Table of table of tables

Table of tables

A composite university league table derived from the four domestic league tables has been prepared by THE.

It is presented as a real labour-saving device:

With so many national newspaper league tables, it can be difficult to keep track of the results.

Certainly can, but luckily

a source has amalgamated the available data for Times Higher Education to produce the definitive table of tables. It combines rankings produced by The Independent, The Guardian, The Times and The Sunday Times.

The results are…

1 Oxford
2 Cambridge
3 Imperial
4 StAndrews
5 Warwick
6 UCL
7 LSE
8 Durham
9 York
10 Bath
11 Edinburgh
12= Exeter
12= Loughborough
14 Southampton
15 Bristol
16 King’s College
17= Lancaster
17= Leicester
19 Nottingham
20 Glasgow

So, no huge surprises there. Wisely though, THE “acknowledges the methodological limitations”. Bit of an understatement that.

Sunday Times League Table

Sunday Times League Table is now out

The 2010 Sunday Times Good University Guide. Change at the top but not really “a year of upheaval” as billed:

1. Oxford (2)
2. Cambridge (1)
3. Imperial (3)
4. UCL (6)
5. St Andrews (5)
6. Warwick (7)
7. Durham (8)
8. York (9)
9. LSE (4)
10. Bristol (16)
11. Bath (10)
12. Southampton (12)
13. King’s College London (17)
14. Nottingham (13)
15= Edinburgh (15)
15= Loughborough (11)
17. Exeter (14)
18. Sheffield (19)
19. Lancaster (20)
20= Leicester (18)
20= Birmingham

The University of Oxford is on something of a winning streak. After a second successive victory over Cambridge in the boat race this year, the university has now knocked its light-blue rival off the top of The Sunday Times university league table for the first time.

This feat, after 11 years in second place, earns Oxford The Sunday Times University of the Year award. It edged narrowly ahead of its principal British rival in a year of upheaval in our league table, prompted by the first research assessments in seven years and the move to measuring teaching quality primarily by levels of student satisfaction expressed through the annual national student survey (NSS).

Not really a huge change to the table since last year apart from the diversion of a bit of a boat race going on at the top. Although new NSS scores and 2008 RAE do figure they don’t seem to have made a big difference. The numbers involved in the survey of Heads and peers, which results in one indicator, aren’t obviously identified.

2008 Sunday Times UK University Rankings

Sunday Times League Table published

The final UK league table of the season is now out, courtesy of the Sunday Times. Not too many surprises here:

1. Cambridge
2. Oxford
3. Imperial
4. LSE
5. St Andrews
6. UCL
7. Warwick
8. Durham
9. York
10. Bath
11. Loughborough
12. Southampton
13. Nottingham
14. Exeter
15. Edinburgh
16. Bristol
17. King’s College London
18. Leicester
19. Sheffield
20. Lancaster

One of the distinctive features of this table is the surveys undertaken involving small numbers of head teachers and, this year, academic staff:

More than 2,000 heads of department and admissions tutors across 30 subject areas were contacted for our peer assessment exercise. They were asked to grade from one (poor) to five (excellent) undergraduate provision in their specialist area in fellow institutions. In all, 219 responded.

Not a great response rate and perhaps not too surprising then that:

The final results show a remarkable correlation with our main league table. The top five institutions for peer review all feature within the top six of our overall league table.

Meanwhile in the paper’s other survey:

In our parallel survey of head teachers, questionnaires were sent to the state and independent senior schools that feature in our Parent Power guide of the top academic schools. They were asked to cite universities they felt provided high-quality undergraduate provision. These 1,000-plus schools are putting large numbers of students into the university system every year and we asked their heads to base their judgments on direct experience and feedback from former pupils. More than 1,000 opinions were expressed across 29 subject areas.

Still looks like a pretty limited response given that each head could express, we assume, up to 30 opinions. Again, it would be expected that these results are similar to the main table. We don’t get the details but do know that Oxford is top of both surveys.

Last league table of the season?

The Sunday Times has now (23 September) published its University Guide.

The full breathless analysis can be found here and the ranking details (which, excitingly, enable you to compare two institutions by removing all of the other ones) elsewhere.

The use of a survey of Secondary Heads and Academics to rate subjects is interesting but the fact that only 100 Heads and 250 academics responded must surely call into question whether it is really valid to allocate a mark out of 100 on the basis of these results.