Cardiff University

📚 Courses & programs at Cardiff University

Cardiff University is best known for Engineering, Business, Research, Russell Group. Popular programs for international students include:

• MSc Engineering
• MSc Business Management
• MSc Computer Science

Class profile: High-achieving postgraduates, research-focused, engineering strong.

✅ Entry requirements

💰 Fees & cost of studying

Plan your budget for tuition + living + health insurance + the visa fee. Compare funding with the free scholarship finder.

📝 Step-by-step admission process

1. Pick one-year master's programs
2. Meet IELTS (6.5–7.5) & 2:1/First equivalent
3. Write personal statement + 1–2 references
4. Apply directly on university portal (rolling)
5. Receive offer (conditional/unconditional)
6. Pay deposit → CAS → Student visa

📄 Documents checklist

• Academic transcripts
• Personal Statement
• 1–2 References
• CV
• IELTS UKVI
• Passport
• Financial proof (CAS)
• Degree certificate

🛂 Student visa & post-study work · UK

• Student visa: Student visa (Tier 4)
• Work while studying: 20 hrs/week during term
• Post-study work: Graduate Route: 2 years (3 for PhD)

📅 Intakes & deadlines

All figures are indicative and change year to year — always confirm on the official site (cardiff.ac.uk) before applying.

How Cardiff University compares in UK

The figures on this page mean little on their own. Set against the 31 other UK universities in our dataset, they say something more useful about where an application to Cardiff University is likely to be won or lost.

• Selectivity. An indicative acceptance rate of about 51% against a median of 52% across the 31 other UK universities in our dataset. 15 of them are harder to get into than Cardiff University. It sits on the more selective side of its national peer group, so meeting the published minimums is the floor rather than the goal.
• Rank in context. QS #211, against a peer median of #105; 19 UK universities rank above it here. Rank is worth exactly this much and no more — it is driven by institution-wide research output and reputation surveys, not by the department you would actually join, so treat it as a coarse filter and judge the programme on its own page.
• English bar. IELTS 6.5 against a peer median of 6.5. That is exactly the national norm, so a score built for this application should travel across your whole shortlist. Equivalents: TOEFL 88, PTE 62.

Programme areas: MSc Engineering · MSc Business Management · MSc Computer Science. Entry requirements are set per programme, not per university, so the figures above are the institutional baseline — a competitive department inside an accessible university can run far tighter than the headline rate suggests.

Practical order of work for Cardiff University: clear the English requirement first, because it gates everything and is the only part of the application you fully control; then confirm which of the September and January intakes you are targeting, since the typical deadline is Rolling and funding decisions usually close before admission decisions; then build the application around one specific programme rather than the institution. Budget the application fee of £0 per programme, and living costs of £12,000–15,000/yr (£13,347 for visa) on top of tuition of ~£18k/yr.

Figures here are indicative and compiled for comparison. Acceptance rates in particular are institution-level estimates and move year to year — confirm anything you are deciding on against the university's official pages.