Study at Loughborough University

Location and student life

The main campus covers over 500 acres on a single site in Loughborough, a market town between Leicester and Nottingham in the East Midlands. Teaching buildings, halls, the students' union and sports facilities are all together, within walking distance of the town centre. Trains run directly to Leicester, Nottingham and London St Pancras (around 90 minutes to London, typically), and the M1 and East Midlands Airport are close by. The second campus, for postgraduates, is at Here East on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London, minutes from Stratford station. Student life revolves around the union, the societies and a sporting culture that runs through the whole university.

Courses and subjects

Nine schools make up the university. Engineering is central to it, covering aeronautical and automotive, chemical and materials, civil and building services, and mechanical, electrical and manufacturing. Loughborough Business School looks after business, finance and related subjects. The School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences is the base for the reputation in sport. The other schools cover architecture, design and creative arts, science subjects such as chemistry, computer science and mathematics, and the social sciences and humanities. If you're an international applicant and don't yet qualify for direct entry, you can take the Undergraduate Foundation Programme or a pre-master's route through OnCampus Loughborough. Pre-sessional English is available too.

Entry requirements for international students

Requirements differ from course to course, so check the exact criteria on the university's course pages. To give you a guide, the standard IELTS requirement across the university is 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in each element, though some schools and departments ask for higher scores. Undergraduates usually apply with A levels or an equivalent that the university accepts. For a taught master's, you're normally looking at a UK 2:2 honours degree or its international equivalent. If you fall short on English or on qualifications, pre-sessional English courses and the OnCampus foundation and pre-master's pathways are there to bridge the gap.

Accommodation

Many students live in university halls, on or near the single-site campus, with a choice of catered and self-catered rooms. If you make Loughborough your firm choice and register for accommodation before the late-July guarantee deadline, you're guaranteed a room for your first year. International fee-paying students can have halls guaranteed for two years of study, as long as they reapply before the February deadline in their second year. Once students move out of halls, private rented housing in the town is the usual next step.

Scholarships and funding

Current funding is published on the university's scholarships pages, and awards change each year, so check the latest terms before you rely on any figure. One recent example confirmed on the official site is the International Excellence Scholarships for undergraduate students: £3,000 per year of tuition (up to £9,000 over a standard degree), with no separate application to make. If you're applying for a taught master's, Loughborough runs GREAT Scholarships with the British Council for applicants from selected countries. In recent years these have been worth about £10,000–£15,000 as a partial fee waiver. There's also an alumni bursary for graduates who stay on for further study.