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Bedford campus

About the Bedford campus

The Bedford campus has lots of green open spaces while being very close to Bedford town centre and local amenities. It boasts our Gateway building, a three-storey building that offers high-quality teaching spaces, informal learning spaces, lecture theatres and a new student services centre.

In the Campus Centre you can find both of the campus Theatres as well as the main campus Café while in the surrounding buildings you can find our Physical Education and Sport Science Centre which was used to train athletes in the 2012 Olympics, Teacher Education Centre, four dance studios, campus gym, our four-storey campus library and a newly refurbished Students' Union social space that holds a variety of student events such as pub quizzes, live music and various themed club nights.

 

Undergraduate courses

Postgraduate courses

Sports Science Labs

Our specialist sports science labs give students a fantastic environment to develop their research skills and expertise, where a student can explore the biology of an elite athlete who could be performing simultaneously within the sports hall.

The state-of-the-art laboratories are purpose built for research and teaching in the fields of exercise and nutrition science. This includes specialised equipment and facilities for assessing human health risk and delivering exercise and diet interventions for health promotion.

Campus Theatres

Set within the Campus Centre is a 260 seat professional theatre on the ground floor with industry-standard lighting, media desk, roll-down screen, full backstage comms system and large dressing rooms with en suite showers. On the first floor there's also a well-equipped 80 seat studio theatre.

Our theatres welcome new and existing audiences to see a range of student work including contemporary dance, theatre and performing arts; holding regular events that are open to students, staff and the wider community.

BedsSU - The Hub

The Hub is home to BedsSU providing a great space for socialising with friends, catching up on some coursework or taking a well-deserved break.

The Hub is the place to go to take a break from your studies, play table tennis, socialise and watch live sport on the big screen.By night the venue becomes the place to be, with a variety of student events such as pub quizzes, live music and various themed club nights. Evening food includes delicious freshly made pizzas as well as a range of other beverages and snacks.

Bedford Gym

The Aspire Gyms offer a range of affordable membership options giving students exclusive use of a convenient campus-based fitness facility.

The Bedford gym facilitates state of the art cardiovascular equipment with smartphone compatibility as well as an extensive range of fixed resistance machines and a small free weights area. Changing rooms with showers and lockers are available for members to use.

Dance Studios

At the centre of our campus is four fully sprung dance studios equipped with ballet barres, mirrored walls, audio playback and projection for our dance and performing arts students. 

Our two campus theatres also provide the ideal performance space for students with regular events held that are open audiences of students, staff and the wider community.

Campus Library

The Bedford Campus Library set over four storeys offers students access to our extensive range of physical and digital resources with 300,000+ books & 80,000+ ebooks.

PCs are provided on each level for students to use offering access to a wide range of applications as well as access to group-work areas and presentation-practice rooms and a dedicated silent study floor.

Teacher Education Centre

Our teacher education centre provides a great opportunity for students to learn and train in realistic mock classroom blocks. 

We have a long-established history in teacher training and education with over 500 partnerships with schools, colleges and other organisations. We offer a wide range of opportunities and routes into teaching. 

Forest School

The Forest School at the Bedford campus provides a valuable resource for the University’s trainee teachers as well as opportunities to the local community for teachers to be trained in outdoor learning and for their classes to experience the educational benefits of outdoor play.

Sports Hall & Fields

The sports hall is an integral space in the School of Sport Science and Physical Activity, complementing the discipline leading Sport and Exercise Science and muscle cell and molecular biology laboratories, all co-located on the Bedford campus.

It is a major teaching facility for the University's Sport and Physical Education degree courses which have trained physical educators in the UK for over a century.

Clinical Training Ambulance

Our clinical training ambulance provides invaluable learning opportunities for our paramedic science students to observe, develop and test how healthcare professionals work together and interact with their environment and equipment.

 

 

Gateway Building

The Gateway Building located at the entrance of the Bedford campus holds a wide range of facilities including the main reception, student information desk, a café on the ground floor, large lecture theatres as well as a range of study rooms & breakout spaces on all floors.

Part of the University's 'greening of the campus' initiative, the £25m investment in the Gateway includes a number of sustainable and low carbon technologies such as rainwater harvesting. The project team are aiming towards a BREEAM sustainability rating of 'excellent'.

 

Campus Centre

The Bedford Campus Centre holds the large 280 seat professional theatre on the ground floor and the 80 seat studio theatre on the first floor as well as a box office just inside the entrance where students, staff and the wider community can get tickets for the variety of student performances that are held by our School of Media & Performance

Also on the ground floor is the main campus café which offers a wide variety of tasty food & drink and is a great social space for meeting friends and group working.

 

Sports Science Labs

Our specialist labs give students a fantastic environment to develop their research skills and expertise, where a student can explore the biology of an elite athlete who could be performing simultaneously within the sports hall.

The state-of-the-art laboratories are purpose built for research and teaching in the fields of exercise and nutrition science. This includes specialised equipment and facilities for assessing human health risk and delivering exercise and diet interventions for health promotion.

 

Teacher Education Centre

The teacher education centre is set out over a number of blocks on campus containing realistic mock classrooms for students to learn and train within. As part of this our Forest School also provides the opportunity for teachers to be trained in outdoor learning and the educational benefits of outdoor play.

We have a long-established history in teacher training and education with over 500 partnerships with schools, colleges and other organisations.

 

Sports Hall & Fields

The sports hall is an integral space in the School of Sport Science and Physical Activity, complementing the discipline leading Sport and Exercise Science and muscle cell and molecular biology laboratories, all co-located on the Bedford campus.

Alongside the large sports hall the campus is surrounded by sports fields and a multi-use games area for the University's Sport and Physical Education degree students.

 

Campus Library

The Bedford Campus Library set over four storeys offers students access to our extensive range of physical and digital resources with 300,000+ books & 80,000+ ebooks.

PCs are provided on each level for students to use offering access to a wide range of applications as well as access to group-work areas and presentation-practice rooms and a dedicated silent study floor.

Bedford location

Bedford is a riverside town with a mixture of lively traditional pubs and restaurants, shops and first-class sports facilities. The Corn Exchange in the town centre shows regular music and comedy gigs, plus there are museums, landscaped parks, and a cinema.

Bedford is well-placed with its main train station linking London and Brighton to the south and Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield to the north.

The surrounding area has a wealth of parks and open spaces including Bedford Park near the Bedford campus which is ideal for walks, cricket, tennis and basketball. Slightly further afield are 206 acres of open country for lake and river walks, angling, wildlife and conservation areas.

Also close by is Woburn Abbey and Safari Park, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) nature reserve at Sandy.

Map of Bedford campus.

Directions


Full campus address


  • From the north, leave the M1 at Junction 14.
  • Take the A422, following signs for Bedford.
  • From the south leave the M1 at junction 13, then follow the A421 to Bedford.
  • From the A1, south of St Neots, take the A428 to Bedford.

Bedford campus is next to the A428 on the eastern side of Bedford (Polhill Avenue).

There are frequent trains, operated by Thameslink from London St Pancras International station - journey time about 50 minutes.

East Midlands Trains also run from London St Pancras International station - journey time about 40 minutes.

There are also direct trains from Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield. Services to the West Midlands, Lancashire, and Scotland are via Milton Keynes.

The University runs a free shuttle bus for staff and students from Bedford train station to the campus.

Our Bedford Campus is very close to the centre of town being only 15 minutes by bicycle from the train station using the A4280.

On campus there is parking for bicycles outside the Campus Centre.

See www.sustrans.org.uk for more details on cycle routes and maps.

At our Bedford campus we offer plenty of on-site parking.

Parking Bedford

 

The University runs a free shuttle bus for staff and students from Bedford train station to the campus.

See the term time table for 2023 24 [PDF]