Rankings for Students

Tony Allen, BA in literature and history, University of East Anglia

“As a campus university, UEA’s facilities play a part in its strong cohesive feel. The students’ union building provides many services under one roof and seating for students to congregate. There are always students walking or jogging around the campus lake. Events like Derby Day and Pimp My Barrow create a university-wide buzz and fill up The Square – the historic campus centre – a great place to meet and relax in summer.”

Universities are facing new challenges to provide adequate pastoral care as rates of mental health conditions among university students soar. Research from YouGov states that one in four university students in the UK are experiencing mental health problems, spurring universities to adapt their support services to ensure that individual students’ needs are met.

This year, the annual results are based on the responses of 20,251 undergraduates, who were asked to describe how their university contributed to a positive or negative experience on a seven-point scale, from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”. Questions have remained unchanged since 2005 to allow comparisons across years.

Data are collected from October to June from full-time, UK-based undergraduates. There is a one-year time lag between collection and publication. 

Get the full results of the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey 2018

This year's Student Experience Survey finds Harper Adams University slips down to second place. 

Harvard University is the number one US college, according to the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education US College Rankings 2018.

Last year’s number one, Columbia University claimed the second-place position.

The rest of the top 10 includes (in descending order) Cornell University. Four of the top 10 are part of the Ivy League.

Stanford University has been named the most innovative university in the world for the third consecutive year according to the latest ranking by Reuters.

Universities in England have achieved their best year-on-year reduction in carbon emissions, research has found.  

The study, carried out by sustainability consultancy Brite Green, has found that carbon emissions from universities in England fell by 7 per cent in the past year compared with 10 per cent over the previous 10 years. 

Brite Green ranked the universities in England according to the percentage by which they have reduced their carbon emissions since 2005. 

The results of ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2017 have been released, revealing the best universities in 52 different subjects, according to the consultancy. These subjects are spread across five fields – natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, medical sciences and social sciences. In total, more than 4,000 universities across the world were ranked.

As a recent graduate, I’ve been interested to read all the comments around the release of the UK government’s teaching excellence framework (TEF) results, and I am pleased that teaching is now in the spotlight. Current students and recent graduates are likely to be looking at the results with interest and comparing them to their own experiences. People will be interested in the rating for their own university, particularly as there have been some surprising outcomes.

In university offices, staffrooms and newsrooms across the UK, there has been much discussion of the teaching excellence framework (TEF) outcomes. We followed the debates with interest. But now, the key question on our lips is: "what does this mean for our university?"