The College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences is a vibrant, diverse and inspiring community, spanning 10 academic Schools and committed to excellence in teaching and research.
Our wide range of courses and research-led teaching inspire and challenge our students to think for themselves.
All of our courses are designed to enable students to fulfil their academic and vocational potential. Recognised for their ability, our graduates have gone on to prominent positions in journalism, business, planning, translation, law and more.
Teaching and learning facilities include the trading room in Cardiff Business School, radio and television studios in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture, and access to 24-hour modern libraries across campus.
We compete in the world league of humanities research with strengths in all aspects of social and cultural life.
Research and collaboration within each of our 10 Academic Schools directly inform policy and practice and are helping us to understand and shape the future.
Our research focuses on some of the longest-established fields of human academic endeavour, such as history, law and music, providing a continually-updated knowledge base for the professions, asking questions about the development of our societies, and examining pressing contemporary issues.
Experts have been called on to review the future of the digital industries by both the Welsh and UK Government, to inform the forthcoming Domestic Abuse (Wales) Bill, and to advise on minimum prices for alcohol.
Our research has, amongst others, informed the Home Office's Prevent counter-terrorism strategy, helped teenagers in Africa to talk for the first time about their experiences of living with HIV/AIDS, shaped the legal framework of Anglican churches, and has had a major influence on school food policy and practice in and beyond the UK.
Many of the our Academic Schools and Centres are recognised as authorities in their respective field, including the School of Journalism, Media and Culture, the School of Geography and Planning and the Wales Governance Centre.
We are commited to engaging the Welsh, national and international communities in our work. Our links with the local community have helped schoolchildren and residents in Caerau and Ely, South Wales reconnect with their history, while the Centre for Community Journalism is helping shape the future of local news.
Research themes
We pursue cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research across our Academic Schools, collaborating with researchers throughout the University and externally. We attract major research awards from funding councils and our academics are regularly commissioned to undertake major projects for organisations and industries in the UK and around the world.
We have strengths in all areas of culture, society, politics and the economy. These include themes such as:
- Digital economy
- Governance and devolution
- Language and linguistics
- Welsh culture and history
- Banking and finance
We are a leading international university, known globally for our research impact and worldwide collaborations.
We have formal links with more than 35 countries including 38 partnerships with China, 16 in the US and 12 with Malaysia. We are committed to sharing our expertise, knowledge and resources to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time.
We have a long history of welcoming students from around the world, and have a thriving international student community of more than 3,500 students from 100 different countries.
We have more than 170,000 alumni in over 170 countries around the world, and our graduates return home as ambassadors for Cardiff, Wales and the UK, playing an important role in strengthening international relations.
Alongside this we are committed to enabling our students to study, work or volunteer abroad during their time with us, exposing them to international opportunities, helping them build cultural awareness and enhancing their employability.
Closer to home, we are a real force for economic development in Wales and the UK. Our Business School alone boosts the Welsh economy by an estimated £78M each year. Our staff are forging close links with the local community and involved in a variety of projects, working with primary and secondary schools, community networks and local authorities.
"As we try to make sense of the rapidly changing world around us – from geo-politics to AI, from climate risks to social cohesion – the insights of the SHAPE subjects (the Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts for People and the Economy) will be vital, as will the joy, enrichment and fulfilment they provide."
