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League tables of British universities

 
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League tables of British universities have been published annually, by The Times, The Independent and several other organizations, since October 1992. These league tables have become increasingly popular over the last few years regarding the public's perception of the best universities.

The main aim of these ranking is to inform newspaper reading public, especially A-level students and their parents. Therefore, the ranking is not purely academic/research oriented. The factors used to assess universities include not only the quality of research but other factors which are relevant to undergraduate students such as teaching quality, entry standards, drop out rates, student satisfaction and graduate job prospect. Some league tables are more specific, ranking universities on their strength in individual subjects, and not just overall teaching and research across a range of subjects. Inclusion in the overall top positions might not indicate excellence in any particular field, and some universities with a good reputation for specific subjects (especially vocational subjects) never enter the overall top ten.

Due to the different methodology and purpose of the ranking, British rankings differ widely from global ranking of universities, such as Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which focus mostly on the quality of research output.

Contents

Guides

Times Good University Guide

The Times University rankings take into account eight factors.[1] Student satisfaction and a universities research output were weighted by 1.5 and each factor score was multiplied by 10 in order to give each university a score out of 1000 for each university.

  • Student Satisfaction – Measured by the National Student Survey 2005, This is a measure of student’s opinions of their university and so does not necessarily measure the quality of an institution, especially as there is usually no basis for relative comparison.
  • Research – Data was taken from the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise which measured British universities' research output.
  • Entry Standards- The universities average UCAS tariff score. Data was taken from the Higher Education Statistics Agency
  • The student-staff ratio- Data was taken from the Higher Education Statistics Agency
  • Library and Computing spending- Average expenditure per student. Data was taken from the Higher Education Statistics Agency
  • Facilities spending- Average expenditure per student on sports, careers services, health and counselling
  • Good Honours – The percentage of students graduating with a good degree. 'Good' being defined as a first or 2.1
  • Graduate prospects – The percentage of UK graduates in graduate employment or further study. This data is taken from HESA's survey of Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE).
  • Completion – The percentage of students who manage to complete their degree

The most recent league table published by the guide (2010)[2] ranked the top 15 British universities as follows:

The Books

The Times Good University Guides 1993-2007

The "Times" Good University Guide Edited by: John O'Leary and Tom Cannon, with: Andrew Hindmarsh, Bernard Kingston, Roberts Loynes

The "Times" Good University Guide
Edition Published Title Year ISBN ISBN Institution table on pages
16th 08 Jun 2009 2010 9780007313488 0-00-731348-9
15th 16 Jun 2008 2009 9780007273539 0-00-727353-3
14th 5 Jun 2006 2007 978-0007231485 0-00-723148-2 39-44
13th 6 Jun 2005 2006 978-0007203031 0-00-720303-9 39-43
12th 7 Jun 2004 2005 978-0007165247 0-00-716524-2 19-23
11th 2 Jun 2003 2004 978-0007151851 0-00-715185-3 19-22
10th 5 Jun 2002 2003 978-0007126484 0-00-712648-4 23-29
9th 4 Jun 2001 2002 978-0007110773 0-00-711077-4 25-31
8th 2 May 2000 2000 & 2001[3] 978-0723010364 0-72-301036-6 18-21
7th 1 April 1999 1999 978-0723010203 0-72-301020-X 18-21
6th 5 May 1998 1998 978-0723010036 0-72-301003-X 18-21
5th Jun-97 1997 978-0723009573 0-72-300957-0 18-21
4th 2 May 1996 1996 978-0723008446 0-72-300844-2 18-21
3rd 4 May 1995 1995-6 978-0723007074 0-72-300707-1 18-21
2nd 06 Feb 1994 1994-5 978-0723006114 0-72-300611-3 19-22
1st 3 May 1993 978-0723005971 0-72-300597-4 67-70

Complete University Guide, in association with The Independent

The Complete University Guide (formerly located at www.thegooduniversityguide.org.uk) is independently published[4] and publishes the leagues tables in association with The Independent supported by PricewaterhouseCoopers. This league table was formerly known as The Good University Guide, and was published for the first time in 2007.[5] The UK University league tables and Subject tables are compiled by Mayfield University Consultants - who had previously compiled University League Tables for The Times.[6]

In 2007 Mayfield followed essentially the same methodology as The Times, but since 2008 the two methodologies differ much more.[7] In 2007 the main league table and some subject table extracts were published by The Daily Telegraph, since 2008 they became published by The Independent. The Complete University Guide table has been designed principally for viewing online which allows personalisation of the rankings by weighting the factors used. It also ranks universities across 62 subject areas.

Complete University Guide’s methodology (2010)

The League Table measures nine key aspects of university activity using the most recent data available at the time of compilation[8]. A statistical technique called the Z-transformation is applied to each measure to create a score for that measure. The Z-scores on each measure are then weighted by 1.5 for student satisfaction and research assessment and 1.0 for the rest and summed to give a total score for the university. Finally, these total scores are transformed to a scale where the top score is set at 1,000 with the remainder being a proportion of the top score.

  • Student satisfaction - measure of the view of students of the teaching quality at the university (The National Student Survey, a survey of final-year students in 2008)
  • Research assessment/quality – measure of the average quality of the research undertaken in the university (The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise undertaken by the funding councils)
  • Entry standards - the average UCAS tariff score of new students under the age of 21 (HESA data for 2007–08)
  • Student:staff ratio - measure of the average staffing level in the university (calculated using HESA data for 2007–08)
  • Academic Services spend - the expenditure per student on all academic services (HESA data for 2005–06, 2006–07 and 2007–08)
  • Facilities spend - the expenditure per student on staff and student facilities (HESA data 2005–06, 2006–07 and 2007–08)
  • Good honours - proportion of firsts and upper seconds (HESA data for 2007–08)
  • Graduate prospects - measure of the employability of a university's graduates (HESA data for 2006–07)
  • Completion – measure of the completion rate of those studying at the university (HESA performances indicators, based on data for 2006–07 and earlier years)

The most recent league table published by the guide (2010)[9] ranked the top 15 British universities as follows:

Sunday Times University Guide

Sunday Times’ league tables rank universities according to marks scored in nine key performance areas.[10]

  • Student satisfaction (200 points) - The results of national student surveys (NSS) are scored taking a theoretical minimum and maximum score of 50% and 90% respectively. Source: NSS.
  • Teaching excellence (50) - Excellence is defined as: subjects scoring at least 22/24 points, those ranked excellent, or those undertaken more recently in which there is confidence in academic standards and in which teaching and learning, student progression and learning resources have all been ranked commendable. Sources: Quality Assurance Agency; Scottish Higher Education Funding Council; Higher Education Funding Council for Wales.
  • Heads’/peer assessments (100) - Heads are asked to identify the highest-quality undergraduate provision. Source: Sunday Times heads’ survey and peer assessment.
  • Research quality (200) - Data from the most recent Research Assessment Exercise. Source: Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce).
  • A-level/Higher points (250) - Nationally audited data for the susbsequent academic year are used for league table calculations. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency.
  • Unemployment (100) - The number of students assume to be unemployed six months after graduation is calculated as a percentage of the total number of known destinations. Source: HESA, Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education data.
  • Firsts/2:1s awarded (100) - The percentage of students who graduate with firsts or 2:1 degrees. Unclassified degrees are excluded. Source: HESA.
  • Student/staff ratio (100) - Student/staff ratio calculated by Hesa by institution (a ratio of 10:1 as a benchmark for excellence, worthy of 100 points). Source: HESA.
  • Dropout rate (variable) - The number of students who drop out before completing their courses is compared with the number expected to do so (the benchmark figure shown in brackets). Source: Hefce, Performance Indicators in Higher Education.

The most recent league table published by the guide (2010)[11] ranked the top 15 British universities as follows:

Guardian University Guide

The Guardian’s league tables use six different criteria. The Guardian does not provide the raw data for any of these criteria but instead assigns a mark out of 10. The weighting given to each criterion is given in brackets. The Guardian gives no weight to the research output of a university.[12]. The Guardian Online provides the facility to sort the table by any of the criteria. The Guardian also provides ranks for individual subjects.

  • Teaching quality - as rated by graduates of the course (10%) – This data was taken from the National Student Survey.
  • Feedback - as rated by graduates of the course (5%)
  • Spending per student (17%)
  • Staff/student ratio (17%)
  • Job prospects (17%) - from DLHE
  • Value added - comparing students' degree results with their entry qualifications (17%)
  • Entry score (17%)

The most recent league table published by the guide (2010)[13] ranked the top 15 British universities as follows:

The Books

Guardian University Guide, Edited by: Jimmy Leach, David MacLeod

The "Guardian" University Guide
Edition Published Title Year ISBN ISBN Institution table on pages
6th 30-Jul-08 2009 978-0852650974 0-85-265097-3
5th 01-Jul-07 2008 978-0852650783 0-85-265078-7 33-34
4th 29-Jun-06 2007 978-0852650547 0-85-265054-X 34-35
3rd 30-Jun-05 2006 978-1843544111 1-84-354411-3 64-65
2nd 25-Jun-04 2005 978-1843542599 1-84-354259-5 66-67
1st 12-Jun-03 2004 [14] 978-1843541943 1-84-354194-7 201-202

Sutton Trust

The Sutton Trust, an educational charity has produced a list of 13 universities identified as those with the highest average rankings in surveys published by The Times, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times and Financial Times in 2000.[15] The Sutton Trust believe that these top universities should do more to widen access and increase their state school intake.

It should be noted that THES - QS World University Rankings list of the 'World's top 200 Universities' in 2009, placed University of Glasgow, University of Manchester, University of Sheffield, University of Southampton and King's College London, among, and in some cases higher than, the names mentioned above[16][17].

Daily Telegraph 'table of tables'

The Daily Telegraph created a 'table of tables' bringing together the results 6 different league tables.[18] The league tables it used were from The Daily Telegraph itself, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Times and an employability score taken the opinions of more than 200 firms that regularly recruit graduates. However, even this, has its flaws. Some tables place York as high as second place, such as The Guardian, although employers rank it as low as twenty-ninth. Therefore, finding an aggregate to judge all tables by is difficult. [19]

Other Rankings of UK universities

The Web Ranking of UK universities (2009)

As the Web is already the main scholarly communication tool and it collects results of all the activities and missions of universities (teaching, research, third mission), the Webometrics Ranking of UK universities is not only showing the electronic publication performance of these institutions but also an overall glimpse of their quality. The Web ranking takes into account web activity (pages, documents and papers) and visibility (external inlinks) and it is very sensitive to bad practices in URL naming such as duplicate web domains (Imperial and Cardiff are specially affected). The January 2009 edition ranked the Top 10 UK universities as follows:

WORLD RANK UNIVERSITY SIZE VISIBILITY RICH FILES SCHOLAR
22 University of Cambridge 26 13 70 86
42 University of Oxford 122 19 51 157
51 University College London 100 39 59 126
71 University of Edinburgh 196 59 63 124
74 University of Southampton 383 88 104 19
123 University of Warwick 85 165 156 194
116 University of Glasgow 239 123 139 222
132 University of Manchester 462 81 240 317
144 University of Leeds 438 120 125 390
151 University of Birmingham 290 167 198 342

Sex-ratio and other tables

The Daily Mail, The Sun and other media outlets have republished statistical data on the ratio of female to male undergraduates that is researched by Push.co.uk. Push also publishes a wide range of tables and data about UK universities[20]. The statistics show that the Royal Veterinary College has the highest ratio of females to males (80:20)[21] and Imperial College London has the highest ratio of males to females (63:37)[22].

General discussion of the guide concept

Accuracy and Neutrality

University league tables have been subject to varying degrees of criticism. There has been criticism of attempts to combine different rankings on for example research quality, quality of teaching, drop out rates and student satisfaction. Sir Alan Wilson, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Leeds argues that the final average has little significance and is like trying to ‘combine apples and oranges.’[23] Other criticisms he made included the varying weights given to different factors, the need for universities to 'chase' the rankings, the often fluctuating nature of a university's ranking, and the catch-22 that the governments desire to increase access can have negative effects on league table rankings.[23]

The Guardian suggests that league tables may affect the nature of undergraduate admissions in an attempt to improve a university's league table position.[24]

Roger Brown, the former Vice Chancellor of Southampton Solent University argues the limitations of comparative data when comparing Universities.[25]

The Guardian league table has a peculiar feature of ranking quite highly courses given by departments that have recently closed down. For example mathematics at Bangor[26] which closed in 2006 was rated fifth in the UK in the "2008" league table, Hull also did reasonably well considering it too no longer had a mathematics department or degree[27]. The Guardian later published a correction[28].

Use of data from the National Student Survey has been another area of controversy as the survey has been boycotted by some universities.

Professor Geoffrey Alderman writing in the Guardian makes the point that by including the percentage of 'good honours' this can encourage grade inflation so that league table position can be maintained.[29]

It is also criticized as short in fully reflecting the whole picture of British universities. There are titles which focus on research and enjoy a prestigious reputation not shown in the table for various reasons. For example, the Institute of Education, University of London is never seen in the ranking but generally recognized as one of the best institute concerning Education studies.

Nevertheless, students who are looking for postgraduate study opportunities may experience quite annoying result in using the Times ranking, as the table was mainly made for undergraduates. Upon comparison,for example, its Rankings by Subjects only generally classifies the studies of universities as very comprehensive categories. A student who is looking for a study chance of English Teaching can only go for English or Education rankings, not of which can give a clear statement on the student's particular need.

Full-time bias

League Tables, which usually focus on the full-time undergraduate student experience, commonly omit reference to Birkbeck, University of London and the Open University, both of which specialise in teaching part-time students at the undergraduate level. These universities, however, often make a strong showing in specialist league tables looking at research, teaching quality, and student satisfaction (Birkbeck, for example, was ranked 13th in the last Research Assessment Exercise - 2001 - by The Guardian[30], and the Open University was ranked first, and Birkbeck fifth in the 2006 Student Satisfaction survey according to the BBC[31]).

Post 1992 universities

Traditionally the post-1992 universities have done less well in the University rankings. However, in recent years some of the new universities have steadily moved up the league tables and can now sometimes be found in the top half of all universities. The Guardian 2004 tables were especially favourable to some post-1992 universities, Middlesex was ranked 19th overall, and Oxford Brookes was ranked 26th. In the most recent tables, published in 2007, the following Universities were ranked in the top fifty by one or another table: the University of Plymouth,Robert Gordon University, Glasgow Caledonian University, Bournemouth University, Oxford Brookes University.

Oxbridge dominance

Although the various tables differ slightly in how they assess universities, the same names tend to dominate the top positions. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge have typically headed the lists. Cambridge has generally fared better, claiming first place in most of the newspapers' tables, with Oxford normally in second position. Oxford has recently been top of some lists though. However, The Sunday Times, which compiles its own tables using slightly modified criteria has placed Cambridge top for nine years running up to 2006. The only times since the inception of the tables that another university broke this trend were in 1999 and 2000, when Imperial College London overtook Oxford for second place in the Sunday Times Good University Guide[2].

Third place is usually taken by Imperial College. Up until 2008 LSE would have contested, but it has started to drop position recently. It is difficult to form a list of other high-achieving universities due to the different methodology used between league tables.

See also

References

  1. ^ University league table 2007 | Good University Guide - Times Online
  2. ^ "The Times Good University Guide 2010". The Good University Guide. http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/tol_gug/gooduniversityguide.php. 
  3. ^ The same edition can be found with either a 2000 or 2001 cover.
  4. ^ http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=8728
  5. ^ http://www.planning.ed.ac.uk/Management_Information/TheGoodUniversityGuide2007.htm
  6. ^ http://www.planning.ed.ac.uk/Management_Information/CompleteUniversityGuide2010.htm
  7. ^ http://www.planning.ed.ac.uk/Management_Information/CompleteUniversityGuide2010.htm
  8. ^ http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=8805
  9. ^ "The Complete University Guide 2010". The Complete University Guide. http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=8726. 
  10. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/sunday_times_university_guide/article2497779.ece
  11. ^ http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/stug/universityguide.php
  12. ^ What the tables mean | University guide | EducationGuardian.co.uk
  13. ^ "The Guardian University Tables 2010". The Guardian University Tables 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/table/2009/may/12/university-league-table. 
  14. ^ The printed table lacks a number of institutions that can be found in the on-line edition e.g. Oxford Brookes and Westminster
  15. ^ www.suttontrust.com/reports/entryToLeadingUnis.pdf
  16. ^ Times Higher Education - Education news, resources and university jobs for the academic world
  17. ^ QS Top Universities: THES - QS World University Rankings - top university rankings from around the world
  18. ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/graphics/2003/06/27/unibigpic.jpg;jsessionid=TGNWKTF3UJNBNQFIQMGCFFOAVCBQUIV0
  19. ^ Nick Higgins and Cliff Pettifor From Learning to Earning 2004, Trotman 2003, ISBN 0856608491
  20. ^ http://www.push.co.uk/files/file/vital.pdf
  21. ^ Sex ratio | Push University Guide | University top tens
  22. ^ Sex ratio | Push University Guide | University top ten
  23. ^ a b Reporter 485 | 28 October 2002 | University league tables
  24. ^ Funding council to investigate university league tables | higher news | EducationGuardian.co.uk
  25. ^ Tables can turn | comment | EducationGuardian.co.uk
  26. ^ Mathematics News
  27. ^ University scraps maths degree, Guardian Friday, 11 February, 2005, [1]
  28. ^ http://education.guardian.co.uk/universityguide2008/story/0,,2093444,00.html (accessed 11/7/2007)
  29. ^ League tables rule - and standards inevitably fall | comment | EducationGuardian.co.uk
  30. ^ RESEARCH~Subject~Subjects~Xinst/All~Xinst/All~~~2 | Interactive guides | EducationGuardian.co.uk
  31. ^ BBC NEWS | Education | Student satisfaction survey results

External links



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