York St John University guide: Rankings, open days, fees and accommodation
Overview
The smaller of York's two universities, York St John (YSJ) caters for a more local student population - two-thirds of whom come from Yorkshire and North-East England - and offers university education on a more personal scale. The formula is clearly successful, as YSJ enjoyed a third successive year of record applications for courses beginning in September 2024. YSJ's 5,500 or so undergraduates study a broad range of courses, and it sends many of its graduates into the public sector via its teaching, nursing and allied healthcare programmes. Healthcare students have benefited from considerable recent upgrades to facilities, the latest of which include the introduction of an MRI scanner, X-ray machine and midwifery and operating theatre suites. The university scores well in the annual National Student Survey (NSS), particularly for student support, which comes in many forms - including a new student hub which is designed to resolve problems more efficiently. And, to round everything off, it's just a short walk from the university's campus to York's historic city centre and the glorious York Minster, where graduation ceremonies take place. This is perhaps YSJ's ultimate piece of one-upmanship on its Russell Group neighbour.
Paying the bills
YSJ makes a pot of £1.7m - the total it spent on scholarships, bursaries and hardship support in 2023-24 - go a long way, with more than one in three students getting support. The main beneficiaries are students who earn four points or more under YSJ's contextual offer scheme (see Admissions, teaching and student support, below, for the points-earning criteria), who get £800 for every year of study. The same sum is also offered to black, Asian and minority ethnic students from homes with a residual family income of less than £42,000, as well as recent care leavers and estranged students under the age of 25. There are also alumni-funded scholarships available, worth £1,000 per academic year, and students who progress to YSJ from York College receive a one-off £200 cash payment, which can be taken alongside other scholarships. Scholarships Plus will be introduced in September to provide additional non-financial benefits to scholarship holders. These will include opportunities for mentoring, internships and targeted support for employability and further study. A student support fund provides emergency help and dispensed more than £440,000 in 2023-24. There are more than 1,150 places in university-owned residential accommodation available, with rooms priced from £4,773 for a 37-week tenancy in The Grange up to £9,102 for a 41-week let on a studio in St John Central.
What's new?
The completion of the Allied Health Phase II project in September will add significant new facilities for YSJ's sizeable population of nursing and allied health students. It will also be home to the BSc degrees in midwifery and diagnostic radiography, which will welcome their first students to coincide with the opening. The university's design centre has also been thoroughly modernised to create accessible workshops and flexible learning spaces for design students. A new student hub is also due for completion, offering students a central place where they can access support and information. The hub will have an in-person presence on YSJ's York and London campuses, while its digital and phone operations will be run by frontline support staff to provide a rapid response to student problems. In addition to the new healthcare degrees, YSJ is launching a degree in user experience design in September, as well as two new degree apprenticeships for creative digital design professionals and broadcast and media systems engineers.
Admissions, teaching and student support
The university uses a points-based system to determine which students are eligible for contextual offers, which are now made across all degrees, except foundation-year courses. A single point is earned for being a mature entrant, disabled or the first in your immediate family to go to university, as well as for living in a postcode among the 40% with the highest rates of deprivation. Two points are awarded for living in a postcode among the 20% with the highest rates of deprivation, receiving free school meals or coming from a UK Armed Forces family. Three points are awarded for care leavers. The points-based offer reduction is applied in different ways on certain courses but, broadly speaking, applicants who score three points qualify for a reduced offer of 88 Ucas tariff points, equivalent to CCD at A-level (as long as they have predicted grades of at least 80 Ucas tariff points). This is 16 tariff points (or two A-level grades) below the university's standard offer of 104 points, or BCC at A-level. The 9% to 12% of applicants with multiple indicators of disadvantage, who score four points or more, receive an unconditional offer of a place, as long as they have predicted grades of at least 96 Ucas tariff points. Applicants scoring four or more points also qualify for YSJ's Offer Scheme scholarship worth £800 a year (see Paying the bills above). Once at university, a team of counsellors and mental health and welfare advisers - all with accredited professional backgrounds - provide an individualised service to students based on their needs. YSJ also runs an Early Start programme to make the transition to university easier for those with disabilities, mental health conditions or neurodivergence. This helps students who would benefit from an earlier and quieter start to university and additional support. The university has held the Meningitis Aware Recognition Mark for several years, too, and ensures new students are made aware of the disease.