Staff numbers and buildings on the rise at Cardiff

Job opportunities are growing rapidly at Cardiff University following a record-breaking £100 million harvest in research contracts in a single year.

The total number of staff at the university has increased by 450 compared with this time last year, and by 650 compared with two years ago - with about a third of this growth in academic jobs.

The recruiting drive is expected to continue as Cardiff pushes ahead with plans to build on ten acres of land, creating extra space for its new School of Optometry and its School of Pharmacy.

David Grant, Cardiff's vice-chancellor, said: "We are trying to avoid having to cut back on research income simply because of space constraints, so we are going to have to increase our building programme in order to have have more space for staff."

Cardiff's recent surge in appointments has been fuelled by an impressive 45 per cent increase in research contract funding from research councils, charities, industry and central government.

Dr Grant attributed the success to the merger with the University of Wales College of Medicine three years ago, and a £5 million investment in creating "linked chairs" to coordinate interdisciplinary research between schools.