The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Universities in Tayside and Fife the pride of UK
Two institutions do well in Sunday Times Good University Guide
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Universities in Tayside and Fife have ranked among the very best in the UK in a survey of 135 of the nation’s leading academic institutions.
Abertay University in Dundee topped the UK University of the Year for Teaching Quality category, while St Andrews University in Fife retained its position as the top Scottish ranking university, securing third overall in the UK in the Sunday Times Good University Guide to be published this weekend.
Abertay’s small class sizes and integrated student support to facilitate personalised learning impressed the judges while the university’s success with a second successive year of stellar results for student satisfaction in the National Student Survey, was also noted.
Meanwhile, St Andrews University strengthened its position in the overall academic UK, closing the gap on Oxford in second place and Cambridge at the top to the narrowest it has ever been.
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Elsewhere, Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University gained the Scottish University of the Year award, with 78.5% of graduates securing high-skilled jobs or postgraduate study within 15 months of leaving.
It is now one of Scotland’s largest providers of graduate apprenticeships, and aims to have 475 apprentices enrolled at its Aberdeen campus for 2021-22.
Strathclyde University was another to make the overall UK listing.
A spokesman for St Andrews University welcomed the result, adding: “The results follow a strong performance by the university in the Guardian University Guide 2021 in which St Andrews was ranked second in the UK, splitting the Oxbridge duopoly for a second year in succession.”
The strong performance follows on from St Andrews also being named top in the UK for student experience in the National Student Survey 2020.
Abertay University achieved an 87% positive score for teaching quality in this year’s National Student Survey, ranking
Source: The Times and The Sunday Times
“Splitting the Oxbridge duopoly for a second year in succession. ST ANDREWS UNIVERSITY
it second place nationally, and also scored highly for student experience with 81.2%, placing it equal 14th on the UK national listing.
The award recognises the role the university has played in making Dundee a national and international centre for the video gaming industry and computing more generally.
With the university’s new cyberQuarter hub due to open this academic year, designed to oil the cogs of collaboration between academia and industry in cyber-security, and with £11.7m investment from the Scottish and UK governments through the Tay Cities Deal, the centre features a secure cloud-based virtual ethical hacking lab and has funding to develop innovative digital products and services.
Commenting on Abertay’s success, principal Professor Nigel Seaton said: “The teaching and research we do at Abertay has a profoundly transformative impact, not only on our students, but on the wider community in the city of Dundee and beyond.”