Can I ask why the University rank tables do not contain a column for a university's Teacher Quality Assessment? Each department in a university will have one and they may be different, but an overall value for the quality of a university's teaching should really be included in the table.

Stephen, St. Ives, England

I'm rather confused since I cannot seem to find Philosophy under the subject list. Is there a logical explanation for such a travesty? It most likely has been bundled together with an array of other subjects however it at least deserves a mention, no? Is it foolhardy of me to assume that arguably one of the oldest, most established schools of thought has been clumsily forgotten or are these questions that I pose clumsy and gratuitous?

Noel de Leon, York,

In response to "London Student"

The THES world rankings are very biased towards universities with a larger % of scientists. Hence why Imperial is so highly ranked. In reality, it is not even particularly close to this position. If you look, other science based universities do better than expected , for example Cambridge beats Oxford, depsite being behind in the national league tables and the little known (outside academia) CIT beats powerhouses like Stanford. In truth, Imperial is still a way off being the global university that Oxford or Cambridge are. Also "technology jobs" are not the high flying front office jobs "which largely recruit from lse or oxbridge"

david, mansfield,

"manchester uni" and "manchester metropolitan uni" are two different institutions (like man utd and man city are two different football clubs!...). manchester metropolitan offers a few more vocational courses than "the university of manchester", and is generally lower down the rankings scale.

Emma, england,

I noticed that Manchester is listed twice. Once as "Manchester" and once as "Metropolitan Manchester". Can anyone explain the difference (assuming that it is not a mistake)?

Gordon Goodyear, Tucson, AZ USA

Imperial College London, the only university to have ever displaced Oxbridge from the top 2 places. Royal Dutch Shell prefer its graduates over any other UK university, Goldman Sachs prefer its graduates over any other UK university for technology jobs and so many other companies aim to recruit from there.

Its a shame the times doesnt mention this place nearly as many times as Oxbridge- who came 5th in the THES world rankings??

London student, London, UK

But really, how seriously can you take these rankings? I mean, they can be pretty irrelevant once you hit the labour market because, as has been identified, there can be big rises (and falls) with certain institutions. If you are going to enter the labour market on the back of your degree (subject and qualifications) then surely if you are going into a particular type of employment it is best seeing how your department performs rather than institution?

(I'm only saying this because since I finished university my respective institutions have fallen down the rankings!!)

Madraig, Castle Donington,

Everyone knows Cambridge is no 1, regardless of what these tables say. Cambridge consistently has better research scores and entry standards. And this is from someone who went to Oxford. But really, theres negligible difference, so its not worth worrying about.

t laughton, taunton, england

I doubt that Oxford and Cambridge will ever be knocked from the top spot - they are the leading universities for a reason, and will stay so I should imagine. They are world class institutions and I think they should be celebrated by this country, not snubbed. The people who attend work hard to achieve their place, and to keep both universities at their current rankings and I say fair play to them.

I myself am about to start a degree at Southampton, and am pleased to see it is still maintaining itself in the tables. Lets hope for top 10 within the next decade.

Hannah Taylor, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

To reply to Neal Davis:
You are quite correct that Oxford does not meet the maximum scores in all categories. However, the university that gains the highest total score is assigned 1,000 arbitrary points, and all other universities' scores are expressed as a proportion of this. This is presumably to make it easier to compare the different institutions.

Thomas Creedy, Oxford, England

I'm a current student studying at Exeter University, and it's a great accomplishment for the institution to now be listed as one of the top 20 in the country. It's also good to see the gap between Oxford and Cambridge closing. Who knows, maybe one day their domination of the league tables will come to an end.

Kelly White, Exeter, Devon

How can Oxford get 1,000 out of a max. score of 1,000, when its ratings do not meet the maximum possible scores available ? Additionally, it did not rate for student satisfaction. Surely to achieve the maximum score, it must achieve 100% results in all categories.

Neal Davies, Whitehill, Hampshire

The Russell Group is recognised by the Government & major employers as the eilite group of universities which all potential applicants should inititally aim to gain entry. Why is it then that your league table casts a hugely unrepresentative reflection on these universities, i.e. Birmingham, Nottingham etc? In my opinion, the Sunday Times league table is a much better & less biased indicator of the overall quality of an institution.

Arfan Ahmed, London,

I think Imperial College is by far the best university in Civil Engineering. Graduates from Imperial have more practical approach than any other graduates. The Construction Industry at Overseas prefers graduates from Imperial than from any other university. Graduates from Cambridge are good to joint the Finance Industry. The course at Cambridge is very therotecal, and the first two years are common for all Engineers.
In my opinion your ranking in Civil Engineering is wrong and you need to revise it as soon as possible.

P.Pashas
CEng FICE FCIWEM MCIM MAPM

P. Pashas, Limassol , Cyprus

Imperial will have been judged as a university of london college. It has only just completed it's transfer of power surely.

Oliver Wood, London, England

Mr O'Leary cannot read his own tables. Cambridge is No 1

Prof J Ronayne, Melbourne, Australia

Except Imperial College (in 3rd) is no longer an academic powerhouse of the University of London, but an academic powerhouse in its own right.

It withdrew from UoL last month and became an independent university.

Ashley Brown, London,