We are proud to be an internationally recognised and award winning institution with a heritage of quality education going back more than 100 years.
We appear in the Times Higher Education World University rankings, ranked as one of the top 300 universities in the world under 50 years old in the Young University rankings.
In 2021 we were extremely proud to have received a first class award in the People and Planet University Green League, retaining our position of 8th place out of 154 UK institutions. In 2020 we launched our Target Zero campaign with the aim to become carbon neutral by 2050 and our commitment to sustainability has been recognised with an Eco Campus Platinum award for two years running.
At Bedfordshire we have a vibrant and cosmopolitan student population that includes around 20,000 students from over 100 countries. We are a modern university that believes in nurturing our students to become educated, employable and entrepreneurial global citizens.
We lead the way in expanding educational opportunity; with more than 40% of our students coming from families with no history of participation in higher education. Around 70% are mature returners to education and over half are from Black or ethnic minority backgrounds, under-represented in higher education.
In 2021, we were named in a report by the Sutton Trust as one of England’s Top 25 universities to have successfully contributed to an increase in social mobility amongst disadvantaged young people in England. We have also rated highest in the East of England for ‘access to education’ and are in the Top 10 of this category for the whole country – one of only two universities situated outside of London.
We have two main campuses in Luton and Bedford, with a large health teaching provision in Aylesbury at the world renowned Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
We are also active in Milton Keynes, London and Birmingham, as well as globally, with a growing portfolio of international partnerships as far afield as Egypt, Vietnam, Oman and Mauritius.
We support our students in all aspects of their life and encourage through the excellent services we provide:
- Superb, modern facilities across all our subject areas
- Study skills development
- Career and job-seeking guidance
- Volunteer and work experience
- Health and wellbeing services
- Modern accommodation
- Personal tutors
- International education partners with opportunities to study overseas