St Andrews knocks Oxbridge off perch
As student satisfaction slumps over online lectures...
OXFORD and Cambridge have been bumped off the top of the universities league table for the first time.
St Andrews, where Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge studied, has been named the UK’s top university, knocking Oxford and Cambridge into second and third place.
It is the first time the elite institutions have been overtaken in almost 30 years of The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2022 guide or any other domestic higher education ratings.
It comes amid dramatic falls in student satisfaction and teaching quality results at most universities after a year of lockdown and online learning.
The guide said St Andrews in Fife had successfully taken its small-class teaching model online, so it saw only a small decline in student satisfaction rates and had the highest rating in its overall league table.
This took into account factors such as teaching and research quality, student experience, graduate prospects, studentstaff ratios and the number of firsts and 2.1s awarded.
But an analysis of official figures by the guide reveals ‘devastating’ falls in student satisfaction at most universities after Covid hit courses.
Out of 130, only two – Imperial College London and the University of Surrey – increased their results from a survey of 332,500 students this year. The rest fell from 2020 in nine areas including teaching, learning opportunities, feedback, resources and academic support.
Nine fell more than 100 percentage points, including Manchester Metropolitan, Nottingham Trent, Leeds Trinity, Teesside and Brunel University London. At the bottom was Bournemouth University which had a 124.8 percentage point fall in its satisfaction ratings.
Overall satisfaction at all uniunder versities fell 8.1 points, which the guide said was ‘highly significant’. Imperial College London increased student satisfaction by 12.4 points, and was named university of the year for student satisfaction.
Imperial science students were sent ‘lab in a box’ kits so they could do experiments at home during the pandemic.
Guide editor Alastair McCall said: ‘Imperial College showed how to deliver higher education for undergraduates in lockdown. No one did it better.’
Bournemouth University said: ‘Providing an excellent student experience is at the heart of our vision and ethos and we are listening, engaging and acting to ensure we deliver for students.’
On Thursday, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development revealed that England’s university tuition fees of £9,250 a year were the highest in the world.
‘Listening and engaging’