Highlights from the University year

The University's achievements and milestones over the last 12 months have been recorded in its Annual Review, published today (19 March 2015).

Featuring progress and success in each of the priority areas set out in the strategy The Way Forward, the Review was presented to the annual meeting of Court by Vice-Chancellor, Professor Colin Riordan.

Highlights featuring in the Annual Review include:

• The University's outstanding performance in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) which ranked Cardiff fifth for research excellence in the UK and second for impact;
• Sporting success for students competing in the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the Welsh Varsity competition
• Research breakthroughs including the discovery of more than 100 genetic risk factors linked to schizophrenia in an international study led by scientists from the University's MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics; the first direct evidence of cosmic inflation found by the BICEP2 collaboration involving the School of Physics and Astronomy; and an analysis of social media activity following the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby which revealed that messages loaded with hate and racial tension were less likely to spread than those infused with love.

The University's success in Stonewall's top 100 employers index and it's Gay by Degree guide also feature, as does the significant investment made by the University  in improving facilities for students.

In his introduction to the Annual Review, Professor Riordan noted the importance of the University's REF success saying: "REF 2014 has given us a spectacular opportunity to let the world know what a great university we have at Cardiff. Through REF, we emphatically achieved one of our key performance indicators which will undoubtedly influence other areas of our strategy."

Professor Riordan also paid tribute to the success of University staff including Professor Sally Holland's appointment as the new Children's Commissioner for Wales, and Dr Haley Gomez's Fowler award for noteworthy contribution to astrophysics.

Read the 2014 Annual Review here.