Students talk on the side of a mountain

At Imperial, we believe in nurturing the brightest minds who will shape the world of tomorrow. During the year, we announced key plans in our strategy that are designed to empower our students and unlock their full potential.

By providing exceptional opportunities for growth, mentorship and collaboration, we will empower our students to make a meaningful impact on the world. Our strategy focuses on enabling talent through our initiatives of Imperial Inspires, Imperial Empowers, and Imperial Class of 2030.

Our initiative ‘Imperial Inspires’ strives to position the University as a world leader in attracting young minds to STEMB and supporting them on their journey – involving a major uplift in the UK and international scholarships offer.

‘Imperial Class of 2030’ is our ambitious multi-pronged programme to nurture the most talented, the most enterprising and the most diverse graduating class we have ever had the privilege to serve.

Finally, ‘Imperial Empowers’, which will help to future-proof careers, businesses and communities by providing the advanced skills training and leadership needed to thrive in a tech-enabled world.

During the year we received a Gold Award in the latest Teaching Excellence Framework – a national rating system used to assess teaching quality. This result was partially based upon five years of aggregated National Student Survey results and successfully maintained our Gold Award status after the previous Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017. The result reconfirmed our learning experience as excellent and among one of the best within the Russell Group.

Student satisfaction at Imperial also put us in the top quartile of the Russell Group, in the National Student Survey (NSS) in 2024. The survey results showed that satisfaction levels increased in the theme of organisation and management, freedom of expression, and student awareness of mental health and wellbeing services.

Student life at Imperial

We have some of the best-resourced entrepreneurship facilities in the country, including the largest mentoring system and a network of prototyping equipment. We are expanding the Imperial Enterprise Lab, our co-working space where students can work on, experiment and test business ideas, to meet increasing student demand.

One of the most distinctive elements of an Imperial education is that our students join a community of worldclass researchers. Our students get hands-on research experience both here and at our partner universities around the world. They can take part in Imperial’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) and work on live research projects with our academics. They can also opt for Imperial’s International Research Opportunities Programme (IROP) and gain practical experience on research projects at one of our prestigious partner universities around the world.

Our I-Explore programme is a part of most undergraduate courses. It includes Imperial Horizons, which invites students to study something different like business, another science, languages, humanities or social sciences as part of their degree. It’s an opportunity to expand the learning experience and sharpen key skills for the future.

As part of our strategy, we are extending our I-Explore Programme. We will transform Imperial’s digital education infrastructure, including our Digital Media Lab and Virtual Learning Environment, and build on new initiatives such as our Virtual Reality Student Experience to incorporate virtual reality and other digital technologies into our teaching.

We are the University of the Year for graduate employment in the Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 and ranked first for graduate prospects in the Guardian University Guide 2024. Students receive professional careers support and guidance from their first day at Imperial and for up to three years after they graduate to help them transform their career success. We support our students at every stage of their Imperial experience. Our dedicated student support teams offer a wide range of help, whether that be with academic progression or personal wellbeing, or specialist support for mental health, a disability or specific learning difficulty.

Our Imperial students automatically join the Imperial College Union, a 20,000-strong community of current students and future leaders. Our Students' Union supports students to make the most of their Imperial experience and provide them with advice and representation. Through the Union, our students lead more than 370 clubs, societies and projects – from big band to drones, e-sports to musical theatre – we encourage students to start their own if existing clubs and societies do not match their interests.

“It is fantastic to see so many examples of our student community embarking on international experiences, making new friends and connections around the world.”
Professor Peter Haynes, Vice-Provost (Education and Student Experience)

 

Students on Sardinia field trip

At Imperial, we place a great emphasis on fieldwork-based teaching across both undergraduate and MSc postgraduate programmes. This approach aims to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application, providing students with valuable real-world experience. The Sardinia field trip (pictured), for third-year students, focuses on how volcanism, metamorphism and sediments interact. On this field trip, students explored the geology of the island of Sardinia, exposing rocks of a wide variety of ages and types. The trip provides students with an introduction to the synthesis of field data to solve research problems in a unique field-based research project chosen by the students themselves.

Transforming the student experience

Imperial incorporates a holistic approach to the student experience, with the aim of enabling students to thrive in and beyond their studies as members of the broad and diverse Imperial community. We are collaborating with our Students’ Union on a new strategic project – Imperial Experience – to develop our understanding of the needs of our student community outside the classroom and research environment. This means joining up our service provision across many staff teams and services, taking an approach to the university experience which spans the full student lifecycle from pre-application to post-graduation. This project will define, communicate and enhance what it means to be part of the Imperial student community day-to-day, and acknowledges our longer-term strategic aspirations to make Imperial the best among our peers for delivering on the expectations of our prospective applicants, current students, alumni, parents, teachers and staff.

StudentShapers, Imperial’s partnership programme, offers students the opportunity to carry out projects in partnership with staff to improve curricula, develop innovative teaching practices and make positive change to the student experience. This year’s StudentShapers Symposium had a theme of ‘Supporting students beyond the curriculum’ and included three project presentations.

"Our StudentShapers were amazing to work with and gave a new and vital perspective which has shaped our approach to student learning and teaching as a Faculty".
Dr Noreen Ryan, Quality Healthcare Domain Lead, School of Public Health – Faculty of Medicine


Record-breaking University Challenge team

In April this year, the Imperial student team – comprising captain Suraiya Haddad, Sourajit Debnath, Adam Jones and Justin Lee (supported by reserve Mattia Elkouby) – defeated University College London by 165 points in a thrilling final on BBC Two. Imperial is now the most successful team in University Challenge history, with the triumph following wins in 1996, 2001, 2020 and 2022.


Worldwide student body

We are proud to be one of the world’s most international universities in a global city with students coming to study with us from a diverse range of countries. International students make up 60.9% of our student community. Our Imperial Global strategic initiative will bring even more of our work to the world, amplifying our impact through a network of hubs in strategic global cities. This will also open up opportunities for our students and alumni.

Imperial also offers lots of opportunities for travel, learning languages, exploring new cultures and using skills for good globally. Imperial students have taken advantage of the opportunity to study or work abroad last year, with students travelling to places such as the USA, France, Brazil, Ghana and India. Many of these students were supported by the Turing Scheme, set up by the UK government in 2021 to enable students to spend up to a year studying or training overseas. These received funding for research, medical placements, study and industry placements at universities, research institutes and companies across 44 countries.


Future International Scholarship opportunities

Imperial has launched four new scholarship programmes in the last year, supporting more than fifty students, with the first joining in the 2024–25 academic year.

India: Future Leaders Scholarship

Supporting 30 talented MSc students from India to study at Imperial. To nurture the full capacity of the next generation of science leaders, the fund will support equal numbers of men and women scholars.

Ghana, Greece, Malaysia, Mexico

Imperial announced four partial scholarships co-funded by the British Council.

ASEAN countries: Women in STEM Scholarships

In partnership with the British Council, the scholarships provide the opportunity for six outstanding female students from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand or Timor-Leste to study a one-year Master’s course at Imperial.

Lebanon: CMA CGM Excellence Fund

A new scholarship for Lebanese Masters students, supported by the French shipping and logistics company CMA CGM Group, helping fund 18 Master's scholars.


Inclusion

At Imperial, we work to support the most talented students to study and excel here. Our new Strategy drives our mission to attract, nurture and champion the brightest minds, no matter who they are, where they come from, or their financial resources.

In 2023–24, nine projects were funded by Imperial’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Seed Fund. The fund is intended to strengthen support for under-represented groups at Imperial. The funded projects come from across Imperial and cover different aspects of the Imperial experience, including the LGBTQIA+ international support group, which aims to increase awareness among staff and students on the challenges of travelling and collaborating with countries with anti-LGBTQIA+ laws or attitudes. The group will work to empower staff and students to approach difficult scenarios and navigate conversations safely through open discussion, role plays and collaborative learning.

Because we expect our students to have achieved good grades at A-level, we are committed to working with schools to help raise school and college-age attainment. We offer online programmes to support students studying A-level Maths and Further Maths, which are designed to help students achieve the best grade they can. We are committed to ensuring students from all backgrounds can study at Imperial. We offer support through our Imperial Bursary scheme for UK undergraduates with a household income of less than £70,000. The Bursary is paid on a sliding scale from £5,000 to £1,000 per year, depending on a student’s household income. In 2023–24 we spent over £10.2 million supporting our students through the scheme.

We recognise the cost of living in London and the increases in the cost of living over the past few years. Our Student Financial Support team provide students with advice and guidance and our Student Support Fund is available for current students who face unexpected financial hardship with their costs of living. The Fund provides short-term assistance for living costs up to £5,000 in the form of a grant or loan.

A full list of the bursaries and scholarships we offer can be found on our website.

“The programme has been designed to attract and support those traditionally under-represented in academia, and the funding will help us build further on this ethos.”
Sophie Pieters, Operations Officer at the Institute of Global Health Innovation who oversees the Julia Anderson Training Programme (recipients of the EDI Seed Fund).


Imperial students shine

Meet Aglaia Freccero, a champion for student mental health. She’s using AI to create innovative tools that directly support students’ well-being. As Mental Health Officer for Imperial Students’ Union, she’s at the forefront of advocating for better resources and services on campus. Her expertise has led her to key roles on University committees, where she’s shaping mental health strategies that directly impact student life. Aglaia’s passion for making a difference is evident in her media appearances and volunteer work, ensuring students’ voices are heard and their needs are met.

Meet Dr Tunde Oyebamiji, pioneering technology to transform healthcare in Nigeria. As a Chevening Scholar at Imperial College London, he developed Mediverse, a groundbreaking software that’s digitising health facilities and improving access to care in underserved communities. Mediverse has already helped millions of patients. But that’s not all. Dr Oyebamiji also co-founded Lend An Arm, a social venture using AI and drones to tackle blood shortages and save lives. His dedication to improving public health has earned him prestigious awards like the Diana Legacy Award and African Digital Innovator of the Year. Dr Oyebamiji is truly making a difference.