Top universities slide in new ranking system

Lesser known institutions hail a ‘new order’ as watchdog’s results focus on quality of teaching

Some of Britain’s top universities have slid to the bottom of the pile in new rankings that place greater value on student satisfaction. London School of Economics, the world’s 25th best university, managed only a “bronze” ranking, and University College London, the 15th best, got silver.

SOME of Britain’s top universities have slid to the bottom of the pile under new official rankings that place greater weight on student satisfaction.

Under the new system, universities are rated gold, silver or bronze based on measures including student experience, employment after university and dropout rate.

London School of Economics, the 25th best university in the world according to the Times Higher Education university rankings, received bronze.

University College London, the 15th best university in the world in the same rankings, received silver – as did Wrexham Glyndwr and London Metropolitan University, which came second and third from the bottom in this year’s Complete University Guide. In those rankings, UCL was seventh in the UK.

More than half of the Russell Group institutions that entered missed out on the top rating, including Queen Mary University of London, which received a silver award, and Liverpool University, which took bronze.

The Teaching Excellence Framework was introduced in 2015 amid government concerns that universities were too focused on research at the expense of teaching. This is the first year that results have been published. Of those who entered, 26 per cent gained gold, 50 per cent silver and 24 per cent bronze.

Modern universities, many of which received gold awards, hailed a “new order” in higher education.

Sir Anthony Seldon, vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham, said the new ratings would be “the biggest single catalyst to good teaching that the university sector has ever had”.

But others have complained that the rankings are not an accurate measure of teaching standards and place too much weight on student opinion. Some have also said that they have been forced to participate because the Government is set to allow only those rated bronze or higher to raise tuition fees in line with inflation from 2018.

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said: “The Teaching Excellence Framework is opposed by both staff and student organisations. The fear is that students, beyond the UK in particular, will use these results as the basis for deciding which UK university to attend, which could damage some institutions.”

But Prof John Latham, vice-chancellor of Coventry University, which received a gold ranking, said that the results marked a “new order” for higher education: “It’s a clear message that universities must work harder for a recognised environment of success and that students are looking for more than historic reputation.”

Madeleine Atkins, chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, said: “Students currently invest significant amounts of time, and indeed money and incurring debt in their higher education. They are quite right to expect a high quality academic experience.”