UK University Ranking 2017

For many students and parents, the UK university ranking published by the Times Good University Guide is a major reference when choosing their university programmes. The ranking evaluates UK universities by criteria such as teaching quality, student experience, research quality, entry standards, student-staff ratio and graduate prospect.

In last year’s (2016) university ranking, we saw more movement than usual in universities’ position, due to changes in government policies and new data made available by the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014).

With the release of the 2017 university ranking, we would like point out a few important changes in the ranking:

• Cambridge and Oxbridge continue to dominate the first two positions in the university ranking. University of St Andrews comes third, with a significantly narrower difference in ratings.
• University of Leeds won the University of the Year award for its commitment to teaching quality. The University is one of the best performing ones in terms of student experience, among other research-intensive universities under the Russell Group.
• Criminology now has its own subject ranking to better represent the competition in the discipline.
• Over 25 universities within the top 30 now offer some university foundation programmes. Many of these offer “Guaranteed Progression” with very encouraging progression rates.

The Importance of Subject Ranking

When looking at the university ranking table, students should be aware that it is based on overall performance of the universities, and therefore may not necessarily reflects a university’s strength in a specific subject area. For many reasons, some universities that are leading in a specific subject area might be ranked relatively low in the overall ranking table. This phenomenon is more common in newly developed subjects (such as hospitality & tourism). For students who have chosen a specific subject, subject ranking tables will be a better reference.