Rankings for Students

What is the TEF?

The teaching excellence framework (TEF) is a system that assesses the quality of teaching in universities in England. It also includes some universities from Scotland and Wales.

The framework was introduced by the government in 2017 to provide a resource for students to judge teaching quality in universities and to increase the importance of teaching excellence (and bring it into line with research excellence) when rating institutions. It is important to note that currently the TEF analyses only undergraduate teaching.

Times Higher Education has once again released the Asia-Pacific University Ranking to reflect the region’s growing strength in the higher education sector.

THE’s Asia-Pacific University Ranking 2019 analysed universities across East Asia, South-east Asia and Oceania. The overall ranking features more than 300 universities from 13 different nations.

The higher education world is getting smaller as more and more students are choosing to study abroad. Students are looking to universities to provide an international experience, the opportunity to study alongside people from all over the world, and to give them a truly global community in which to study. 

Have you ever wondered which city contains the highest number of institutions appearing in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2018? Well, you’re in luck because we’ve analysed our top 200 and top 500 universities to see which cities have the highest concentrations of elite universities. 

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.