Faculty of Science

Schools

Information for

About the Faculty

The Faculty of Science is the largest Faculty within the University, with around 2,800 undergraduates, 900 postgraduates, and over 800 staff.

It consists of the following schools:

  • Biological Sciences
  • Chemistry
  • Earth Sciences
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Geographical Sciences
  • Mathematics
  • Physics

The individual successes of these schools have played a major part in the University of Bristol's excellent reputation.

Science has established good cross-departmental and cross-faculty links in teaching and research, and offers an outstanding intellectual environment for both its staff and its undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Research centres within the faculty include the

There is also BRIDGE (Bristol Initiative for the Dynamic Global Environment) in Geographical Sciences, and COGNIT (Cognition and Information Technology Research Centre) in Experimental Psychology.

The very successful Molecular Recognition Centre links Science with the Faculty of Medical and Veterinary Sciences particularly well; the Quantum Information Group links Science with the Faculty of Engineering; and the School of Geographical Sciences provides an important interaction with the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law.

There are strong and successful cross-faculty interactions in Climate Change, Cognition, Interface Analysis, Nanotechnology and Neuroscience.

The School of Chemistry was awarded one of HEFCE's Centres of Excellence in Learning and Teaching, Bristol ChemLabS.

The faculty is also involved in the Bristol and Bath Science Park with the University of Bath and the University of the West of England. The Science Park provides accommodation and business support for high-tech companies spun out from the Universities' research.

Research Assessment Exercise 2008

We made returns in 9 areas - Units of Assessment (UoAs) in RAE parlance:

  • Biological Sciences
  • Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences
  • Chemistry, Physics
  • Pure Mathematics
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Statistics and Operational Research
  • Geography and Environmental Studies
  • Psychology

Two thirds of the faculty’s research activity was rated at the highest 4* or 3* levels (“world leading” or “internationally excellent”) and 95% at least “internationally recognised” (2* or better). See the University's Research assessment page for a listing of all Bristol results by UoA.

Our submission to RAE2008 included a much increased number of staff - up by over 40% - compared with 2001 (the date of the last RAE). Many of the staff returned at a relatively early stage in their career. Our performance therefore reflects an exceptional depth of talent, future capacity for development and environment for world leading research.

Top 12 UK Science Faculties RAE 2008 a

Institution c Mean GPA d Rank Units e
University of Oxford 2.927 1 9
University of Cambridge 2.912 2 9
University of Bristolb 2.848 3 9
Imperial College London 2.833 4 6
University of Nottingham 2.769 5 8
University of Sheffield 2.768 6 9
University of Durham 2.760 7 9
Birkbeck College 2.759 8 3
University of St Andrews 2.759 9 8
University College London 2.758 10 9
University of Edinburgh 2.752 11 9
University of Manchester 2.749 12 9

Notes

a "Science" is taken to be the nine UoAs: 14A, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 32, 44, as in Bristol

b Bristol volume for UoA 22 (Applied Maths) has been reduced to 50% to Science (and the other 50% attributed to Engineering)

c Only institutions with at least 3 “Science” UoAs returned are included in list

d Mean Grade Point Average (GPA) value is calculated according to the amounts of 4, 3, 2 and 1* activity for each UoA weighted by the number of staff whose work was evaluated.

e Number of UoAs entered within Bristol Science remit


Our schools