Aberystwyth University


Aberystwyth University is a public research university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding member institution of the former federal University of Wales. The university has over 8,000 students studying across three academic faculties and 17 departments.
Founded in 1872 as University College Wales, Aberystwyth, it became a founder member of the University of Wales in 1894, and changed its name to the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. In the mid-1990s, the university again changed its name to become the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. On 1 September 2007, the University of Wales ceased to be a federal university and Aberystwyth University became independent again. The annual income of the institution for 2022–2023 was £130.8 million of which £22.2 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £127.8 million.

History

In the middle of the 19th century, eminent Welsh people were advocating the establishment of a university in the principality of Wales. One of these, Thomas Nicholas, whose book, Middle and High Class Schools, and University Education for Wales, is said to have "exerted great influence on educated Welshmen".
Funded through public and private subscriptions, and with five regional committees guaranteeing funds for the first three years' running costs, the university opened in October 1872 with 26 students. Thomas Charles Edwards was the principal. In October 1875, chapels in Wales raised the next tranche of funds from over 70,000 contributors. Until 1893, when the college joined the University of Wales as a founder member, students applying to Aberystwyth sat the University of London's entrance exams. Women were admitted in 1884.
In 1885, a fire damaged what is now known as the Old College, Aberystwyth, and in 1897 the first 14 acres of what became the main Penglais campus were purchased. Incorporated by royal charter in 1893, the university installed Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, as chancellor in 1896, the same year it awarded an honorary degree to the former British prime minister, William Gladstone.
The university's coat of arms dates from the 1880s. The shield features two red dragons to symbolise Wales, and an open book to symbolise learning. The crest, an eagle or phoenix above a flaming tower, may signify the college's rebirth after the 1885 fire. The motto is Nid Byd, Byd Heb Wybodaeth.
In the early 1900s, the university added courses that included law, applied mathematics, pure mathematics and botany. The Department for International Politics, which Aberystwyth says is the oldest such department in the world, was founded in 1919. By 1977, the university's staff included eight Fellows of the Royal Society, such as Gwendolen Rees, the first Welsh woman to be elected an FRS.
The Department of Sports and Exercise Science was established in 2000. Joint honours psychology degrees were introduced in September 2007, and single honours psychology in 2009.
The chancellor of the university is Dame Nicola Davies, who took up the position in January 2025. The visitor of the university is an appointment made by the privy council, under the royal charter of the university. Since July 2014, the holder of this office is Sir Roderick Evans.
In 2011, the university appointed a new vice chancellor under whom the academic departments were restructured as larger subject-themed institutes.
In 2022, the university celebrated its 150th anniversary, being established in 1872.

Organisation and administration

Departments and Faculties

The university's academic departments, as well as the Arts Centre, International English Centre and Music Centre are organised in three faculties:
; Faculty of Business and Physical Sciences
; Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences
The Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences is a research and teaching centre which brings together staff from the Institutes of Rural Sciences and Biological Sciences and the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research. Around 360 research, teaching and support staff conduct basic, strategic and applied research in biology.
The institute is located in two areas; one at the main teaching Penglais campus and another rural research hub at the Gogerddan campus.

Aberystwyth Business School

In 1998, the Department of Economics, the Department of Accounting and Finance and the Centre for Business Studies merged to create the School of Management and Business. In 2013, the School joined the Department of Information Studies and the Department of Law and Criminology at a new campus at Llanbadarn Fawr. The school was shortlisted for "Business School of the Year" in the Times Higher Education Awards. In 2016, the institute, minus the Department of Information Studies, was renamed the Institute of Business and Law, the remaining departments being renamed Aberystwyth Business School and Aberystwyth Law School.

Department of Computer Science

The Department of Computer Science, conducts research in automated reasoning, computational biology, vision graphics and visualisation and intelligent robotics.
AberMUD, the first popular internet-based MUD, was written in the department by then-student Alan Cox. Jan Pinkava, another graduate, won an Oscar for his short animated film Geri's Game.

Department of Geography and Earth Sciences

The Department of Geography and Earth Sciences was formed, in 1989, from the former Departments of Geography and Geology. It houses the E. G. Bowen map library, containing 80,000 maps and 500 atlases.

Department of Information Studies

The College of Librarianship Wales was established at Llanbadarn Fawr in 1964, in response to a recommendation for the training of bilingual librarians that was made in the Bourdillon Report on Standards of public library service in England. The college grew rapidly, developing close links to the Welsh speaking and professional communities, acquiring an international reputation and pioneering flexible and distance learning courses. It claimed to be Europe's largest institution for training librarians. The independent college merged with the university in August 1989 and the department moved to the Penglais campus a quarter of a century later. Following the merger, the new department took over responsibility for existing offerings in archives administration and modern records management.

Department of International Politics

The Department of International Politics is the oldest of its kind in the world. It was founded, shortly after the First World War in 1919, with the stated purpose of furthering political understanding of the world in the hope of avoiding such conflicts in the future. This goal led to the creation of the Woodrow Wilson Chair of International Politics, with Wilson having played a significant role in its creation. The department has over 700 students from 40 countries studying at undergraduate, masters and PhD levels. It achieved a 95% score for student satisfaction in the 2016 National Student Survey, placing it as the highest-ranking politics department in Wales and within the UK's top ten.
The department has hosted notable academic staff in the field including E. H. Carr, Leopold Kohr, Andrew Linklater, Ken Booth, Steve Smith, Michael Cox, Michael MccGwire, Jenny Edkins and Colin J. McInnes.

Department of Law and Criminology

The Department of Law and Criminology is housed in the Hugh Owen Building on the Penglais campus, and includes the Centre for Welsh Legal Affairs, a specialist research centre. All academic staff are engaged in research, and the International Journal of Biosciences and the Law and the Cambrian Law Review are edited in the department. In 2013, the department joined the Department of Information Studies and the School of Management and Business at a new campus at Llanbadarn Fawr, as part of a newly created Institute of Management, Law and Information Studies. In September 2018, the department moved back to the Hugh Owen Building, based in the Penglais campus, and its name changed from Aberystwyth Law School to the Department of Law and Criminology.
The Guardian University Guide 2018 ranked the Law Department at 69th in the UK, and "The Times" Higher Education Guide ranks it as 300th globally.

Department of Modern Languages

Aberystwyth has taught modern languages since 1874. French, German, Italian and Spanish courses are taught at both beginners' and advanced levels, in a research-active academic environment. One of its research projects is the Anglo-Norman Dictionary, based in Aberystwyth since 2001 and available online since 2005.

Department of Physics

Physics was first taught at Aberystwyth as part of Natural Philosophy, Astronomy and Mathematics under N. R. Grimley, soon after the foundation of the University College. It became a department in 1877, under the leadership of F. W. Rudler. The department was located in the south wing of what is now the Old College, but later moved to the Physics Building on the Penglais Campus. The first chair in Physics was offered to D. E. Jones in 1885. Before the First World War, much of the early research in the department was undertaken in Germany. Early research in the 1900s was concerned with electrical conductivity and quantum theory, later moving into thermal conductivity and acoustics. In 1931, the department hosted the Faraday Centenary Exhibition. E. J. Williams was appointed to the Chair of Physics in 1938 where he continued his research into sub-atomic particles using a cloud chamber. Following the Second World War, research was concerned with mechanical and nuclear physics, later moving into the fields of air density, experimental rocket launching equipment and radar.