Birmingham City University is dedicated to transforming the prospects of our learners, inspiring them to become makers and doers. We are an integral part of the city in which we are based, with courses shaped by the needs of industry and partnerships with some of the country's leading employers.
The University focuses on practice-led, knowledge-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 teaching staff come from and maintain their links with industry, ensuring you are given an insight into the latest thinking. We are constantly looking for new ways to enhance the learning experience, with inspiring visiting lecturers and learning environments that are designed to replicate the workplaces you aim to enter. We even give you the chance to gain work experience in real roles around the University, through our student employment scheme.
The work undertaken by our research staff and research students is not only enriching our courses, it is literally shaping the world. In the Research Excellence Framework 2014, which measures universities’ research performance, 90% of Birmingham City University’s total submission was judged to have delivered ‘outstanding’ or ‘very considerable’ impact externally.
We have been pioneering vocational education in the city since 1843, through a series of predecessor institutions. Having achieved University status in 1992, we changed our name to Birmingham City University in 2007, reflecting our commitment to, and pride in, our home city.
The National Theatre makes theatre that entertains and inspires using its creativity, expertise and unique reach.
We tell big stories in bold ways, offering the widest access to high quality theatre to millions of audience members across the UK and around the world – on our own stages, on tour, in schools, on cinema screens and streaming at home.
We bring the world to the National Theatre and take the National Theatre to the world through reimagined classic stories meeting fresh, contemporary voices.
As part of our mission to celebrate and platform bold voices in British theatre, the National Theatre proudly hosts a dynamic group of Resident Companies, offering a platform for collaboration, growth, and innovation.
Through touring our work to local theatres, schools and through our nationwide education and community programmes, we are active in every local authority in the UK.
We invest in talent and innovation on stage and off, taking seriously our role as the nation’s theatre. We work with hundreds of schools and communities across the UK to fire imagination and inspire creativity. The National Theatre Skills Centre supports thousands of young people every year to develop skills and pathways for careers in theatre
Guildhall School is a vibrant, international community of young musicians, actors and production artists in the heart of the City of London.
Ranked as one of the top ten performing arts institutions in the world (QS World University Rankings 2019), and recently awarded top conservatoire in the Complete University Guide Music League Table 2020, the School is a global leader of creative and professional practice which promotes innovation, experiment and research, with over 1,000 students in higher education, drawn from over 70 countries around the world.
The School is also the UK’s leading provider of specialist music training at the under-18 level with nearly 2,500 students in Junior Guildhall and the Centre for Young Musicians.
Our diversity extends to the art forms that we cover. We are one of the few major European conservatoires to combine schools of music, drama and production arts. Working across disciplines frees us to break down boundaries across traditional art forms, to nurture invention, and to cross-fertilise ideas and methods.
Since its founding in 1880, Guildhall School has stood as a vibrant showcase of the City of London Corporation's commitment to education and the arts. Situated in the heart of the City, the School moved to its present premises in the Barbican in 1977, solidifying a unique performance and learning partnership with Europe's largest arts and conference venue, the Barbican Centre, and its resident orchestra, the world-class London Symphony Orchestra.
Collaboration is central to what we do. Our partnerships – between departments and with external organisations – create outstanding opportunities to learn from the leading edge of creative practice. Our professional partners include the Barbican Centre, the London Symphony Orchestra, the the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Opera House and the Academy of Ancient Music.