The Guardian UK University guide and ranking for 2012

The latest Guardian University Guide tables show that Cambridge University has taken the top spot, breaking its arch-rival Oxford’s six-year stint as the UK’s leading institution.

Oxford has come second and St Andrews third, while the London School
of Economics has climbed four places from last year to take fourth place. University College London, Warwick, Lancaster, Durham, Loughborough and Imperial College make up the top 10.

The tables are based on data for full-time undergraduates at UK universities.

Universities with low rankings are almost as likely to be intending to charge maximum tuition fees of £9,000 in 2012 as those with high rankings, our analysis suggests.

London Metropolitan University, which comes bottom of the Guardian tables, intends to charge between £4,500 and £9,000 for its degrees from autumn 2012. Salford, Liverpool John Moores, Manchester Metropolitan and the University of East London – all of which rank in the bottom 20 of the Guardian tables – want to charge £9,000 for at least some of their courses.

From autumn 2012, universities in England will be allowed to charge up to £9,000 a year for undergraduate degrees. The government’s access watchdog, the Office for Fair Access, is looking at the fees each university in England wants to charge and will announce in July whether it approves of institutions’ plans.

The tables were compiled by independent consultancy firm Intelligent Metrix. It’s based originally on information collected by Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and the National Student Survey, published by Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce).

We’ve also mashed in some data of our own, including the full planned tuition fees, drop-out rates and student numbers.

Here are some of the key numbers:

• 38 of the universities in the top 60 will charge the full £9,000 tuition fee in 2012 – and 18 of those in the bottom 60
• The universities in the top 20 are bigger than those in the bottom 20 – with an average of 8,927 undergraduates, compared to 6,015
• The student staff ratio of the universities in the top 20 is less than that in the bottom 20 – 14.2 students to every tutor, compared to 21.54

 

University guide 2012

2012 Rank	2011	Institution	Ave Teac Score	Exp. per student / 10	Student: staff ratio	Uni group	2012 max tuition fee
SOURCE: INTELLIGENT METRIX, HESA
1	2	Cambridge	100.0	9.76	11.7	Russell	9,000
2	1	Oxford	97.9	10	10.8	Russell	9,000
3	4	St Andrews	85.3	7.25	13.3	1994 Group
4	8	London School of Economics	84.7	8.45	11.8	Russell
5	5	UCL	82.5	8.43	9.7	Russell	9,000
6	3	Warwick	81.8	8.56	14.1	Russell	9,000
7	6	Lancaster	79.1	7.49	13.8	1994 Group	9,000
8	17	Durham	77.2	6.14	15.3	1994 Group	9,000
9	9	Loughborough	75.5	5.8	17.1	1994 Group	9,000
10	7	Imperial College	74.1	8.54	10.9	Russell	9,000
11	14	Exeter	73.8	4.97	20.0	1994 Group	9,000
11	15	Sussex	73.8	4.64	16.1	1994 Group	9,000
13	11	SOAS	73.7	7.02	11.1	1994 Group	9,000
14	13	Bath	73.6	5.33	16.1	1994 Group	9,000
15	9	York	72.7	6.63	14.9	1994 Group
16	15	Edinburgh	70.6	8.64	14.4	Russell
17	12	Leicester	70.4	6.78	14.7	1994 Group	9,000
18	19	UEA	69.8	7.12	14.9	1994 Group	9,000
19	20	Surrey	69.5	7.15	19.0	1994 Group	9,000
19	21	Nottingham	69.5	6.39	14.2	Russell	9,000
21	23	Glasgow	69.2	6.47	14.5	Russell
22	24	City	68.8	7.53	17.6		9,000
23	27	Kent	68.3	6.31	14.4		9,000
24	30	Birmingham	68.1	7.86	15.4	Russell	9,000
25	33	Bristol	67.9	6.32	13.5	Russell	9,000
26	22	Dundee	67.8	6	14.3
27	32	Heriot-Watt	67.7	7.31	19.1
28	18	Southampton	67.1	6.24	13.6	Russell	9,000
29	25	Strathclyde	66.9	6.16	18.0
30	25	King’s College London	66.6	6.35	12.0	Russell	9,000
31	37	Newcastle	66.3	5.55	15.3	Russell	9,000
32	45	Reading	65.4	5.87	15.5	1994 Group	9,000
33	31	Sheffield	64.5	4.83	14.9	Russell	9,000
34	36	Aston	64.2	5.9	17.1		9,000
35	41	Royal Holloway	63.7	4.83	15.7	1994 Group	9,000
36	46	Queen Mary	63.6	6.34	13.6	1994 Group	9,000
37	35	Leeds	63.0	6.28	14.9	Russell	9,000
38	27	Robert Gordon	62.6	4.23	19.0
39	43	Essex	61.5	6.22	15.6	1994 Group	9,000
39	46	Cardiff	61.5	5.96	15.0	Russell
41	51	Manchester	61.4	7.86	15.4	Russell	9,000
42	38	Bournemouth	60.8	6.94	23.6	University Alliance	9,000
42	48	Oxford Brookes	60.8	4.94	18.1	University Alliance	9,000
44	27	Stirling	60.7	4.25	19.3
45	33	Aberdeen	60.3	5.22	15.8
46	40	UC Falmouth	60.2	5.95	23.5	Ukadia/ Guild HE	9,000
47	49	Plymouth	60.1	7.21	16.5	University Alliance	9,000
48	52	Sunderland	59.7	6.7	15.8	Million +	8,500
49	39	Liverpool	59.3	6.66	13.2	Russell	9,000
50	49	Aberystwyth	58.8	4.77	18.1	University Alliance	9,000
50	56	Queen’s, Belfast	58.8	5.6	14.8	Russell
52	55	Edinburgh Napier	58.5	3.58	21.6	Million +
53	54	Huddersfield	58.0	4.45	18.4	University Alliance	7,950
54	44	Keele	57.3	4.4	14.5		9,000
55	67	Northumbria	56.9	4.51	20.3	University Alliance	8,500
56	63	Queen Margaret	56.5	2.59	21.7
57	72	Lincoln	56.3	3.43	19.7	University Alliance	9,000
58	42	Chichester	56.2	3.34	16.6		8,500
59	62	UWE Bristol	55.5	3.82	20.7	University Alliance
60	79	Teesside	55.2	5.2	19.5	University Alliance	8,500
61	64	Gloucestershire	55.1	5.3	20.6	Million +	8,250
62	58	Goldsmiths	54.9	3.8	17.6	1994 Group	9,000
63	87	Coventry	54.5	3.33	15.7	Million +	9,000
63	94	Northampton	54.5	5.22	22.9	Million +
65	71	Sheffield Hallam	54.2	4.43	19.8	University Alliance	8,500
65	67	Bath Spa	54.2	4.07	21.1	Million +	9,000
67	53	Nottingham Trent	53.9	4.53	19.7	University Alliance
68	76	Glamorgan	53.7	4.6	20.2	University Alliance
69	96	Winchester	53.6	2.52	17.7	Guild HE	8,500
70	69	Central Lancashire	53.4	5.89	18.4	Million +	9,000
71	57	UWIC	53.1	4.1	20.7	University Alliance
72	60	Hertfordshire	52.9	4	18.5	University Alliance	8,500
73	78	Brighton	52.8	4.55	18.8		9,000
74	79	Glasgow Caledonian	52.5	3.85	20.9	University Alliance
75	112	Middlesex	52.2	7.23	21.0	Million +	9,000
75	59	Hull	52.2	4.55	20.1		9,000
77	69	Staffordshire	51.9	5.66	21.7	Million +
78	88	Edge Hill	50.9	3.26	18.5		9,000
79	65	Bangor	50.8	5.35	20.7
80	79	Chester	50.5	3.29	17.2		9,000
81	77	Thames Valley	50.2	7.74		Million +
82	86	St Mary’s UC, Twickenham	50.1	2.29	22.1	Guild HE	8,000
82	75	Brunel	50.1	4.32	20.2
84	110	Leeds Trinity University College	50.0	2.08	22.8	Guild HE	8,000
85	85	Portsmouth	49.9	4.94	20.5	University Alliance	8,500
86	74	Bradford	49.4	5.16	17.5	University Alliance	9,000
87	105	Westminster	49.0	3.99	17.1		9,000
88	79	Ulster	48.9	4.07	17.0
89	83	Cumbria	48.7	5.6	15.3	Guild HE	8,400
90	66	Birmingham City	48.4	5.34	20.9	Million +
91	84	Anglia Ruskin	47.8	7.7	22.7	Million +	8,300
92	98	Kingston	47.5	4.45	19.9	Million +	9,000
93	73	De Montfort	47.3	3.91	17.5	University Alliance	9,000
94	91	Derby	47.1	4.05	20.5	Million +	7,995
94	93	Swansea	47.1	3.93	16.5

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