University of Southampton
The University of Southampton, which traces its history back to 1862, is a premier research-led university, in the top 10 of UK universities. With over 20,000 students and over 5,000 staff, the University is a thriving community within which research, education, enterprise and innovation are the key activities.
The University has achieved recognition for its world leading and world class research, enterprise and education. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2001), the UK government's assessment of the quality of research in universities, the University of Southampton had 24 out of 34 units of assessment ranked 5* and 5. Amongst these, four Engineering units of assessment were all ranked 5* making the University's Faculty of Engineering the leader in the UK. As part of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), a global alliance of universities of international standing including the Universities of Nanjing and Zhejiang in China, we are committed to responding to the key research challenges of the 21st century in a coordinated and collaborative way, bringing together the intellectual and physical resources to address complex problems of global concern.
Similar success has been achieved in the assessment of the quality of its education (at both undergraduate and postgraduate level) with average scores of 24.
Southampton's record for launching successful spin-out companies has made it one of the leading entrepreneurial universities in the UK, in such fields as oil and gas exploration, drug development materials science, nanotechnology, optoelectronics, microelectronics and silicon fabrication. Since 2000 its Centre for Enterprise and Innovation (CEI) has helped spin out 12 companies. Three of our spin-outs have now secured listing on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) with a combined IPO value of £102.5 million. Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping Limited (OHM) floated in 2004 valued at just under £50 million, Synairgen floated in 2004 valued at just over £28 million and SPI Lasers floated in October 2005 valued at £25.5 million. Since 1999 the CEI has helped the university's spin-outs raise nearly £100 million. The University has been active in forging strong links with business and has achieved many awards from the Department of Trade and Industry University Challenge Funds, the Science Enterprise Challenge Fund and the Higher Education Innovation Fund.
China has been a key education and research partner for Southampton, with longstanding strategic partnerships with several highly-ranked Universities including Nanjing University, Peking University, Xiamen University and the Ocean University of China, in our sister city of Qingdao.
