Welsh School of Architecture recognised as a world top 50 school in latest global rankings

The Welsh School of Architecture has been ranked as one of the top schools of architecture in the world, placed at number 50 in this year’s QS World University Rankings.

The QS World Rankings by Subject are published annually to identify leading universities across individual disciplines. These rankings draw on indicators including academic reputation, employer reputation, and measures of research productivity and impact. Architecture is one of eight Cardiff University subjects featured in the top 100.

Our position reflects sustained strength across research indicators in which we consistently performed strongly—particularly citations per paper and H-Index—alongside a marked rise in employer reputation, underscoring the quality and impact of our graduates. Building on more than a century of architectural education, we are committed to fostering a dynamic partnership between teaching and learning, foregrounding the role of the built environment in addressing global challenges, and empowering architects and built environment professionals of tomorrow to shape the future of design and practice worldwide.

Uniquely situated as the oldest school of architecture in Wales, our community today comprises 95 academic and professional services staff and a diverse, international cohort of some 900 students.

We consistently perform strongly across multiple independent measures of academic quality. We are generally a top 10 school of architecture in all UK league tables, including the Guardian, Complete University Guide and Times University Guide (where we rank 5^th in the 2026 table). In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework we were ranked 4^th in the UK for research.