Southampton, Solent University

Overview

The university’s history dates back to 1855, when it was founded as a private school for art. Even today, the arts is one of the university’s main specialities, along with maritime and the environment, law and business, and sport and health. 

Solent University places a big emphasis on mental health and is in the middle of a seven-year plan to make mental health a priority and promote positive mental health among everyone in its community. The uni’s all about creating opportunities for everyone, offering expertise and partnerships to help students grow and develop. 

Living in Southampton, you’ll benefit from living on the south coast of the UK, with beautiful scenery and a lot of history. You’ll find the city port, famous for being the location of the Titanic’s departure as well as the Sky Museum, featuring vintage aircraft. As well as history, you’ll find a lot of art and culture in the form of galleries, theatres and cinemas. There’s also a wide range of pubs, clubs and restaurants on offer, so you won’t be missing out on nightlife. 

The city has a train station offering direct trains to London, Portsmouth, Brighton and more. There’s also an airport for international travel and as it’s still an active port city, you could even hop on a cruise. By road, the city can be reached by the M3. 

The university’s standard bachelors degrees take three years to complete, but there are other options for study. You may opt to have a year in placement, which is available on many of the university’s courses. This will extend your degree to four years, with your placement year completed after your second year. 

Alternatively, you could opt to study a foundation year if you don’t meet the typical entry requirement. This is a year of study you’ll do before you start the bachelors degree program. If your course offers both a foundation year option and a placement year option, you may be able to add both to your degree, making it a five-year course. 

The university also offers some apprenticeship options, including degree apprenticeships, and foundation degree apprenticeships. If you study a foundation degree apprenticeship, you’ll graduate with a foundation degree, and have the option to do a ‘top-up’ year of study to obtain a full bachelors degree. Degree apprenticeships will lead you to graduate with a bachelors degree.   

All entry requirements are guidance only and are subject to change. Check the university’s course pages for more detailed information and contact the admissions department if you have any questions. 

All courses have slightly different entry requirements, but we’ve summarised the typical offers here for a few courses so you can see if Solent is likely to be right for you. 

For BA Criminology, you’ll need 104-120 UCAS points, from at least two A-levels or equivalent. 104 points would be equal to BCC, while 120 points would be BBB. 

If you want to study BA Digital Music, you’ll need 96-112 UCAS points. If you’re over 21 and have relevant experience, you might be considered without traditional qualifications. 96 UCAS points would be equivalent to CCC at A-level, while 112 would be BBC. 

Applicants for BEng Marine Engineering will need 104-120 UCAS points at Level 3, as well as GCSE English, maths and science at grade C/4 or above. The GCSE science qualification should have significant physical science content. For this course you’ll have to apply to a three-year deck officer cadet training program and find a sponsor to complete the sea service element of the course. 

Solent University has five different halls of residences for students. The halls are all self-catered, have fully equipped kitchens and limited parking available. Your rent is inclusive of all bills, security and maintenance. 

If you’re looking for shared bathroom facilities, Chantry is the residence for you. Chantry also has a common room to socialise, equipped with TV, DVD player, pool and table football. 

The other residences David Moxon, Deanery, Hamwick and Kimber all offer ensuite rooms only. All of these residences also have a common room for socialising, with different common rooms offering different facilities. 

Each of the residences has easy access to a laundry room, and there are accessible rooms available in selected residences. There are also secure bike parking facilities. 

If you’re opting to rent privately, the university has partnered with another local uni to create the Southampton Accreditation Scheme for Student Housing (SASSH). By looking at properties approved by this scheme, you can be confident it’s been vetted by the uni and you’re renting from someone with a good reputation. 

At Solent University, course modules are designed with employability in mind, with real-life examples informing your classes. As well, you’ll have access to the dedicated careers service, Solent Futures. 

Solent Futures helps you to develop your skills, offers advice on employment and further study and helps you find part-time, full-time or placement jobs. And you’ll be able to benefit from this for life, as Solent Futures also supports graduates in job-hunting and career planning. 

The university also runs the Focus program, which is a professional mentoring program. At the moment, the Focus program is for students identifying as female who are studying at Level 5, which is the second year of undergraduate study, with a particular focus on supporting BAME students. 

If you’re looking for advice on your career, you can book a 40 minute appointment with one of the Solent Futures careers advisors, who will be able to answer your questions and give you advice on career paths, job applications and more. You can also head to drop-in sessions if you don’t need such a long discussion, and the uni hosts regular workshops you can sign up to. 

Solent University offers a range of financial support to students through scholarships and bursaries. These are paid in addition to government support and are non-repayable. All bursaries and scholarships are subject to change as the university responds to changing needs of its students. The most up-to-date information can be found on the university’s website. 

Currently, bursaries are available for care leavers, carers, estranged students and local students from low-income backgrounds. There are also national schemes supporting social work students, student parents and disabled students. 

The current undergraduate scholarships on offer for UK students are for academic merit, athletes, BAME students and for students who have overcome adversity. 

The uni also has grants for students experiencing financial hardship, who have to buy course-specific equipment such as photography equipment or specialist software or who are undertaking an unpaid placement. 

All information on awards and eligibility can be found on the university’s finance pages.