The Times and Sunday Times League Table 2014
A quick look at the top 20 in the all new combined Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide ranking for 2014. Full details can be found on the Sunday Times website (£).
1 Cambridge
2 Oxford
3 LSE
4 St Andrews
5 Imperial
6 Durham
7 Bath
8 Exeter
9 UCL
10 Warwick
11 York
12= Lancaster
12= Surrey
14 Leicester
15 Bristol
16 Birmingham
17 UEA
18= Newcastle
18= Sheffield
20 Southampton
(University of Nottingham appears just outside the top 20 in 23rd place)
Birmingham is the ‘University of the Year’.
Full details of the table were published on 22 September. The methodology for the new combined table is summarised as follows:
The information regarding research quality was sourced from the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, a peer review exercise to evaluate the quality of research in UK higher education institutions undertaken by the UK higher education funding bodies.Entry standards, student-staff ratios, services and facilities spend, completion rates, Firsts and 2:1s and graduate prospects data were supplied by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) which provides a system of data collection, analysis, and dissemination in relation to higher education in the whole of the United Kingdom. The original sources of data for these measures are data returns made by the universities themselves to Hesa.The provision of the data by the above sources does not necessarily imply agreement with the data transformation and construction of the table. Universities were provided with sets of their own Hesa data, which form the basis of the table, in advance of publication and were offered the opportunity to check the information. Some universities supplied replacement corrected data.In building the table, scores for student satisfaction and research quality were weighted by 1.5; all other indicators were weighted by 1. The indicators were combined using a z-score transformation and the totals were transformed to a scale with 1000 for the top score. For entry standards, student-staff ratios, First and 2:1s and graduate prospects the score was adjusted for subject mix.
So, looks a bit more like the Times than the old Sunday Times methodology.
