About BCU
Birmingham City University has invested over £400 million in its estate, creating a modern and inspirational environment for students and staff.
Our City Centre Campus is in the heart of Birmingham, comprising our stunning Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, specialist facilities for arts, media and design students, workshops and laboratories for computing, engineering and the built environment, and dedicated real-world experiential and simulation facilities, such as a trading room and law court for business, law and social sciences. The campus sits adjacent to the emerging HS2 development in Birmingham, connecting our University through increased transport links.
Our City South Campus in Edgbaston is the home of our Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences, which has recently benefited from new and upgraded teaching facilities, including digital health equipment, following a major combined government and University investment of over £5 million.
The city’s Alexander Stadium, one of the main event spaces for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022, is the spectacular new home for Birmingham City University’s sport courses. The eyes of the world were on the Stadium and city last summer, with Birmingham City University staff and students playing pivotal roles in the major international sporting event - including designing the official medals for winning athletes.
Birmingham itself, with its five universities and 85,000 students, is the ‘youngest city in Europe’ with under-25s accounting for nearly 40% of the population, resulting in a city full of energy and enthusiasm and is a great place to live and work.
With almost 60% of our students from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds, which reflects the city itself, we are proud of how we represent and positively impact Birmingham and the West Midlands.
The University focuses on practice-led, problem-based learning, providing access to cutting-edge facilities and real-world experience. We benefit from around 50 professional accreditations and have a well-established reputation for delivering in-company training and development programmes. Our lecturing staff are research active, and engaged externally, maintaining as appropriate currency in and strong links with the arts, culture, industry, commerce, practice, and professions, ensuring students are given an insight into the latest thinking to help them learn and succeed.
Research by our staff and students creates new knowledge, catalyses innovation, and has global impact. Through our research, we make new discoveries and deliver benefit to culture, industry, society, and the environment. Ground-breaking projects include changing health and care guidelines, improving policy and practice regarding Islamophobia, optimising energy efficient homes, promoting human dignity worldwide, improving critical care nursing, and exploring issues faced by jazz musicians. STEAMhouse harnesses our arts heritage with STEM to foster economic growth and social innovation. Our Research Strategy builds on REF2021 to increase research intensity and quality - investment in new academic staff is integral to this ambition.
The city’s appetite for progression is boundless, and it has been championing innovation since the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution, reflected in Birmingham City University’s new STEAMhouse building which opened in October 2022 and is home to an inter-disciplinary community of entrepreneurs, businesses, academic researchers, and students offering a wealth of support to companies of all sizes to boost growth through innovation to address commercial and societal challenges.
The University has a reputation for widening participation and working with local communities. We welcome a broad mix of cultures and nationalities, and over half of our 31,000 students come from the city or the surrounding area. There are also over 2,600 international and EU students from over 100 countries who are attracted by the social and ethnic mix of the University’s student population.
