The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
St Andrews University among top five in UK
Fife seat of learning excels once again in annual league table
St Andrews University has been ranked one of the top five universities in the UK in an annual league table.
The institution remains number one in Scotland but has dropped from third place in 2018 to fifth place in the Complete University Guide 2019 rankings.
It comes behind Cambridge, Oxford, London School of Economics and Imperial College London in the guide, published today.
Dundee comes in 31st place and Abertay sneaks into the top 100 at 99th.
Strathclyde and Stirling are ranked 40th and other Scottish universities in the UK top 50 include Edinburgh in 23rd place and Glasgow in 24th, while Aberdeen has risen 12 places to be ranked 28th.
The Complete University Guide 2019 rankings are based on 10 measures, including student satisfaction, research, entry standards, the proportion of good honours degrees awarded, graduate prospects and completion rates.
St Andrews said it had ranked top in Scotland since the guide was first published 11 years ago and welcomed the latest table.
The university’s principal Professor Sally Mapstone said: “It’s an honour to be top in Scotland after another very strong performance from the sector north of the border.
“St Andrews’ values are those of a small, Scottish, and highly international university. We are outward looking, inclusive and focused on excellence.
“We see teaching quality and research excellence as commensurate, and we provide them in an environment that is beautiful, friendly and enriching.
“This is an encouraging result for St Andrews, and for Scottish higher education which continues to show its strengths.”
The authors of the table also note that throughout all parts of the UK the number of students graduating with either a first-class or upper second-class honours degree has increased year-onyear since it was first created.
Dr Bernard Kingston, chairman of The Complete University Guide.co.uk, said: “The proportion of good honours has steadily but inexorably increased at almost all universities.
“Either students are working harder, or they are being better taught, or something else is happening.
“But it is one of the criteria over which universities have a significant degree of control.”
A spokesman for Abertay said: “The Complete University Guide is just one of many league tables related to higher education but nevertheless we are disappointed with this result.
In England in third place, behind Cambridge and Oxford, was the London School of Economics and Political Science, then Imperial College London in fourth.
Durham was in sixth position, followed by Loughborough, Lancaster, Warwick and University College London taking the 10th spot.
The rankings, which cover 131 institutions, also show that the biggest climber was Staffordshire University, which moves up 32 places to joint 73rd.
A spokesperson for Dundee University said: “This ranking represents another strong performance and helps to highlight once again that Dundee is among the best places in the UK to live and study.
“The quality of the student experience here is internationally renowned and our gold rating in the teaching excellence framework highlights why we are ranked as one of the world’s top 200 universities.”