Rankings for Students

Sara Tabin is an English major at Yale University 

I decided I wanted to attend Yale while visiting my sister, who was an undergraduate there when I was five years old. As a child, Yale meant visits to the Peabody Museum, carrot cake from Claire’s Corner Copia and ivy-covered stone walls. In high school I went to see the campus again, and was impressed by the kindness of the students I met and the opportunities that Yale could provide.  

The University of Cambridge takes the top spot in The Guardian newspaper’s university league table for the seventh year running. 

The University of Bath climbs five places to complete the top five. 

University of Surrey make up the rest of the top 10.

Compare the results with the THE World University Rankings 2016-2017

The University of Cambridge has maintained its number one position in the Complete University Guide’s 2018 ranking of the top universities in the UK.

Harper Adams University takes the top spot in Times Higher Education's Student Experience Survey results for 2017, in only its second year of being eligible for the survey. 

The agricultural institution is the first specialist university to top the poll. Last year’s number one, Loughborough University, has slipped down to second place.

The rankings for the Times Higher Education’s Student Experience Survey (SES) are now in their 10th annual release. This year, as with all other years of the survey, the research has been conducted by YouthSight.

Here we reveal the answers to some of the key methodological questions.

What are the questions behind the SES?

Since the introduction of fees, the expectations of students and parents have never been higher when it comes to learning resources. A draughty building, unimproved since its opening in the 1960s, and lacking modern texts and wi-fi, won’t be tolerated, and the message has got through to universities.

It’s no secret that the quality of accommodation provided to undergraduates is extremely important to their university experience. Yet of all the responses to the Student Experience Survey, satisfaction with accommodation has consistently been ranked poorly. This year, the average rating for the accommodation composite was 5.2 out of 7, the lowest in all the categories.

Since the election last July of the hard-Left Malia Bouattia as president of the National Union of Students, the body, which claims to represent 7 million students, has been riven by dissent.

Dissatisfaction with some of Bouattia’s flagship policies and accusations of anti-Semitism have resulted in fellow NUS executive members “plotting” to oust her from her post. Meanwhile, a number of individual students’ unions have sought to disaffiliate from the national organisation.

It doesn’t take long for visitors to Harper Adams University to notice the relaxed, down-to-earth vibe on campus. Whether it is the students’ union president padding around his office in bright red socks, the group of welly-clad young women taking a dog for a walk or seeing the warm and welcoming Amanda Price at the student services centre, it soon becomes clear that this is an institution apart.

The online magazine Spiked has released its 2017 Free Speech University Rankings, an analysis of the state of free speech on UK university campuses.

Essentially, it’s a guide to what universities do or do not allow on their campuses when it comes to, say, controversial speakers, newspapers, adverts, student societies, fancy dress; and the policies that it has in place relating to equality and dignity, gender identity, “safe spaces” and “no platforming” – the banning of individuals or groups thought to hold far-Right or extremist views.