Elite UK universities are slipping down global league tables

MANY of Britain’s elite universities have slipped down international league tables as worldwide competition increases.

Researchers also blamed tightened budgets on the ability of lecturers to ‘deliver world-class teaching’.

The findings were revealed in the annual QS World University Rankings, showing the planet’s top 959 institutions.

Cambridge is still the highest ranked UK university, but has slipped from fourth to fifth, while Oxford remains in sixth after dropping out of the top three last year. QS researchers refused to blame Brexit, insisting that the world is simply ‘becoming increasingly competitive’.

Some 76 British institutions are ranked this year, with 51 seeing drops. All 24 universities in the prestigious Russell Group are ranked but 16 slipped. These include the University of Liverpool, which is now in joint 173rd, compared to 157th last year, and Southampton in joint 102nd, down from 87th.

The rankings are based on data including staff to student ratios, research quality and numbers of international students and academics.

These are combined with the views of 75,015 academics and 40,455 employers about the reputation of institutions.

Some 46 of the UK’s 76 ranked universities received lower scores in QS’s academic reputation survey. There have also been falls in research performance, with 45 receiving lower scores for the number of citations per faculty.

A citation means an academic paper being referred to in another piece of research.

Ben Sowter, head of research at QS, said: ‘Though the temptation may be to attribute the UK’s second year of struggle to Brexit, we would warn against doing so.

‘Much of the data we collect for these tables has been collected over a five-year period, and the first year of post-Brexit internationalisation scores suggests that there has, thus far, been a minimal impact on international student and faculty rates at UK institutions.

‘Of greater importance, we believe, is the continued strain on university resources, which appears to be having a deleterious impact on not just research, but also the capacity to deliver world-class teaching.

‘Also of greater significance than Brexit is the simple and unavoidable truth that these rankings are a relative exercise, and the rest of the world is becoming increasingly competitive.’

The top rankings are dominated by the US, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology remaining in first position, followed by Stanford, Harvard and the California Institute of Technology.

In the UK, University College London remains in seventh and Imperial College London rose one place to eighth.

King’s College London is joint 23rd – down from 21st – with Edinburgh, which is down from 19th. Nottingham fell from joint 75th to joint 84th, while Leeds slipped from 93rd to 101st.

Dr Tim Bradshaw, acting director of the Russell Group, said maintaining a ‘global position in teaching, research and innovation requires investment’.

He added: ‘For a number of years, funding for teaching has been squeezed. The position is particularly acute in engineering and some of the sciences where the need for specialist facilities, equipment and technical support adds to the cost of teaching.’

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, added: ‘The competitiveness of UK universities has been affected by adversity.

‘In particular, tuition fees have been frozen for five years and research funding has not grown as fast as in other countries.’