want to apply for a business course do not go to this university. Their service is really terrible. And they are racist to me because I am from Asia.
Excellent University! Great for Engineering, Lecturers always available to talk about anything and campus services are amazing
16 out of 24 students have left my course. Lecturers show favouritism and there is a lack of parity in the support students receive depending on how well they are like by lecturers. I felt bullied into leaving even though my grades were consistently high and I engaged in lectures. The young inexperienced staff on my course, (Creative and Therapeutic Art, BA) made it impossible for me to continue very, disappointed, choose Derby if possible avoid Uni of South Wales.
I can recommend this university confidentially.
This university has great opportunities for the students, the lecturers are very helpful!
Great facilities with great teaching staff and great transport links for people living off campus and for the living on campus wanting to explore the Welsh capital
Very good uni with great facilities
Very green and good views I'm all places.
USW had grown in both size and opportunities, it's facilities are getting upgraded, becoming better and more aesthetically pleasing, USW is a good solid foundation for a great university
Very useful having halls so close to the university (treforest). Could do with having more stuff on but Cardiff is just a short train journey away.
Had a great first year. Student Union is great and lecturers are very helpful and approachable.
I have loved my first year and can't wait for the rest! So much support and so much fun! Recommend highly!!
Couldn't ask for a better environment and support network that this university provides. As a second year student I'm thrilled to be spending my time in this establishment for a little longer :)
Atrium Campus Cardiff; for the first two years the union consisted of a small shed out the back which nobody went to. The new union whilst impressive to look at is very badly designed hence why still nobody goes there. The studios/labs are very well equipped, however booking time and equipment was almost always a laborious task using the clunky, outdated connect2 booking system. Clubs/Societies were basically nonexistent until a student started one on my course (Music Tech). This meant the University never really had a community-feel like many other Universities I've visited have. It felt as though everyone couldn't wait to get out of the building, rather than the space being about socialisation and discussion. Although I have fond memories of Atrium, I would certainly reconsider it in hindsight.
One club night per week. No variety at all. Expensive drinks for a students union
Awful uni, teaching is okay but connection and student experience is lacking greatly
As a third year now, I don't really go to the students union. However, returns to Cardiff for a night out are £30 for an 8 seater so it works out absolutely fine!
Not bad but not worth £9000 a year. Lecturers are experience but don't seem interested in teaching or helping students. No 24 hour library access. Students union is good. Society's are very 'clicky' and selective.
no societies. Careers fair at the beginning of the year