St Andrews top University in Scotland

Friday 21 September 2018

St Salvator's ChapelThe University of St Andrews maintains its enviable record as the top university in Scotland in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019.

The Good University Guide 2019, published Sunday 23 September 2018, once again reveals that St Andrews is the top university in Scotland and 3rd in the UK behind Oxbridge for the third successive year. St Andrews is comfortably the top-ranked university in Scotland, 14 places ahead of its nearest rivals.

The University of St Andrews was shortlisted for the UK-wide title, having consolidated its third-place ranking in the league table, recording particularly strong scores on the key measures of teaching excellence and student experience.

Alastair McCall, Editor of The Sunday Times Good University Guide, said: “No university in the UK can match St Andrews for its outstanding levels of student satisfaction. Ranked third in the UK this year for satisfaction with teaching quality and top again for satisfaction with the wider student experience, St Andrews students are a happy bunch. They know they’re on to a good thing and benefiting from a high-quality education that will stand them in good stead throughout their working lives ahead.”

The ranking completes a highly successful year for the University of St Andrews. Scotland’s oldest university was top in the UK for student satisfaction in the National Student Survey 2018, underlying the University’s commitment to its students. The Guardian University Guide 2019 also ranked St Andrews the best University in Scotland and third in the UK behind Oxbridge.


The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019, published on Sunday 23 September, provides students and their parents with an invaluable first reference point on the path to finding a university place. It contains full profiles of all universities. The league table is made up of nine indicators including student satisfaction with teaching quality and their wider student experience, research quality, graduate prospects, entrance qualifications held by new students, degree results achieved, student/staff ratios, service and facilities spend, and degree completion rates. The Times will complement coverage in The Sunday Times with two further supplements to be published on Monday and Tuesday, 24 and 25 September. These will focus on the best universities for teaching quality and student experience and the universities that come top in different subject areas.

Expanded coverage with 67 subject tables and full interactive tables on all the league table components, and additional features are available to Times and Sunday Times subscribers online. Non-subscribers can gain complimentary access to two articles a week when they enter an email address and register.

Issued by the University of St Andrews Communications Office.

Category University news

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