university rankings

The latest UK university rankings were revealed this week, placing Cambridge in top spot for the second year running. Arch rival Oxford was placed second in the Guardian University Guide 2013 league table, whilst St Andrews in Scotland took third place.

The annual rankings are based on the quality of universities in a variety of different categories for full-time undergraduate students. The categories include:

• How much they spend per student
• Student to staff ratio
• Career prospects of graduates
• The ‘value-added' score between first and final year students
• Final year student satisfaction (based on results from the National Student Survey)

The Big Winners and Losers

Here is the full top ten universities for this year, with last year's position in brackets:

The latest world university rankings table has been released by the Times Higher Education magazine, and it shows the strength of the top universities in the UK. There are three British institutions in the global top ten, with Oxford in 4th, Cambridge 6th and Imperial 8th, and there are 32 in the top 200.

However, compared to US universities, the UK loses out, as the list features seven American institutions in the top ten, and 75 in the top 200. It is also a US university that heads the list, but maybe not the one that you would guess. With Harvard dropping in to joint second place, it is the California Institute of Technology (above) that takes the coveted number 1 spot.

The rankings are based on a number of different factors, including the staff-to-student ratio, research income, PhDs awarded and the citation of research. It also rewards those with a high proportion of international staff and students, thus encouraging truly international universities.