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Why Brunel?

Brunel is a global university, dedicated to providing education and research relevant to the needs of industry and society, and ensuring that the UK is contributing to the knowledge base so it can compete on the world stage.

Since 1966, Brunel has championed innovation and advancement, pioneering sandwich degrees, and giving students the academic education and professional and personal skills they need to succeed in their future. In that time, we have increased our student population from just 866 to over 14,000 and introduced successful degree programmes in everything from anthropology to aerospace engineering; business management to healthcare sciences.

Brunel continues to develop research and research-led teaching that meets the needs of industry, the NHS, government and the third sector, while giving our international and socially-mobile students the opportunity to apply their knowledge for the benefit of society. In the spirit of our namesake, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, excellence, innovation and entrepreneurialism is at the heart of everything we do.

Research 

Brunel's research is world-leading, with highly cited papers and a significant grant income. Programmes are developed in partnership with industry and we are committed to a culture of collaboration that truly meets the global challenges of the 21st century.

Brunel is well-established within the top quarter of research universities in the UK according to the Research Excellence Framework 2014, with a number of areas of study considered world-leading and internationally excellent for their research impact, including engineering, public health, sports science, art and design, politics, and environmental and earth sciences.

The University, which has the 13th largest income from Innovate UK, has a number of high-profile projects, including:

  • The Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology (BCAST), an industry-leading national scale-up facility which enables innovations – such as novel structures for lightweight car parts – to make the leap from the lab to full-scale industrial trials. The total research funding of over £120m is from the EPSRC, HEFCE, Innovate UK and industry leaders such as Constellium and Jaguar Land Rover.
  • The National Structural Integrity Research Centre (NSIRC), in partnership with engineering research organisation TWI – part-funded by a £15m grant from the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund. It has attracted £45m for research over 10 years from industrial partners, primarily in the oil, gas, power and engineering sectors.
  • The National Centre for Sustainable Energy use in Food chains (CSEF), funded by UKRI, which brings together a multidisciplinary hub of partners from the universities of Brunel, Manchester and Birmingham, including engineers, scientists, social scientists and industry experts. Its research is in support of the UK's target of an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050.

Find out more about research at Brunel

Our students

We attract just under 80% of our students from London and the South East, including from some of the most deprived communities. These students do well with us, and Brunel is ranked in the Economist’s top ten for boosting graduate salaries. This is testament to our outreach activities and successful widening participation programme, which brings more than 4,000 visitors to the campus every year and we work with students from under-represented groups throughout their time with us. Our undergraduate student population is 11% overseas and 40% overseas at the Postgraduate level.

Our students have the advantage of a rounded education that takes them to the cutting-edge of their subject through research-led teaching and work-based learning. They are encouraged to embrace innovation and entrepreneurship; and are developed for success in the workplace, so that they can step out of full-time study and into employment with the wide range of skills they need to succeed.

We actively encourage our students to consider studying abroad as part of their degree too, taking advantage of the 30 partner universities we have across the globe.

Brunel works closely with more than 8,000 companies, many of which support our students through placement opportunities, mentoring and graduate employment. 93% of our undergraduate students are in employment or further study six months after leaving, and Brunel produces 2.2% of all senior management professionals in the UK – the 10th top ranking university.

Brunel is leading the way with our approach to digital exam and assessment, winning a prestigious Advance HE Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence in 2019. Over 2,700 students sat exams with their own laptop this year through our Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) scheme.

Find out more about education innovation at Brunel.

Our campus

We are proud of our wonderful London campus, home to a thriving, connected community of students, staff, partners and alumni, embracing diversity and celebrating a culture of mutual respect.

The campus has benefited from £400m of investment in the past decade. That commitment to the best teaching and research facilities is set to continue with several high-profile developments in the pipeline, among them a £50m centre for teaching and learning. Our sports facilities are the finest university facilities in London and our vibrant arts programme brings culture to the campus for staff, students and the local community.

Complementing our new, modern buildings, are our original buildings, many of which are protected by law as fine examples of sixties brutalism. Over the years this unique architecture has made us a popular location for filming TV and movies - everything from A Clockwork Orange to The Sweeney, Inspector Morse, Silent Witness and Spooks.

We have a Met police-trained security team on campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week to look after our students and staff.

Brunel is officially one of the very best green spaces in the country, having received the Green Flag Award in 2019 for the third year running.

Campus map

Environment 

    We are committed to enhancing our environmental management and performance through strategies, policies, risk management and procedures.
  • Our new hospitality water system resulted in the reduction of 10,000 glass bottles and 15,000 plastic bottles per year, saving 1,700kg of carbon annually
  • 43,120kgs of food waste was sent for anaerobic digestion, creating biogas and organic fertiliser
  • 1-2% of our waste currently goes to landfill. We are working towards 0% to landfill in 2020
  • 11,000 coffees served on campus in the last year have been in a reusable mug

Find out more about our commitment to the Environment: https://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/environment/home

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion 

Brunel is committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion and seeks to engage all university members in promoting a positive and fully inclusive work environment. We welcome applications from all sections of the community. To have a look at the different experiences of our staff please click here.

Brunel is an accredited Disability Confident employer.

You can read our Equality and Diversity statement here