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- Cambridge tops the university league table
- Loughborough wins second university of the year award
The University of Cambridge finishes top in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019, published today. It is the sixth successive year that the university has triumphed in the UK’s leading domestic university rankings, slightly widening the gap on closest rival, the University of Oxford.
However, East Midlands universities have enjoyed an outstanding year, scooping no less than four of the newspapers’ prestigious University of the Year awards. Loughborough won the main prize, becoming the only university to win University of the Year for a second time. The University of Nottingham won both International University of the Year and Sports University of the Year, while De Montfort, based in Leicester, picked up the inaugural University of the Year for Social Inclusion title.
The new edition of The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019, a free 96-page supplement, is published today in The Sunday Times (September 23). It provides the definitive rankings for UK universities and the most comprehensive overview of higher education in Britain. It includes profiles on 132 universities and the most authoritative UK university league table, making use of the latest data published in the past two months. A fully searchable website with university profiles and 67 subject tables will be published at thesundaytimes.co.uk/gooduniversityguide on Sunday for subscribers to The Times and The Sunday Times.
Cambridge is the top-ranked university in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019. The university beats all other universities in four of the nine performance measures used to assess higher education institutions. As well as winning overall, the university triumphs in 29 of the 67 subject tables published in full online at thesundaytimes.co.uk/gooduniversityguide
The selection process is rigorous, and candidates require predictions of A*AA in arts subjects and A*A*A in science subjects to get through the first application stage. Many will have to complete Cambridge’s own entrance tests either on the day of or in advance of an interview before getting an offer. Only one in three applicants receive a conditional offer.
Cambridge is top for degree completion rates, with 98.6% of students gaining their degree. The amount of high-quality work to be crammed into eight-week terms can prove a strain but few drop out.
Commenting on Cambridge’s triumph, Alastair McCall, editor of The Sunday Times Good University Guide, said: “Cambridge has proved hard to topple from the top of our ranking for many years now. Its reputation is global and its recruitment base also extends far and wide.
“Unlike Oxford which tops relatively few of our subject tables, Cambridge comes out top in almost half of the Good University Guide’s 67 subject rankings, demonstrating enormous strength across science, engineering, the arts and modern languages. Its graduates are highly sought after and among the highest paid.”
The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide has this year included a new league table of social diversity in Britain’s universities, showing which institutions embrace greater participation by underrepresented groups and which still play it safe when it comes to admissions.
The table reveals that the majority of Russell Group institutions are among the least socially inclusive universities in Britain, occupying 16 of the bottom 20 places in the new ranking.
The academic top three — Cambridge, Oxford and St Andrews — are all in the bottom three of the new table in this section, making them the least socially inclusive universities in Britain. The university second bottom of the academic ranking — London Metropolitan — is second highest for social inclusion, with Glyndwr taking top spot. London Metropolitan and Glyndwr admit 96.5% and 99.3% of their students from non-grammar state schools respectively. However, both universities also suffer from high dropout rates and poor graduate employment levels.
Alastair McCall said: “For all their policies that exist in each and every one of them to boost admissions from disadvantaged groups, the evidence of our new table at the very least is that the majority of Russell Group institutions are a long way off achieving true diversity in their student intake.
“There are questions, too, for many at the top of the social inclusion rankings. Admitting a diverse range of students should not be a licence to fail in other areas, but too many of the institutions at the top of this ranking have among the highest dropout rates and the lowest levels of graduate employment.”
De Montfort University has reasons to celebrate as it is named the first ever University of the Year for Social Inclusion. The university ranks 16th in the new table, with notably high proportions of students drawn from ethnic minorities, the working class and non-selective state schools. Just 5% of De Montfort’s intake comes from independent or grammar schools, more than half are from ethnic minorities (with black ethnic students accounting for 21.8% of entrants) and one in six are drawn from the most deprived areas of the UK.
De Montfort is among the high achievers in the new social inclusion ranking to also score well in the guide’s main academic table, now in its 26th year of publication. De Montfort ranks 65th overall on academic measures. The university has an impressive record for getting graduates into professional jobs (20th in the UK), allied with high levels of student satisfaction. Initiatives include the #DMUworks scheme, which helps students to “think, feel and get work-ready” by connecting placements, internships and volunteering with training and business-insider visits.
Alastair McCall, editor of The Sunday Times Good University Guide, said: "De Montfort shows that social inclusion and academic success are not either/or options. It was the clear winner of our inaugural University of the Year for Social Inclusion award for its policies to encourage a diverse student population on campus and then demanding that they go on to achieve as well as is expected of students drawn from more privileged backgrounds. It provides a template that many other higher education institutions would do well to follow.”
Loughborough University has been named University of the Year by The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019. The university has climbed to its highest ever ranking in the guide – finishing in fifth place in the UK – and it becomes the only university to win the University of the Year award for a second time. Its success is unpinned by giving students a great university experience – leading to a second-place ranking for student satisfaction in this area – and then seeing them into well paid professional jobs when they leave.
The university is synonymous with sporting success and outstanding facilities – the medal haul of its students, graduates and campus-based athletes would have placed it 10th at the 2018 Commonwealth Games – but its academic prowess has been growing considerably, too. It is an important centre for engineering with nearly 3,000 students in a £20 million integrated complex, and it will soon house the National Centre for Combustion and Aerothermal Technology, which opens next year to train the next generation of aerospace engineers. The university’s design school is also one of the best in the country.
Commenting on Loughborough’s success, Alastair McCall, editor of The Sunday Times Good University Guide, said: "Loughborough has been shortlisted nine times in the 20-year history of our University of the Year award and now it has won for the second time. It must be doing something right!
“In fact, it is doing quite a lot right. Long rated highly by students for satisfaction with teaching quality and their university experience, Loughborough has found a formula that makes its graduates among the most sought after in the land. It is so much more than a sporting powerhouse, although it deserves huge recognition for having the best sports facilities this side of the Atlantic. Science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) students make up a greater proportion of the student body than at any other institution and it is in academic and industrially-potent areas like this that Loughborough also excels and makes an impact far beyond its sumptuous campus.”
Elsewhere it was a stellar year for fellow East Midlands institution the University of Nottingham which is named Sports University of the Year and International University of the Year.
Nottingham’s £40 million investment into the development of the David Ross Sports Village that features a sprint track, hydrotherapy pool and a 200-station fitness suite has helped pay dividends for the university. The Sports University of the Year title is another success for the institution that has been in the top four for BUCS – the official inter-university sports leagues – for the past three years.
Nottingham moves up from 18th to 16th in the overall leader board and this, along with a gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and an increase in applications by 11% for 2019, has also resulted in a second successive shortlisting for the overall University of the Year title, won by near-neighbour Loughborough.
The university has recently seen further substantial campus improvements in the form of a central teaching and learning hub and a new student health centre, set amidst the main 330-acre University Park campus, which has a deserved reputation as one of the most attractive campuses in the country. Nottingham also offers the opportunity for overseas study at campuses in China and Malaysia. Nottingham was the first UK university to properly realise the potential of satellite campuses overseas and in recognition of this Nottingham is also named International University of the Year for 2019.
Alastair McCall, editor of The Sunday Times Good University Guide, said: "No university has ever won two of our University of the Year titles and earned a shortlisting for the main prize in a single year. That Nottingham has done so is a reflection of its huge all-round strength. Its offer to students is increasingly attractive on so many fronts. Constant investment in facilities keeps the university at the cutting edge, while the offer of a global university experience within the wider Nottingham umbrella helps set the university apart from the crowd.”
The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019 published on September 23 provides students and their parents with an invaluable first reference point on the path to finding a university place. It contains full profiles of all universities. The league table is made up of nine indicators including student satisfaction with teaching quality and their wider student experience, research quality, graduate prospects, entrance qualifications held by new students, degree results achieved, student/staff ratios, service and facilities spend, and degree completion rates. The Times will complement coverage in The Sunday Times with two further supplements to be published on Monday and Tuesday, September 24 and 25. These will focus on the best universities for teaching quality and student experience and the universities that come top in different subject areas.
Expanded coverage with 67 subject tables and full interactive tables on all the league table components, and additional features are available to Times and Sunday Times subscribers at thesundaytimes.co.uk/gooduniversityguide. Non-subscribers can gain complimentary access to two articles a week when they enter an email address and register.
