We’re supporting local people to access life-changing opportunities through raising aspirations, education and helping local people in our region into employment.
Supporting local students
We support the whole student lifecycle, from sowing the seeds about university in primary schools to enhancing progression for underrepresented groups to postgraduate study. We have a strong focus on our region through our programmes, with the aim of supporting learners from the local community to progress onto higher education.
Our Experience Warwick Partnership programme offers a variety of in-school and on-campus activities for local state schools in Coventry and Warwickshire aiming to inspire and inform local young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to progress to Higher Education
In 2022/23 we engaged with over 200 schools and reached over 7000 participants with our widening participation activities
Find out about our Pathways to the Professions programmes - supporting students interesting in a career in Law, Banking & Finance or Engineering.
We partner with the IntoUniversity Centre in Coventry to provide a local learning centre where young people are inspired to achieve.
In 2022/23 1,487 students participated in this partnership programme (745 primary school students and 742 secondary school students).
The progression rate into higher education at the IntoUniversity Coventry centre is 71%, compared to a local average of 30%. Although the partnership is not about access to Warwick, 316 students from the partnership started Warwick between 2018 and 2023.
In 2023, we celebrated five years of partnership between the University of Warwick and IntoUniversity Coventry. Watch our video. Read our press release.
We are leading Think Higher Coventry & Warwickshire, a consortium of local Universities, Colleges and other partners that contribute and steer the direction of the Uni Connect programme. The network aims to help streamline Higher Education outreach for local schools, as well as exploring new ways of delivering outreach to meet local needs and priorities. Through this programme, we play an important collaborative role in supporting young people in schools and colleges in Rugby, Nuneaton and Bedworth and North Warwickshire areas.
We supported the establishment of the WMG Academy Trust that operates WMG Academy Coventry and WMG Academy Solihull, with the aim of encouraging young people in our region to study science, technology, engineering. The Trust was formed between a partnership of the University of Warwick and with the support of national, regional and local businesses such as Jaguar Land Rover, National Grid, and Rolls-Royce, and is committed to providing a better way of learning for the Engineers of the future.
We were recognised as the Times Top University of the Year in 2022 for Teaching Quality and Runner up University of the Year. Choosing to study at Warwick means joining a world-leading university. In the government’s Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in 2023, we achieved the highest possible rating (Gold) across all three categories of student experience, student outcomes, as well for the overall assessment.
We offer a strong academic challenge through teaching and research excellence.
We were number one university in the West Midlands in the 2026 Complete University Guide.
In the 2022/ 23 cohort, 22% of our overall undergraduate intake were from the West Midlands with 10% from Coventry and Warwickshire.
We provide 16 Degree Apprenticeship programmes across five academic departments for around 1400 students, one of the largest groups of degree apprenticeship courses at a Russell Group university. We work with over 300 employers.
In 2021 we opened our new Degree Apprenticeship Centre which provides apprentices with the opportunity to study on degree programmes to develop the skills needed by advanced engineering and manufacturing companies.
“I’ve had experiences I would never have been able to in full-time education. When I look back at the person I was four years ago, I have grown so much. I’m more confident, I’ve learned so many new skills and my time management has improved dramatically.” Read Sabrina's Degree Apprenticeship story
We have been recognised as a University of Sanctuary since 2017. As a University of Sanctuary we offer financial support to people seeking asylum in the UK, to enable them to pursue Higher Education.
"As a refugee, I have never felt I am different from the other colleagues here at Warwick. I have always been supported by the department and my supervisors and that proves why, among other factors, Warwick is among the pioneering universities in the world." Sanctuary Student, Centre for Education Studies
Meet Elya, who was in her first year studying International Relations at Kyiv University, when she had to abandon her dreams. She has restarted her studies at Warwick as a Sanctuary Scholar.
Read Sam's story, from Afghanistan and now Co-President of Warwick Student Action for Refugees.
We have a long history of Teacher Education at the University of Warwick where generations of new teachers gain employment in schools to improve the life chances of the children they teach.
We believe that every child in every classroom deserves a great teacher every day.
We're committed to developing teachers for our region and beyond, who are just, curious, and creative and who contribute positively to every child’s educational outcome (including Special Educational Needs and Disability and English as an Additional Language pupils), and to tackling social deprivation.
In 2022/23 we added over 200 teachers to the schools' workforce, with 78% in local schools in our region.
At Warwick Medical School, we seek to solve some of the world's most pressing health problems by training the best talent, developing research capacity and fostering regional, national and international collaborations.
Since 2000 we have trained over 3,000 doctors at Warwick Medical School. 26% of our graduates are practising in the West Midlands area.
Our Clinical Trials Unit, based at Warwick Medical School has a strong track record in delivering excellent research, developing and delivering large multicentre clinical trials to inform clinical practice in the NHS regionally, nationally and worldwide.
Our Cancer Research Centre is a collaboration with University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) as well as national and international colleagues to provide opportunities to have real impact on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
We're supporting over 1000 adults who want to return to learning by offering foundation, part-time, degree apprenticeship programmes and postgraduate courses.
"Being a mature student feels amazing. I love it so much. Every time I come to campus, I’m dancing!” Read Lisa's story
Our programmes combine world-class teaching and industry expertise to provide organisations and individuals with the tools they need to achieve. Our Executive Education Custom Programmes are ranked 2ndin the UK, and 17thin the world in the Financial Times Executive Education Ranking 2023.
Supporting Regional Growth and Innovation
Our Leading Business Growth programme, hosted at Warwick Conferences to support local and regional organisations, helps you to address challenges in key areas of innovation, productivity, digital transformation, strategic and organisational resilience, and leadership.
The University of Warwick is one of the largest employers in the Coventry and Warwickshire area and we’d like to think that we offer one of the most enjoyable places to work too. We don’t just recruit Professors, Lecturers and Researchers. From tradespeople to office staff, we are a place where your ideas and career ambitions can be realised, in roles both expected and unexpected. In 204/25, we had nearly 100 members of staff working towards an apprenticeship in 26 subject areas. Did you know we have Apprenticeships in Estates roles?
In November 2019, Warwick University joined the West Midlands Combined Authority scheme, to support SMEs in the West Midlands region to access apprenticeships linked to science, technology, engineering and medicine. The scheme overall has received nearly £48 million and supported over 4000 apprenticeships.
We pledged to donate up to £280k per year of our unspent levy. This is our fifth year supporting this initiative and we have now pledged over £1 million. To date, we have supported 57 SME organisations - examples include Infrastructure Technicians, Software Developers and Auto Technicians. We have also fully funded five external secondment placements on the University of Warwick Graduate Scheme in local SME’s/charities in the Coventry and Warwickshire area, including Coventry Food Network charity.
We're helping people in our region get into work by offering work experience opportunities.
In our Campus and Commercial Services Group ,we have been working with Hereward College in Coventry, Warwick District Council and Project SEARCH to offer the Project SEARCH Supported Internships scheme to local young people with learning disabilities.
“I’ve really enjoyed it and I can now interact with new people a lot more comfortably than before. I’m a lot more independent than when I started, definitely.” Read Mitch's Supported Internship journey
Since the partnership with EY Foundation began in 2021, we have supported 68 young people, to develop employability skills, receive mentorship, and gain valuable work experience at the University of Warwick.
In Warwick Arts Centre, we have a long history of working with young people to open up creative opportunities both for fun and towards a creative career. Through professional development sessions, training programmes and cross-artform workshops, our goal is to arm young people with practical skills and empower them to take charge of their own creativity.
“I thought it’d be cool to go back and replicate what the leaders there had done for me when I was younger.” Read Vish's stand-up story
We offer a huge range of job roles ranging from academic and research posts to administrative jobs and gardeners to theatre production.
We're also an accredited Living Wage Employer ,demonstrating our commitment to ensure that everyone who works for us earns a Living Wage based on the cost of living.
We offer a graduate scheme at the heart of the University working in a variety of professional services roles. Graduate on our programme gain hands-on experience of working on a number of high-profile projects whilst obtaining on-the-job learning as well as a structured professional development programme and a project management qualification. Our graduate scheme involves four placements including one in a local SME or charity. Read about some of our graduates' experiences on their external placements including one with Coventry Food Network.
