UK: New institutions challenge the old guard

The position of the UK's 'old' universities is continuing to be threatened by younger upstarts in the table compiled by The Complete University Guide in association with The Independent, writes Lucy Hodges for The Independent. Although Oxford remains at the top of the university pecking order for the third year running, with Cambridge and Imperial College London again in second and third place respectively, there has been movement in the middle ranks.

And there have been noticeable shifts, too, in the fortunes of universities in the top 20. Lancaster, for example, has risen from 12th to eighth place because of an improvement in its student satisfaction score and because graduate prospects are better as shown in the numbers getting graduate jobs or undertaking further study six months after leaving university.

Bernard Kingston, chief author of the table, says it is compiled for applicants, parents and teachers to make sense of a large and complex university system. "The position of any one university in the main rankings is clearly significant, but the quality of the course is what matters most," he says. "A modest institution might well have the ideal course for you."
Full report on The Independent site