UK University Rankings – what do they mean?

I’ve been asked to present on UCAS and Competitive UK university applications at a YPO College Prep Weekend in Dubai this April. One of the aspects of making a competitive university application is knowing something about how universities are ranked and how the different league tables compare.

World Rankings v UK Rankings

To get a good overview of the rankings for a student, particularly if they are international students who are considering the UK as well as the US as a study destination, I look at the World University Rankings 2016 such as the QS World University Ranking and the THES rankings to see how the UK universities compare to their counterpart institutions around the world. I would then look at a couple of the generic rankings within the UK. My choices would be the Times Good University Guide and the Guardian to get a good overview.

It’s all about the methodology!

When looking at league tables, it is important to know how they are compiled, particularly if you are looking from the perspective of an undergraduate student. Some rankings emphasise the number of Nobel Laureates, Employer Reputation or the number of Citations; although this may be important to you as a postgraduate or PhD student, students on their first degree should be engaging with their studies, inspired by their lecturers and generally having fun!! Who cares how many Nobel Laureates the institution has – if your first lecture on a Monday morning is as boring as watching paint dry you are not going to do well enough to worry about what your potential employers think – you probably won’t even be there!

The Times Good University Guide is a good quality benchmark – the methodology is based on

1. Teaching Quality.
2. Student Experience.
3. Research Quality.
4. Entry Standards.
5. Graduate Prospects.
6. First Class/2:1’s.
7. Completion Rates.
8. Student/Staff Ratio.
9. Services/Facilities spend.

The Guardian University Guide is more focussed on the Student Satisfaction:

1. Satisfied with the course.
2. Satisfied with teaching.
3. Satisfied with feedback.
4. Student/Staff ratio.
5. Student spend per 10.
6. Average entry tariff.
7. Average entry score.
8. Value added score.
9. Career after six months.

All these elements should be taken into consideration when choosing a degree course and institution, but they are just part of the process when deciding upon which institutions to shortlist. Then there are the subject league tables to consider…..