Three national rankings of universities in the United Kingdom are published annually
– by The Complete University Guide, The Guardian and jointly by The Times and The
Sunday Times.
Rankings have also been produced in the past by The Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times.
The primary aim of the rankings is to inform potential undergraduate applicants about UK
universities based on a range of criteria, including entry standards, student satisfaction,
staff/student ratio, academic services and facilities expenditure per student, research
quality, proportion of Firsts and 2:1s, completion rates and student destinations.
All of the league tables also rank universities on their strength in individual subjects.
Rankings The following rankings of British universities
are produced annually: The Complete University Guide
The Complete University Guide is compiled by Mayfield University Consultants.
It was published for the first time in The Daily Telegraph in 2007, when it was known
as The Good University Guide, and was produced in association with The Independent from 2008
to 2011.
The ranking uses nine criteria, with a statistical technique called the Z-transformation applied
to the results of each.
The nine Z-scores are then weighted and summed to give a total score for each university.
These total scores are then transformed to a scale where the top score is set at 1,000,
with the remainder being a proportion of the top score.
The nine criteria are: "Academic services spend" – the expenditure
per student on all academic services); "Completion" – a measure of the completion
rate of students; "Entry standards" – the average UCAS tariff
score of new students under the age of 21; "Facilities spend" – the expenditure per
student on staff and student facilities; "Good honours" – the proportion of firsts
and upper seconds; "Graduate prospects" – a measure of the
employability of graduates; "Research assessment/quality" – a measure
of the average quality of research; "Student satisfaction" – a measure of the
view of students on the teaching quality; and
"Student:staff ratio" – a measure of the average staffing level.
The most recent league table ranked the top 30 British universities as follows:
The Guardian The Guardian's ranking uses eight different
criteria, each weighted between 5 and 17 per cent.
Unlike other annual rankings of British universities, the criteria do not include a measure of research
output.
A "value-added" factor is included which compares students' degree results with their entry
qualifications, described by the newspaper as being "[b]ased upon a sophisticated indexing
methodology that tracks students from enrolment to graduation, qualifications upon entry are
compared with the award that a student receives at the end of their studies".
The eight criteria are: "Entry score";
"Feedback" – as rated by graduates of the course;
"Job prospects"; "Overall quality" – final-year students
opinions about the overall quality of their course;
"Spending per student"; "Staff/student ratio";
"Teaching quality" – as rated by graduates of the course; and
"Value added".
The most recent league table ranked the top 30 British universities as follows:
The Sunday Times The Sunday Times university league table ranks
institutions using the following eight criteria: "Student satisfaction" – the results of
national student surveys are scored taking a theoretical minimum and maximum score of
50% and 90% respectively; "Teaching excellence" – 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;
"Heads'/peer assessments" – school heads are asked to identify the highest-quality
undergraduate provision; "Research quality" – based upon the most
recent Research Assessment Exercise); "A-level/Higher points" – nationally audited
data for the susbsequent academic year are used for league table calculations;
"Unemployment" – the number of students assume to be unemployed six months after graduation
is calculated as a percentage of the total number of known destinations;
"Firsts/2:1s awarded" – the percentage of students who graduate with firsts or 2:1 degrees;
unclassified degrees are excluded; and "Dropout rate" – the number of students
who drop out before completing their courses is compared with the number expected to do
so.
The Times The Times university rankings take into account
eight criteria.
The Student Satisfaction and Research criteria are weighted by 1.5 and then each of the eight
criteria scores are multiplied by 10 in order to give each university a final score out
of 1,000.
The criteria are: "Completion" – the percentage of students
who manage to complete their degree; "Entry standards" – the average UCAS tariff
score; "Facilities spending" – the average expenditure
per student on sports, careers services, health and counselling;
"Good honours" – the percentage of students graduating with a first or 2.1;
"Graduate prospects" – the percentage of UK graduates in graduate employment or further
study); "Library and computing spending" – the average
expenditure on library and computer services per student;
"Research"; "Student satisfaction"; and
"Student-staff ratio".
Disparity with global rankings It has been commented by The Sunday Times
that a number of universities which regularly feature in the top ten of British university
league tables, such as Durham, St Andrews and LSE, "inhabit surprisingly low ranks in
the worldwide tables", whilst other universities such as Manchester "that failed to do well
in the domestic rankings have shone much brighter on the international stage".
The considerable disparity in rankings has been attributed to the different methodology
and purpose of global university rankings such as the Academic Ranking of World Universities,
QS World University Rankings and Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
International university rankings primarily use criteria such as academic and employer
surveys, the number of citations per faculty, the proportion of international staff and
students and faculty and alumni prize winners.
The national rankings, on the other hand, give most weighting to the undergraduate student
experience, taking account of teaching quality and learning resources, together with the
quality of a university's intake, employment prospects, research quality and dropout rates.
The disparity between national and international league tables has caused some institutions
to offer public explanations for the difference.
LSE for example states on its website that 'we remain concerned that all of the global
rankings - by some way the most important for us, given our highly international orientation
- suffer from inbuilt biases in favour of large multi-faculty universities with full
STEM offerings, and against small, specialist, mainly non-STEM universities such as LSE.'
Criticisms UK university rankings have been subject to
various criticisms.
Accuracy and neutrality 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.'
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 government's desire to increase access can have negative
effects on league table rankings.
The Guardian suggests that league tables may affect the nature of undergraduate admissions
in an attempt to improve a university's league table position.
Roger Brown, the former Vice Chancellor of Southampton Solent University argues the limitations
of comparative data when comparing 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.
The rankings are also criticised for not giving a full picture of higher education in the
United Kingdom.
There are institutions which focus on research and enjoy a prestigious reputation but are
not shown in the table for various reasons.
For example, the Institute of Education, University of London, is not usually listed in the undergraduate
rankings despite the fact that it offers an undergraduate B.Ed and is generally recognised
as one of the best institutions offering teacher training and Education studies.
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.
These universities, however, often make a strong showing in specialist league tables
looking at research, teaching quality, and student satisfaction.
In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, according to the Times Higher Education, Birkbeck
was placed equal 33rd, and the Open University 43rd, out of 132 institutions.
And the 2009 student satisfaction survey placed the Open University 3rd and Birkbeck 13th
out of 153 universities and higher education institutions.
References
External links The Complete University Guide
University League Tables Guardian University Guide
The Sunday Times University Guide