CITY UNIVERSITY DROPS INTO UK BOTTOM 10
DE MONTFORT IS 126TH OUT OF 132 IN LATEST SUNDAY TIMES GUIDE
Montfort University has fallen into the bottom 10 in the country in the latest ranking table.
The Sunday Times Good University Guide for 2022 has De Montfort in 126th place out of 132 universities, down from 119th last year.
Zoe Thomas, the main author of the guide, said a drop in student satisfaction with the quality of teaching was the among the issues dragging De Montfort down.
She said: “Across the nine indicators that contribute to our analysis, De Montfort has registered lower scores this year than last for seven of them.
“Declines in rates of student satisfaction with teaching quality and with the wider undergraduate experience were among the negatively impacted measures, as were lower entry standards.
“Graduate prospects were also weaker. With 65 per cent of De Montfort graduates in high-skilled jobs or further study 15 months after finishing their degrees, 95 universities did better.
“Completion rates also took a hit this year for De Montfort, with more students projected to drop out than the benchmark rate.
“These are all major factors of university activity.”
She said the university ranked 120th for the student-to-staff ratio, but that was an improvement on last year.
Zoe said: “De Montfort’s ranking this year is not out of the blue. It follows a declining pattern for the university in our table recently.
“It placed in the upper half of the list at 65th in 2019 – when it was buoyed by high rates of student satisfaction and a strong record in the graduate jobs market.
“In the same year the university also won our first ever University of the Year for social inclusion award, in recognition of its success at widDE ening participation to higher education and recruiting an ethnically and socio-economically diverse student intake.
“But it fell to 74th in 2020, then tumbled to 119th in 2021. This year’s poor set of results has compounded its ranking once again.”
Meanwhile, Loughborough University remains in the top 10 of UK universities - but only just.
It slipped from seventh last year to 10th this year, scoring high on student satisfaction.
The new edition of the guide also draws attention to the university’s success in sending former students to the Tokyo Olympics this year.
The University of Leicester remained at 37 in the table.
It scored well for its high student to teacher ratio – about one teacher for every 14 students, compared with about one teacher for every 20 students at De Montfort.
A spokesman for De Montfort University said: “There are many factors which determine league table positioning and many areas of our university experience which the tables overlook.
“However, there is no denying this result is disappointing.
“De Montfort has undergone fundamental and vitally important changes recently.
“We have changed our governance, our leadership and our working culture and are making rapid progress as an institution.
“With a transformed governance structure and talented, enthusiastic staff, plus our innovative and exciting approach to teaching this year, we are now in a fresh, strong position to move forwards at pace.
“We have made major investments in our IT infrastructure and we continue to improve our campus.
“We have again attracted thousands of students from around the world to join our DMU family this year and, as ever, all our efforts are focused on giving them the best experience possible.”