The UK's Most Popular Student Town

Location, location, location

If you have not been to Aberystwyth before, we would warmly invite you to visit us. We can promise you a beautiful journey to one of the loveliest settings of any University in the country, in the shadow of the Cambrian mountains, on the shores of Cardigan Bay.

You will find here a regional centre of academic excellence and vital cultural and commercial importance: the first University established in Wales; the National Library of Wales; the offices of the Welsh Assembly Government; Wales’s premier regional Arts Centre – and much more. 

The UK’s most popular student town

Aberystwyth is the UK’s most popular student town because that’s exactly what it is: a student town. You may know of – you may live in! – a town or city where there’s real tension between local residents and students. It just doesn’t happen here. From the very beginning, the people of Aberystwyth have been proud of their university – and they do regard it as theirs. For our part, we are proud of successive generations of students who have maintained that friendship with the town of Aberystwyth.

Aberystwyth is, of course, also a holiday resort and the main centre for commerce and culture on the mid-west coast of Wales. This combination of commercial and cultural centre all year round, student town in term-time, and holiday town in the vacations, means that there is a lovely range of venues to suit all tastes and pockets.

There are good clubs, a ridiculous number of pubs, varied restaurants, cinemas, music and theatre venues, museums and galleries: and that’s just the fun you can have indoors! The sea, the beaches and the mountains offer wonderful opportunities for leisure and relaxation.

It’s also a very safe location:

According to the UK Crime Statistics in June 2009, Ceredigion experienced the lowest rate of crime per capita anywhere in England or Wales.

You can get an unbiased view of Aberystwyth here  

Read one student who fell in love with Aberystwyth: Messias Lumingo 

Student Life on campus

In addition to what’s going on in the town, the University campus brings together first-rate academic facilities, excellent student accommodation, an award-winning Arts Centre, the National Library of Wales, great indoor and outdoor sports facilities, and the Students’ Union complex: all within easy walking distance of each other, on a beautifully landscaped hillside site commanding wonderful views across the town to the sea beyond.

A balanced experience

There’s a great balance to student life here: a balance between indoor and outdoor exercise and sport; a balance between sporting activities and artistic activities; a roughly equal proportion of male and female students; and, vitally, a balance between study and recreation.

Our students are not only happy because they have a whale of a time in a wonderful town: they’re happy because 93% of them see their degree through to a successful conclusion. Keeping work and leisure in balance is at the heart of the Aberystwyth experience: and all the statistics show that it makes for a superbly healthy student lifestyle.