This is encouraging for those involved in efforts to stem a tide which has seen hedgehog numbers fall drastically from 30 million in the 1950s to an estimated one million today.
Dr Dawn Scott, the university's head of biology and biomedical sciences, said: "We were delighted to find so many had survived what was an exceptionally cold and protracted winter.
"We have a lot more work still to do and in order to gain more data and we are planning to repeat our study this year."
Last October, the university and the RSPCA joined forces to find out how and where hedgehogs lived in winter and to determine their over winter survival rates.
They radio-tagged captive hedgehogs in the 91¶¶Òõ so their movements could be tracked by university students studying ecology, environmental sciences and biological sciences.
Researchers wanted to find out whether it was better to keep hedgehogs in captivity or release them in the wild. Of the 12 rehabilitated hedgehogs, two could not be found and nine survived. Each hedgehog lost an average one third of their weight but all were in good condition.
Dr Scott said it was not known what has caused hedgehog numbers to decline but it is suggested changes in land use in agricultural and urban areas, use of pesticides to reduce prey and road kills all are responsible.
Dr Dawn Scott with a hedgehog returned to the wild
Adam Grogan, an RSPCA senior scientific officer, said: "We need to know more about their survival in winter. We need to take action to stop the hedgehog from becoming an endangered species." She said: "The research hopefully will tell us more about their movements, how they survive the winter and about weight they lose, information that will help us with conservation efforts in the future."
The RSPCA, Nottingham Trent and Reading universities also released tagged hedgehogs in other parts of the country as part of the project.