Thread by @thetimes

This year, for the first time ever, neither Cambridge nor Oxford have taken the top spot in The Sunday Times #GoodUniGuide

St Andrews is now ranked as the best university in the UK
thetimes.co.uk/article/uk-uni…

St Andrews has been homing in on the top of the rankings for several years, buoyed by outstanding levels of student satisfaction

It also achieves top-ten ratings for degree completion rates and admits the best-qualified students

The Times’ own choice for University of the Year 2021, however, is Imperial College London (@imperialcollege) – a triumph of both style and substance in the most difficult year imaginable
thetimes.co.uk/article/why-im…

Ranked fourth in this year’s table, Imperial, which specialises in science, engineering, medicine and business, has gained 80 points in our ranking in the past year

Imperial’s double triumph in this year’s University of the Year awards, also winning the overall title as well as the specialist award 'University of the Year for Student Experience', recognises its achievements in lockdown, both for its students and the wider nation

Professor Emma McCoy, vice-provost, is one of the key reasons for this – As most students went home, McCoy led a team that met daily to plan Imperial’s response and keep the lights on academically

The change has been a long time coming

A stark assessment took place after a lacklustre set of National Student Survey results in 2016 saw the university ranked 124th in the UK for student satisfaction with teaching quality, and 77th for wider student experience

In particular, the university is credited for its Covid response, which included:

⚪️ Rent waivers when accommodation closed
⚪️ Meals delivered, laundry undertaken and regular check-ins for isolating students
⚪️ Streamed social events such as exercise classes for remote learners

It also helps that a degree from the university sets students in good stead – Imperial’s graduates already earn more than those from any other institution, with a median salary of £33,500 within 15 months of leaving

Our Runner-up for University of the Year, Warwick (@warwickuni), also embraced the academic and research challenges presented by the pandemic

Students strongly endorsed Warwick’s pandemic learning model, lifting it into the top 20 on both our measures of student satisfaction

Both unis’ performances were highly anomalous during the pandemic. A year of closed campuses and a move to online learning have earned most universities a chorus of disapproval in the latest National Student Survey (NSS)
thetimes.co.uk/article/how-un…

A Good University Guide analysis of this year’s pandemic-impacted NSS results compared the outcomes with those from 2020 and found that just two universities – Imperial College London and Surrey – improved their scores year on year

The survey raises questions for potential applicants to the worst affected institutions, particularly with many universities suggesting that “blended learning” – featuring widespread use of online lectures – is likely to continue in the medium and longer term

The results have triggered a record amount of movement in this year’s Good University Guide rankings as students delivered a largely damning verdict on the past 18 months
thetimes.co.uk/article/how-un…