League tables

Students jumping for joyBuckingham maintains top spot in university league tables

This year, 2011, has been a good year for the University in the comparative rankings. We came top again – for the sixth year running – in the National Student Survey out of all universities in the UK, based on an average score over all the questions. This reflects our small group teaching and nurturing approach to students and comes in the survey organised by the Higher Education Funding Council to keep its finger on the student pulse.

We came 21st in The Times’s 2012 Good University Guide, published in 2011, the first time that the University of Buckingham had appeared in The Times’s table for a long time. This put us ahead of Russell Group universities such as Kings College London, Glasgow, Birmingham and Manchester and showed the world that we scored highest in the country on three indicators – student satisfaction, graduate prospects and staff-student ratio.

The Times’s table is the one accorded most importance of all newspapers, so our appearance at Number 21 is critical to getting out a message to the world about how much the University has grown and prospered. The Times stated: “It (the University) would almost certainly have finished in the top 20, rather than just outside it, if its research could be assessed.”

As a university that is independent and receives no funding from the state, Buckingham is unable to take part in the Hefce-funded Research Assessment Exercise. But we are hoping that in the future that will change and we will be awarded a research ranking.

In the Guardian’s University Guide, the University appeared in the Specialist Institutions league table and was ranked at Number 10 in 2011. In the Guardian’s departmental rankings Buckingham’s English department was put at Number 7 out of 106, and its Economics department at Number 8 out of 69.

In the Complete University Guide, which used to be published in The Independent, Buckingham was rated 42nd.

Buckingham’s overall position

  The Times Good University Guide The Sunday Times
Sunday Times University Guide
The Guardian
University guide: Specialist institutions league table
2012 guides
(published
2011)
21st 56th (out of 122) 10th (external link)
2011 guides
(published
2010)
  52nd 8th (external link)
2010 guides
(published
2009)
  48th (external link)  

Position at subject level

Because of Buckingham’s small size, in many instances our departments are not large enough to receive an individual ranking in the national newspaper league tables. We have however been included in the following:

  The Times The Guardian The Independent
Business   15th (out of 116)  
Economics   8th (out of 69)  
English   7th (out of 106)  
Law 36th (out of 91) 27th (out of 95) 45th (out of 92)

Top for Student Satisfaction

Buckingham students are amongst the most satisfied in the United Kingdom. The University came top of the National Student Survey (NSS) in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Top for Staff to Student Ratio

The Complete University Guide reported that the University of Buckingham has the best staff to student ratio, published in April 2011.