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From Times Online

August 10, 2007

How the tables work

Read how the rankings work and definitions of the indicators used to get the most out of the tables in this year's Good University Guide

The tables have been compiled by Exeter Enterprises, a subsidiary of the University of Exeter. Patrick Kennedy and Nicki Horseman of the University of Exeter have been lead consultants for Exeter Enterprises Ltd. The methodology has been reviewed independently by Durham University.

Universities were ranked according to measures in eight key performance areas: Student Satisfaction, Research Quality, Entry Standards, Student-Staff Ratios, Services & Facilities Spend, Completion, Good Honours and Graduate Prospects.

All sources of the raw data used in the table are in the public domain. The National Student Survey (NSS) was the source of the Student Satisfaction data. This was an initiative undertaken by the Funding Councils for England, Northern Ireland and Wales designed, as an element of the quality assurance for higher education, to inform prospective students and their advisers in choosing what and where to study. The survey encompasses the views of final year students on the quality of their courses.

The information regarding Research Quality was sourced from the 2001 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. The next Research Assessment Exercise will take place in 2008.

Entry Standards, Student-Staff Ratios, Services & Facilities Spend, Completion, Good Honours 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 manipulation and construction of the table. Universities were provided with sets of their own HESA data, which would 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, Good Honours and Graduate Prospects the score was adjusted for subject mix. As a consequence of this, it is not possible to replicate the scores in the table from the published indicators which requires access to the entire dataset.

The detailed definitions of the indicators are given below.

Student Satisfaction

The average score in each of the six question areas (Teaching, Assessment & Feedback, Academic Support, Organisation & Management, Learning Resources and Personal Development) plus the Overall Satisfaction question were combined to provide a composite score. Where a score for 2006 did not exist, 2005 data was used otherwise an average of all NSS scores was substituted. Source: 2006 National Student Survey.

Research Quality

Overall quality of research based on the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise. The quality ratings for each university (5*, 5, … 2, 1) were given a score on a linear scale seven-point scale (7, 6, … 2, 1). Each rating score was then weighted by the Category A and A* Research Active Staff FTE (full-time equivalent) in that rating as a proportion of all Category A and A* Research Active Staff (selected and non-selected) and combined to give a total score. Source: Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

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Scarborough Campus offers a completely different experience to that of Hull - its a shame the Times listing doesnt allow students to pull these details out.

Magnus, Scarborough, UK

Why aren't Southampton, Bath and Bristol included in the list of universities offering engineering? I thought they were supposed to be good in this subject - is this not the case?.

catharine symington, London,

Which universities are offering Msc in computer networks?what are the ranking of universities in Computer Networks or IT? why is it that the good universities are not offering courses on pure Networking areas? If they are which universities? thanks

Mo Khan, Bradford, UK

I want to search for the universities that offer Pharmacy. But it seems that Pharmacy is not listed in the subject search. Any ideas?

W. Y. Wan, Hong Kong,

can't understand why architecture isn't ranked..

simon cantrell, london, uk

looking for the best 10 universities to study public health masters in the uk.is that possible atall bcos i'm finding it difficult.

seun , abuja, nigeria

Woudn't be helpful to see Subject rankings?

It would still come under the same headings and would really help.

Uni League tables are great but choosing a Uni which is specifically great for a specific subject like medicine for example ........well one needs specifics.

Any ideas gratefully appreciated.

Trish Niblock, Edinburgh,

I'm looking for the best university to study criminology undergraduate but it's proving to be almost impossible to find comparisons of universities that offer this course! Any suggestions?

kym, london,

How do Warwick, Aberystwyth and Kent compare for courses in Theatre/Drama? Which would prepare students best for an acting career?

Teiron Jones, Plymouth, UK

I would dearly like your opinion on the top three universities for a course in International Relations

Paul Whylie, Echenevex, France

Is university of central lancashire any good for BSC (Hons) sport & exercise course?

Sarah, Manchester,

Motorsport Engineering - please advise which Uni is best for this course.

Uni of Coventry
Uni of Huddersfield
Uni of West England
Oxford Brookes
Kingston

Kev, Hythe, Kent, England

which university is good for INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND MANAGEMENT among the following? 1.university of sheffield, 2.university of manchester(MBS), 3.university of warwick(WBS), 4.brunel university.

matty, london, UK

which one among these four universities is best for Advanced Computer Science,,,, 1. Manchester 2.Birmingham 3.Sheffield 4.New castle

karthikeyan, coimbatore, india

Can u advise me on some good universities for construction management course?

Eleen, KL, Malaysia

hi can anyone advise me on the best unis to study medicine
cheers

anil, coventry, england

So I'm wondering, you dont have music technology wrote down as one of your options and that is what I am looking into, and I know it is offered at places such as Uni of Edinbrugh and Lancaster. But do you know any other Universities that have it? Because I can only find one website that makes me go through hundreds on Universities, so I'd really appreciate any help. Also do you have ratings for social atmosphere or how much fun people have at certain Unis as well as top rated for music technology? Thankyou

Nelson, Cambridge,

Hi, Could you advise me on the best uni's for Fashion?
I'm wanting to transfer but don't know where to!

Katey, Doncaster,

I haven't found Architecture in your "guide". Are there any ratings about that?

Diogo, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

I am not surprised Kingston University got a low score, compared to other Universities that I had chosen, in my area of Aerospace Engineering.

I should say that as student satisfaction is concerned, I agree with the figure. At one point in the campus, lecturers forced students to complete the NSS survey because 'if the university has a few students taking the survey' the results would simply say 'bad university', frankly I could not care less.

I got a bad degree and management was poor, even by today's standards. I felt let down and badly taught. I should say that not all lecturers are bad, some are extremely good and would like to be taught again by those lecturers.

One bad experience was a lecturer, who over my in-class exam looked over my shoulder, as if to say: 'I know you are going to fail, but how bad?'... Concentration was shot and eventually failed.

Other experience is that depending on which course you took, you get better teaching on certain subjects.

Joe, London,

I can't seem to find Religious Studies or Anthropology in your poorly-thought-out and half-finished ratings system.

Al, London,

What are the rankings for Postgraduate studies teaching score?

PravinGandhi, Mumbai, India

Where's The Open University?

Alex, Peterborough, Cambs., UK

where is HISTORY OF ART? will there be any ranking for that this year?

Muanfun K., Colchester,

checking out your table - can't find anything related to Invstment banking. can you advise me top 5?

pratham, mumbai, india

Checking out your table - can't find anything relating to Automotive Engineering. Can you advise, maybe top 5, in this field?

Alison, Angus, Scotland

i was just wondering why London metropolitan university is not in your UK top Schools and with no review?

Addi, London, UK

What is the ranking about Advertising course in master's degree?Is the Leeds university the best?

Naimeh Zarezadeh, london, United Kingdom

I don't understand from the explanation how graduate prospects results in a percentage. What does the percentage refer to?

Michael Wood, Portsmouth,

Any news on Pharmacy?

Andrew Lim, Muar, Malaysia

Why isnt there a table for Public Relations?
And what if the University you really want to go to isnt very high on the table?

Lisa, Reading, UK

which is the best film school in UK

Freddie, santa Barbara, cA USA

Yeah where's architecture??

George Mitchell, Shrewsbury, UK

Why is there no table for History of Art this year?

Helen, Leicester,

Erm, Where's Brighton and Sussex Medical School? Quite irresponsible to miss out about 400 highly desired places in their 'University Guide'...

CH, wirral,

What happened to architecture??? :-( [grumble]

Richard, Suffolk,

I prefer the old 2007 table rather than this. This table excludes quite many subjects such as linguistics (which is a more general subject than French, English...), archaeology (should i instead choose geography and environmental science for this instead?)...could i ask when these information will be included, especially the information for the latter? Thanks!

Anthony, Lancaster,

If this study was actually interested in the quality of degrees, it would have measured the quality of the teaching of Classics at the various universities - the godfather of degrees. Instead, it opts to consider leisure and iberian languages. Plus ca change.

Edward, London,

As anyone in the business and commercial world would tell you, performance evaluation is based on "value-added". The Times League tables is not a league of universities; it is a league of students. The "best" universities take on the best students (very high entry standards) who naturally end up performing extremely well also, at the exit. These students' performances would virtually remain the same EVEN IF they went to the worst universities.

As Jim Taylor has earlier very correctly commented that "entry standards" and "good honours" are not 2 seperate indicators. These are virtually the SAME indicator, which a high correlation coefficient of over 90 would confirm, and which even an ordinary member of the public is aware of.

The Times List is not just worthless but downright misleading for prospective students in not having an effective measurement of universities' performances.

Let Times prove it otherwise!

Nasser Ali-Khan, London,

Just out of curiosity, why isnâ€™t there a ranking for Philosophy? Itâ€™s a very popular subject today. Many students take Philosophy as a joint honours degree with say, English Literature, Politics and even Law.

Laura, Northampton , UK

The main problem with these tables is they are not measuring the right thing. As the Prof in Economics from a leading UK university near the top of the table once commented "The way the HE statistics are compiled is like giving a football team points for turning up to the match on time and ignoring the result of the game". Nowhere do you attempt to evaluate the content of the course itself. Is the university teaching same tired old thinking or providing new understanding and insights into the subjects? Course content is omitted from your assessment entirely. Regards,

cliff glover, gloucester, UK

I am surprised that your compilers of 'The Good University Guide' seem to be unaware of the existence of both London Metropolitan University and St Mary's College, Twickenham.

I look forward to their inclusion in the tables before the start of the academic year, so that it is possible to make an informed decision based on their relative merits.

A table which is not comprehensive is worse than no table at all, unless attention is drawn to the fact that there are omissions

Richard, London,

Will the rankings for Architecure be available for this year?

Alun, Nottingham,

Though the table does show a possible general gradation of the universities I struggle to see how some of the variables make one university better than another. For example, the quality of the university is not decided by having a higher entry requirement. Surely this is a null variable, whereas something like quality of teaching, which would admittedly be harder to measure, should be very important. I say this as I would have thought the table is trying to show the relative qualities of the universities, not of the students. Similarly, with regards to the table by course, though there is a possible correlation between research and quality of the course, I do not understand why that variable is included, but not this other.

Wojciech Wagstyl, Birmingham,

Where is the table for town and country planning? I was looking forward to seeing that!

eddie, HUDDERSFIELD,

The 2007 Times University League Table continues to repeat the same bias in favour of universities with high entry standards as in previous years. This occurs because of the inclusion of both 'entry standards 'and 'good honours' as two separate indicators. These two indicators are highly positively correlated (r = 0.90) and so provide virtually the same information about an institution, namely those students with the highest A-level scores go on to get the best degree results. Inclusion of both indicators in the final score therefore favours universities with high entry standards because of double-counting. This particular bias in the final score could be eliminated by excluding either 'entry standards' or 'good honours' from the calculation of the final score. The obvious omission from the indicators is a value added indicator. Why is this obvious bias perpetuated year after year?

Jim Taylor, Lancaster,

Same question as Simon, where is the ranking for architecture??

Emad, Chesham,

Can I have the ranking for Architecture 2008?

Lecky, Hong Kong,

Two points on the table on Page 4.

The footnote says "Universities with no Student Satisfaction Score (SSS) have been awarded the average score for all universities for this measure". Oxford has no SSS yet its overall score is 1000 out of a maximum of 1000, plainly ridiculous since it implies that the average SSS is 5 out of a maximum of 5.

The table shows "n/a" for the Entry Standards, the Student-Staff Ratio, and the Services & Facilities Spend maximum scores, again plainly ridiculous otherwise it would be impossible to calculate the maximum overall score.

I would appreciate some feedback on these two points.

Dr Ian Rabinowitz, London, UK

where is the ranking for architecture?

Simon, london,