Luiza MorrellThe University of York has retained its 12th place on The Complete University Guide’s University League Table 2013, with Cambridge keeping the top spot. Oxford, however, has dropped from its usual first/second place, down to third, as London School of Economics takes second place.
York has also stayed at the top of the 9 qualifying universities in the Yorkshire & Humber region, as it has done for all the recent years listed on the website, which goes back to 2008. This will be welcome news to York University, which has already had an eventful year, as last month it was invited to join the Russell Group, and is continuing development on its second campus, Heslington East, where a new Sport Village is due to open in July.
The League table looks at many different categories and scores them accordingly before creating a total for each University. These categories are: Student Satisfaction; Research Assessment; Entry Standards; Student Staff Ratio; Academic Services Spend; Facilities Spend; Good Honours; Graduate Prospects; and Completion. There is also a Green Score, which isn’t used towards the League Table, but many students will consider to be an important factor in choosing where to study. How these categories are measured are explained on the Complete University Guide’s website here.
You can also filter the League Table into the different subjects, where York is in the top 10 for many of them – keeping its second place for Nursing, seventh place for Chemistry and ninth place for Psychology. For a city full of history and beauty, it is not surprising to see the rise from 8th to 7th for the History of Art, Architecture & Design; and from 9th to 8th in History.
With the increase in student fees coming this autumn, universities are trying to make it ever clearer to potential students that the education they provide will be worth it, and university league tables are just one of the ways that they can prove their worth.
