St Andrews retains top position in Scotland, according to latest guide

The University of St Andrews has been named best in Scotland and 6th in the UK in the latest league table.

St Andrews steps up one place from last year’s overall 7th position in the new Sunday Times University Guide (out 11 September 2011).  It is the only Scottish university to be named among the top ten institutions in the UK.

The news follows the University being named among the top 100 universities in the world and top in Scotland for happy students.

According to the guide’s authors, St Andrews’ top position this year can be attributed to its ‘triumph’ in research ratings and its high score for teaching in this year’s National Student Survey.

Now in its fourteenth year, The Sunday Times University Guide is aimed at helping students and their parents in their quest to find the right university. The league table is compiled using data on student satisfaction, teaching and research quality, entry standards, degree classifications, student/staff ratios, graduate unemployment levels and university dropout rates.

This year’s guide focussed on the survey’s twelve questions that most directly related to teaching.  The weighting given to measures of graduate employability was also doubled this year.  The results echo this month’s QS World University rankings, in which employers rated St Andrews 51st in the world for supplying well-qualified graduates.

Further changes to the methodology of the league table this year placed greater emphasis on student satisfaction with teaching quality, academic support, assessment and feedback, as measured by the NSS.  The Fife university’s ranking as best in Scotland and joint second in the UK was a contributing factor in its high placing in the new guide out this weekend.

ENDS

Issued by the Press Office
Contact Gayle Cook, Senior Communications Manager on 01334 467227, email [email protected]
Ref: Sunday Times Guide 2011 090911
View the latest University news at www.st-andrews.ac.uk/news