CARDIFF
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales.
Cardiff is a significant tourism centre and the most popular visitor destination in Wales
with 11.7 million visitors in 2006. It is part of the Eurocities network of the largest European
cities. Cardiff Urban Area covers a slightly larger area, including Dinas Powys, Penarth and Radyr.
Cardiff was made a city in 1905, and proclaimed capital of Wales in 1955. In addition to English
and Welsh, the diversity of Cardiff's population (including foreign students) means that a large
number of languages are spoken within the city. One study has found that Cardiff has speakers of
at least 94 languages, with Somali, Urdu, Bangla and Arabic being the most commonly spoken foreign
languages.
Cardiff is a great place in which to be a student. Cardiff has the good fortune to
house such gems as the National Museum of Wales, the Museum of Welsh Life, the Wales Millennium
Centre and stunning civic buildings surrounded by acres and acres of parkland. If you can tear
yourself away from your studies for the odd evening, you can take advantage of the excellent range
of entertainment Cardiff has to offer.
Cardiff is a very accessible city by road, rail and air. Using the twice hourly high speed train
service, for example, London is only two hours away. The city also benefits from its own international
airport, as well as convenient connections to Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Since Cardiff is served
directly by the M4 motorway, there is good access to the rest of the UK by coach and car. Cardiff is
known as an affordable capital city. ‘The Virgin 2003 Alternative Guide to British Universities’, which
is written by students for students, quotes Cardiff as being "a cheap place to live — more than 2% below
the national average". Students at Cardiff are able to take advantage of some of the lowest rents in the
UK, and Cardiff has been identified by the British Tourist Authority (BTA) survey as the cheapest
capital city for nine years running. This survey compares 16 capital cities around the world and
includes indicators such as accommodation, travel, food, entertainment, shopping and services.
Cardiff is home to four major institutions of higher education:
Cardiff University University of Wales Institute - Cardiff University of Glamorgan and The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.
Cardiff University was founded by Royal Charter in 1883 as the University College
of South Wales and Monmouthshire. University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) gained university
status in 1997. The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama is a conservatoire established in 1949.
The University of Glamorgan's Cardiff campus, Atrium, is home to the Cardiff School of Creative
& Cultural Industries and is located in the city centre. The total number of higher education
students in the city is around 43,900. The city also has two further education colleges:
Coleg Glan Hafren and St. David's College, although further education is offered at most high
schools in the city.
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