St Andrews University comes top of the class in Scotland for study.

Dundee and Abertay also make top 50 in latest Guardian University Guide

St Andrews is the top university in Scotland and second only to Oxford in the UK, according to a new higher education ranking.

The Guardian University Guide 2021, published on Saturday, shows St Andrews splitting the Oxbridge duopoly for the second year running.

And there was also cause for celebration for Dundee University as it ranked 19th in the table, also coming top in the subject rankings for Medicine and in the top five for Dentistry (3rd), Design & Crafts (4th) and Education (4th).

Abertay came in 48th out of 121 UK universities.

Last year, the Guardian ranked St Andrews second to Cambridge, while this year, Oxford takes top spot with Cambridge moving to third.

The St Andrews ranking follows high scores for student satisfaction and experience, graduate employment and the quality of its academic programmes.

Staff and students at St Andrews, Scotland’s oldest university, welcomed the news.

Principal Professor Sally Mapstone said: “This ranking is significant because it comes at a difficult period for students across the country, who have experienced a year like no other and are facing a very different university experience.

“It’s so important that while we encourage students to observe safe behaviour, we empower and support them to show what they can do during these enormously restrictive times.”

Dan Marshall, president of St Andrews Students’ Association, said: “I think it is a testament to the hard work and initiative of the students and staff who help make St Andrews so unique.”

The Guardian’s league table ranks universities according to spending per student, the student/staff ratio, graduate career prospects, the grades applicants require to be offered a place, a value-added score that compares students’ entry qualifications with their final degree results, and how satisfied final-year students are with their courses, based on results from the annual National Student Survey.

Professor David Maguire, interim principal and vice-chancellor of Dundee University, said, “This is a very good result and reflects the hard work done by all within in our community to deliver a great university experience for students, gold-standard teaching and research, which is making a real impact on society, locally and globally.”

“This ranking is significant because it comes at a difficult period for students across the country, who have experienced a year like no other... PROFESSOR SALLY MAPSTONE, PRINCIPAL OF ST ANDREWS UNIVERSITY

Picture: Steve Brown. St Andrews University principal Professor Sally Mapstone leads last year’s awards ceremony procession to St Salvator’s Quad with Lord Menzies Campbell.