Northumbria's international reputation as a leading British university is the result of a distinctive combination of outstanding academic research and teaching, innovative programmes, traditional values and social and cultural diversity. Since its foundation in the historic City of Newcastle upon Tyne, the University has developed into a successful regional, national and international institution.

By the year 2000 Northumbria University was the largest university in the North East of England, with a broad portfolio of courses and a rich cultural diversity in its student population. Northumbria has a student population of around 32,000 with 3,300 overseas students on our Newcastle campuses and a further 3,000 studying on University programmes in their own countries. Growth in recent years has been both impressive and carefully managed as part of the University's overall strategic development and in the context of a careful review of our academic portfolio. Courses have been examined for their relevance and value to society and we are now offering programmes in all of the UK's 30 most popular subjects. Northumbria is the leading provider of high-calibre graduates to business, industry and the professions in the North East of England and one of the highest nationally

Northumbria University, Newcastle is now in the UK top 50 for research power and has been recognized by Times Higher Education as having the biggest rise in research power of any university in a national assessment of research quality in UK universities.

The results of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) demonstrate that Northumbria University, Newcastle, made a major step forward in research. The University reported the UK’s largest rise in research rated as world-leading and internationally excellent by the REF, almost tripling its share of research rated in these categories