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50 Remarkable Years

It's our anniversary

As we turn 50, we invite you to join the celebrations, learn something new and help us look to the future

50 Remarkable Years

25 October 2016 marks the University of Bath’s 50th Anniversary. On this day in 1966, the University was established by Royal Charter.

Our 50th anniversary is an opportunity to reflect on our success, to share what we have achieved and to celebrate the spirit of enterprise and intellectual discovery that has been at our heart since 1966.

We’d love you to join us, wherever you are.
Come to an event. Read our stories. Share your memories. Help us to look further for the next 50 years.

Fast 50

Take a whistle stop tour of how our university has grown over the past 50 years. From a single building on top of a hill to a thriving international campus. It’s been a remarkable journey so far.

  • 1966 Work begins to develop Bath’s old playing fields into our campus community. Our first building, now called 4 South, welcomes its first students.
  • 1968 Once we started, we kept going, and fast! Building work continues at pace. 4 West arrives.
  • 1970s Our Parade fast became, and remains, the hub of our university community, housing our 24 -7 library and students union.
  • 1970s Everyone remembers the lake but not many know it was originally built as a fire reservoir. Today it remains home to our much loved duck community.
  • 1986 In just over 15 years, our campus looks unrecognisable from its origins and our reputation continues to grow.
  • 1991 Our Jubilee Garden, designed by the Estates Department to commemorate 25 years of landscaping and planting at Claverton Down, opens.
  • 1996 Half way through our history and we are welcoming almost 9000 students to our campus.
  • 2009 Our passion for sport continues to grow as our world class sports training village expands.
  • 2011 We are proud of our campus and rightly so. Not only is it the highest in the land, our landscapers regularly bag awards for making it looking so special.
  • 2015 From 4 South to 4 East South. 50 years on and we continue to grow. New teaching, accommodation and arts buildings appear.
  • 2015 We're no longer just up on the hill. Our campus extends into our City, to London and around the world.

Our University - Take  A Tour

Watch our drone footage

Campus Today

Creative places where students come together for discussion. World-class lab equipment to help our researchers explore and discover. Our campus has grown and grown since ’66. It’s an exciting and innovative environment that makes Bath one of the best in the world. Hop on our drone and take a tour.

Student numbers

Bright ideas come from bright minds. Here at Bath, a top 10 university, we keep attracting the very brightest. What started with a few hundred science students is now a thriving community of over 15,000, both on campus and on placements all over the world.

0 Students

    • Best in class

      First place for student satisfaction. World-class ranked research. Olympians on the podium. A top 3 Students’ Union. Prizes from the Queen. And some of the highest earning alumni in the country. The list goes on. We’ve picked up an impressive trophy cabinet over the years.

    • Olympic medal

      Steph Cook was our first Bath based athlete to be crowned as Olympic champion. She won gold for Modern Pentathlon at the 2000 games.

    • Raise and Give

      Our students have raised an astonishing £2,000,000 for local and national charities since 1966.

    • National Students Survey

      University of Bath students continue to be amongst the most satisfied in the UK according to the 2015 National Student Survey.

    • Giving Back

      Our students spent over 10,000 hours last year volunteering. From supporting local community projects to running campus clubs and mentoring fellow undergraduates, they love putting something back.

    • Paralympic success

      Sacha Kindred was one of the first Bath based athletes to be crowned as Paralympic swimming champion. He has won medals at every games since 1996 and has just been named in the squad for Rio.

    • The UK’s first sports scholarship

      In 1976 we awarded the UK’s first ever sports scholarships including support for golfers, archers and canoeists.

    • Times Higher Education

      The Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey ranked us first out of 113 institutions for student satisfaction.

    • Best business incubator in world

      SETsquared, our enterprise partnership, has been recognised as the best performing university business incubator in the world

    • Queens Anniversary Prize

      The quality of our research has won The Queen’s Anniversary Prize – twice. It’s the highest possible recognition for a university.

    • Top in Europe

      We’re first in Europe and 7th in the world according to the 2015 QS ranking of the top 50 universities under 50 years old.

    • Top 10 SU

      Our Students’ Union is ranked amongst the top10 in the country.

    • REF Research Excellence Framework

      87% of our submitted research has been defined as ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ according to the latest Research Excellence Framework.

    • Pride of Place

      Our campus, overlooking Bath, is the highest and one of the best kept in England.

    • Bath in Bloom

      Our landscapers are blooming marvellous. Their work on our wildlife pond, Jubilee garden, Quiet Garden and rockeries all helped to win Best Environmental Project in ‘Bath in Bloom’.

    • Sunday Times University of the Year winner 2011/12

      “The country depends on the success of universities like Bath, not just because of its innovative, relevant research, but also because of the intelligent, passionate and work-ready graduates it turns out each year.”
      — Alastair McCall, Editor

    • A national centre for sport

      In 2004 our Sports Training Village opened as a world-leading environment for sport, sport services and health and fitness qualifications.

Global Community

We’re no longer just up on the hill. Our community now extends down into our beautiful city and around the world too.

This year we’re connected with over 100,000 alumni in over 160 countries. Thousands of researchers are looking further, from Bath to Antarctica. And thousands of students are on placements all around the world.

  • 100,000Alumni
  • 160Countries
  • 1000Researchers
  • 2000Placements

Discover more about our anniversary

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