Glasgow named best university in Scotland

The University of Glasgow has been named Scottish University of the Year by The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018.

The university jumped nine places in the national league table to feature inside the UK’s top 20.

Glasgow scored gains in six of the nine performance indicators used to rank universities in the annual undergraduate guide, and was also shortlisted for the overall University of the Year award for the whole of the UK.

Glasgow is one of Scotland’s two representatives in the elite Russell Group and it sits within the top 100 of both the Times Higher Education and QS world university rankings. It has seen improvements in its rankings for graduate prospects, completion rates, teaching quality and student experience in the past 12 months.

Entry standards have also risen using the new Ucas tariff syste and the proportion of students graduating with a first or 2:1 now tops 83%. It is tops three subject tables for animal science, dentistry and education.

Commenting on Glasgow being The Times and The Sunday Times’ Scottish University of the Year, Alastair McCall, editor of The Sunday Times Good University Guide, said: "Glasgow has secured the rare double of being both Scottish University of the Year and securing a shortlisting for the UK University of the Year title. Both are well-deserved. Ranked second among Scottish institutions in our league table after a jump of nine places this year, the university is going places.

"It is in the midst of one of the biggest capital spends for a Scottish university - around £1bn over the next decade - with the redevelopment of the former Western Infirmary site, which will reshape the city's West End. It is a great example of the transformational role that can be played by universities not just in individual lives but in communities more widely, and in regional and national domains.

"It recruits internationally based on its outstanding reputation for research, and it has avoided the pitfalls of others in Scotland in being able to provide a student-centric undergraduate experience alongside that. Glasgow's success in the annual National Student Survey is no accident - and neither is its recognition in our University of the Year awards for 2018."

As a perennial leader in the National Student Survey, it was no surprise to find St Andrews among the handful of Scottish universities entering the new Teaching Excellence Framework – the government rating system for teaching quality – and coming out with a gold rating. The panel praised the “exemplary” tuition and a learning and teaching environment of the highest quality. It added that a culture of rigour within a research-intensive environment stimulates optimum levels of enthusiasm.

Another good year for student satisfaction has cemented St Andrews in third position in the UK in our overall table, 17 places ahead of its nearest challenger in Scotland. It is second in the UK table for student satisfaction with teaching quality and top in the assessment of their broader academic experience.

Applications are running at record levels, but it has only slightly increased places available to students meaning that the university can afford to be highly selective. Just three universities admitted more highly qualified students than the freshers who arrived in St Andrews in 2015-16.

The university boasts the largest operational optical telescope in Britain and has invested £25m to build an award-winning green energy centre at its Eden campus, which pumps hot water to heat university buildings. More than 350 staff are due to relocate there in 2018.

Dundee, which has been our Scottish University of the Year for the past two years, has moved up five places in the national league table to just outside of the top 20. Students enjoy the eighth best prospects for gaining professional employment in the UK, with the university sending more graduates into professional careers than any other institution in Scotland. It also has a proud record of widening participation in higher education, recording the largest increase of any university in the proportion of students admitted from the most deprived 40% of postcodes north of the border.

Edinburgh Napier was the third biggest faller in this year’s national league table – and the biggest faller in Scotland – dropping 23 places to finish outside of the top 100. It is the lowest ranked of four Scottish universities with an overall ranking of 100+ in the UK-wide institutional table. Edinburgh Napier aims to grow by more than 20% by 2020 (adding 4,000 places), and plans to educate many of them outside of the country, with around 4,000 students currently taking courses with partners in Switzerland, China and India. Applications this year have dipped, however, partly due to the withdrawal of NHS bursaries for health science courses.