Guardian League Table 2015: Well I never

New Guardian League Table for 2015 entry (and yes, Cambridge is top) Top 25 of the full list (available here) is as follows (last year's position in brackets): 1 (1) Cambridge 2 (2) Oxford 3 (4) St Andrews 4 (7) Bath 5 (9) Imperial 6 (8) Surrey 7 (3) LSE 8 (6) Durham 9 (10) …

Guardian League Table 2014: One or two changes

New Guardian League Table for 2014 Top 20 of the full list (available here) is as follows (last year's position in brackets): 1 (1) Cambridge 2 (2) Oxford 3 (3) LSE 4 (4) St Andrews 5 (6) UCL 6 (7) Durham 7 (9) Bath 8 (12) Surrey 9 (13) Imperial 10 (5) Warwick 11 (7) …

Unistats and KIS – just too much information?

Unistats - now with added KIS - has launched The all new Unistats site has launched: Unistats is the official site that allows you to search for and compare data and information on university and college courses from across the UK. The site draws together comparable information on those areas that students have identified as …

Guardian League Table 2013: Ups and downs

New Guardian League Table for 2013 Top 20 of the full list (available here) is as follows (last year's position in brackets): 1 (1) Cambridge 2 (2) Oxford 3 (4) LSE 4 (3) St Andrews 5 (6) Warwick 6 (5) UCL 7 (8) Durham 7 (7) Lancaster 9 (14) Bath 10 (11) Exeter 11 (9) …

Killing the myths in higher education

Misunderstandings and myths An interesting new pamphlet has just been published by HEPI. Misunderstanding Modern Higher Education: Eight "category mistakes" is a brief and snappy read and is available from the HEPI website: In this HEPI occasional report, Professor Sir David Watson discusses eight myths - category mistakes - concerning higher education that are widely …

Code of practice needed to “halt degree course mis-selling”

Should universities stop using NSS data to promote courses? An interesting article by John Holmwood on the questionable validity and reliability of the National Student Survey - he argues that universities and others should not therefore use the outcomes of the NSS in league tables or promotional material. Furthermore, he argues that a code of …

NSS: can things get any worse in universities?

Press stories on latest NSS results seem to be largely of the glass one fifth empty variety Indeed, you could be forgiven for thinking the sector was already in meltdown if you read the Independent which says "one-third of university students unhappy with lecturers' performance": Thousands of university students still find their lecturers too remote …

2010 Independent League Table

Latest Independent league table First of the new season's UK tables has just been published by the Independent. Full details of the institutional and subject rankings are provided by the Complete University Guide which can be found here. There isn't much change at the top but the most striking thing is the inclusion for the …

Universities accused of pressuring students on NSS

"Pressuring" students on NSS According to the Telegraph some institutions have been trying to persuade students to give them decent scores in the NSS: Eight British universities were reported to the higher education funding body recently over allegations that they had encouraged students to respond positively to the annual National Student Survey. Documents released under …

Higher ambitions…

New HE Framework Follow up to earlier post on HE as food-labelling: Lord Mandelson has launched Higher Ambitions. There's a lot in here and much of it yet to be fully fleshed out. And the much trailed element on improved consumer information still requires some work: All universities should publish a standard set of information …

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) …

NSS results – just about the same as last year

Good news or bad news? Not a lot to write home about with very little change but BBC reports that satisfaction rate 'slips': This year's final year students in England were marginally less happy with their university experience than last year's leavers, an annual survey shows. The National Student Survey shows 81% were mostly or …

Students “more satisfied than ever before”

According to the Times Higher Education analysis of the latest NSS data, students are more satisfied than they've ever been. For universities in England, students' overall satisfaction rate rose slightly from 81 per cent last year to 82 per cent, while satisfaction scores in six specific areas, including teaching, assessment and academic support, also all …

Taking “enhancing the student experience” too far?

Interesting piece in the Chronicle about the student experience at High Point University (where "every student receives an extraordinary education in a fun environment with caring people"). The features apparently include: valet parking a hot tub in the middle of the campus an ice-cream truck that circles the campus giving out free ice creams etc …

New Conservative position on fees?

Which seems to be: neither higher nor lower, we should neither raise nor lower the cap According to a Guardian report on a recent speech: The Conservatives today called for the review of tuition fees planned for 2009 to start now to allow for enough preparation time. The government has promised a review of the …