Good University Guide 2016

The final big league of the year was published today – the Good University Guide, which comes from the Sunday Times.

Details of methodology and subject tables are available on the Sunday Times website, behind a paywall, so won’t be discussed here, however this iteration of this guide does use the results of REF2014, and unlike the other major guides published this year uses the NSS data published last month.

Big winners this year are Harper Adams, Bath Spa, Manchester Met while biggest drops are from Arts Bournemouth, Chester, Arts London, Cardiff Met, BCU, Cumbria.

The great news for Staffordshire is that we have risen a further 6 places, which means a rise in all the league tables this year.

Our individual data shows:

Performance Measure Score Rank
Teaching Quality 81.80% 49=
Student Experience 82.80% 80=
Research Quality 16.50% 55
UCAS Entry Points 274 118
Graduate Prospects 58.40% 111
Firsts and 2(i)s 63.20% 98=
Completion Rate 78.40% 115
Student-Staff Ratio 16.8:1 59=
Services/Facilties Spend £1,620 81

Notable results for us then are our ranking in research – although we submitted a relatively small number of academics, the editorial in the paper does comment on our increased size and scope of research, noting our best results were in Sport and Exercise and with psychology scoring high for external impact.

The impact of our teaching quality score is pleasing,and if we can improve this together with the overall student experience score, we will see further improvements in this guide next year.

The new work we are doing this year to enhance student employability together with our Roadmap for Raising Attainment, both of which will be reflected in the new Learning and Teaching Strategy, will lead to further improvements in good degrees and graduate prospects.

As alluded to earlier, the tables are behind a paywall, but parts can be constructed from the press releases from the Sunday Times as below:

Name Ranking 2016 Ranking 2015 2015 National student survey Teaching excellence 2015 National student survey Student experience Graduate prospects Completion rate
(%) (%) (% in professional jobs or graduate-level study) (%)
Cambridge 1 1= 83.8 86.3 89.3 98.4
Oxford 2 1= 83.1 86.8 87.1 96.3
Imperial College 3 4 79.8 87.8 91.1 96.5
St Andrews 4 3 83.2 86.8 83.3 95.3
Durham 5 6 81.9 86.7 84.4 96.6
Warwick 6 8 79.6 85 79.8 96.7
Exeter 7 7 82.6 87.7 79.8 95.7
Surrey 8 11 86.9 90.3 78.8 92.2
LSE 9 5 72.1 78.4 78.5 94.8
University College London 10 9 74.2 81.3 83.1 94.6
Lancaster 11 12 82.3 85.4 82.5 93.5
Bath 12 10 82.7 87 85.2 96.1
Loughborough 13 13 84.5 89.3 83.7 93.2
Leeds 14 17 83.7 88 78.4 93.5
York 15 16 81.7 86.6 76 94.3
Southampton 16 18 79.3 86.5 78.1 92.5
Birmingham 17 15 80.8 84.2 86.7 94.8
East Anglia 18 14 83.2 88.8 70.3 91.9
Sussex 19 25 78.6 85 84.1 92.9
Bristol 20 19 75.5 81.5 79.6 96.6
Sheffield 21 21 81.3 87.2 75.7 94.4
Edinburgh 22 22= 74.5 82.4 78.6 91.3
Newcastle 23= 22= 82 88.4 79.1 95.1
Kent 23= 30 81.5 85.4 76.7 90.7
Nottingham 25 22= 79.5 83.9 81.3 93.2
Glasgow 26 26 80 86.9 79.3 88.4
King’s College London 27 29 73.9 79.7 85.7 92.8
Leicester 28= 20 77.5 84.4 72.1 92.5
Manchester 28= 28 79 84.7 78.5 92.9
Aston 30 34 83.3 87.9 78.8 90.9
Reading 32 33 80.5 85.8 70.3 92.3
Cardiff 33 27 80.7 86 80.1 93.4
Queen Mary 34 37 80.5 83.3 73.3 91.2
Essex 35 32 83.7 88 64.1 85.6
Royal Holloway 36 34 82.6 84.1 62.7 92.3
Dundee 37 45 84.4 87.1 80 86
Liverpool 38= 36 77.9 83.4 76.1 91.3
Heriot-Watt 38= 41 80.8 84.2 78.1 87.4
Buckingham 38= 48 88 88.4 83.4 86.3
City 41= 46 82.7 85.6 78.9 86
Swansea 41= 43 82.6 86.5 81.4 89.7
Keele 43 40 87 90.2 76.1 90.8
Soas 44 31 75.2 80.8 68.3 80.7
Aberdeen 45 44 77.4 83.7 76.2 84.1
Strathclyde 46 39 76.2 85.6 72 87.6
Coventry 47 42 87.6 89.3 74.2 85.8
St George’s 48 78.7 81.6 93.4 92.7
Harper Adams 49 63 82.6 89.3 73.3 90.6
Stirling 50 53 78.7 82.3 73.3 85.7
Royal Agricultural 51 79.3 85.6 69.7 96.3
Bangor 52 50 85.8 87.8 67.7 81.8
De Montfort 53 54 82.4 84.6 76.9 86.5
Nottingham Trent 54 52 83.6 85.8 67.6 89.6
Oxford Brookes 55 49 83.2 85.7 69.2 89.4
Falmouth 56 51 83.7 83.5 74.5 85.4
Bath Spa 58 70 85.8 85.8 55.1 89.9
Portsmouth 59 57 83.4 85.9 66.9 87.6
Brunel 60 47 78.2 83.8 63.4 87.7
Norwich Arts 61 83.8 83.5 63.4 88.7
Lincoln 62= 60 81.1 84.6 70.7 87.6
Creative Arts 62= 74 82.7 81.5 52 85.8
Northumbria 64= 66 82.9 85.1 66.3 87.6
Winchester 64= 61 84.2 85 60.7 85.2
Goldsmiths 66 55 76.6 76.3 56 82.4
Hull 67 58 80 83.8 66.7 86
Edge Hill 68 72 83.2 83.5 63.8 86.2
Huddersfield 69= 77= 82.2 84 74.1 83
Robert Gordon 69= 64 80.6 83.5 83.1 83.4
Chichester 69= 65 84 85.3 57.5 89.9
Sheffield Hallam 72 62 80.9 83.9 64.7 86.9
West of England 73 68 80 82.5 70.8 84.9
Liverpool John Moores 74 71 81.6 85 63.3 84.2
Bradford 75 76 78.8 84.4 75.2 83.8
Hertfordshire 76 79 78.6 82.8 75.3 86
Manchester Metropolitan 77 89 81 82.2 63 84.4
Roehampton 78 73 78 79.9 60.9 81.7
Liverpool Hope 79= 86.8 86.4 53.9 82.8
Aberystwyth 79= 93 78.4 80.4 62.5 89.3
Arts Bournemouth 81 59 81.4 80 61.4 92.3
Northampton 82= 56 82.3 84.1 60.7 85
Bournemouth 82= 88 75.2 78.8 66.4 86
Derby 84 81 84.4 85.3 60 83.7
Middlesex 85= 75 78.7 81.8 64.9 77.8
Plymouth 85= 80 82.3 84.1 60.2 84.8
Chester 87 67 82.7 83.7 63.6 80.5
Gloucestershire 88 83 79.8 82.6 55.7 86.3
York St John 89 87 82.4 83 65.3 90.4
Brighton 90 82 78.6 80.9 66.9 86.9
Leeds Trinity 91 91 83.5 82.3 65.8 81.7
Central Lancashire 92 77= 80.4 83.5 62.4 81.6
Edinburgh Napier 93 97 80.2 83.7 69.1 81.2
Glasgow Caledonian 94 84 77 82.5 70.2 83.2
Staffordshire 95 101 81.8 82.8 58.4 78.4
Queen Margaret, Edinburgh 96 86 78.9 82.3 59.6 82.4
Abertay 97 106 80 83.1 65.6 75.5
Salford 98 105 80.1 80.9 59.5 79.5
Arts London 99 85 75.9 74.5 59.2 85.5
St Mary’s, Twickenham 100= 100 80.5 84.5 66.7 83.7
Worcester 100= 107 81.4 84.5 63.9 85.8
Teesside 102 94 82.9 84.3 59.8 80.8
Cardiff Metropolitan 103 90 79.1 81.8 59.8 82.2
Sunderland 104 99 82.5 84.2 62.3 81.4
Birmingham City 105 91 78 79.3 64.8 84.4
Greenwich 106 98 79.2 82.4 58.2 84.7
Canterbury Christ Church 107 96 80.7 81.9 57.8 82.3
Anglia Ruskin 108 110 82.5 83.9 65 79.3
Buckinghamshire New 109 116 81.5 81.1 57.6 82.5
Bedfordshire 110 108 80.4 82.7 58.3 80.1
Kingston 111 117 76.1 79.9 60.7 82.2
Bishop Grosseteste 112= 102 80.9 80.6 69.1 90
South Wales 112= 114 77.5 78.3 59 81.7
Leeds Beckett 114 111 78.5 82.7 58.5 78.8
Westminster 115= 112 72.9 80.6 55.1 80.4
Southampton Solent 115= 115 79.5 82.1 54.6 76.8
Newman 115= 104 83.1 84.6 54.6 73.3
West of Scotland 118 118 81.8 81.8 65.7 70
Cumbria 119 95 76.9 77.6 64.9 85.7
London South Bank 120 122 77 81.3 67.9 74.6
West London 121 109 76.9 77.5 60.5 73.9
Glynd?r 122 113 80.5 79.3 66.3 75.8
Bolton 123= 120 81.6 80.8 60.1 71.2
St Mark & St John, Plymouth 123= 102= 76.3 77.3 60.4 82.6
London Met 125 123 76 78.6 47.7 75.3
Highlands and Islands 126 121 78.8 76.5 56 68.6
East London 127 119 75 78.5 45.6 67.5