Institute flexes its muscles in league

There are more ways to improve performance in university league tables than boosting academic merit and research excellence.

A £7 million indoor athletics centre has propelled the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, to the top of the charts for spending on student and staff facilities, helping to make it the leading new university in The Times ranking.

UWIC heads the table for facilities spending with a three-year average of £460 per full-time-equivalent student, which puts it ahead of Imperial College London (£428) and Bath University (£416).

But as evidence that brain power and athletic prowess are not mutually exclusive, UWIC has also improved its graduate employment record and its output of upper seconds and firsts since last year.