www.topuniversities.com/sundaytimes

British universities dominate the latest European rankings, occupying eight of the top ten places in the academic league, and with a monopoly on the top five.

Cambridge ranks top, followed by University College London, Imperial College, Oxford and Edinburgh, the latter ranking fifth equal with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the highest ranked non-British institution in Europe.

The new rankings produced by the QS Intelligence Unit show that despite the concerns of our leading universities about their ability to compete on a global scale, lack of funding has not damaged their overall performance.

On the world stage, Cambridge finishes second only to Harvard, and British institutions account for four of the top ten universities worldwide. Overall, 34 UK institutions make the European top 100 (up from 31 last year), with a further three from Ireland. Success in international tables is seen as critical in attracting the leading academics to British universities.

Away from the top four positions, however, the world and European rankings diverge from domestic rankings, such as those published by The Sunday Times University Guide last month (timesonline.co.uk/university guide). Many of the regulars in the elite Sunday Times top ten, such as Durham, St Andrews and the London School of Economics (LSE), inhabit surprisingly low ranks (41, 32 and 23= respectively) in the European table and lower still (103=, 87= and 67=) in the worldwide table.

Meanwhile, other universities that failed to do well in the domestic rankings have shone much brighter on the international stage. The University of Manchester, for instance, ranks 26th in our national table — held back by poor scores for the student experience measured by the annual national student survey — but it has managed to replicate this position precisely in the world rankings, while ranking eighth in Europe. This places it above six of the UK’s top ten (St Andrews, Warwick, Durham, York, LSE and Bristol).

Other universities that sharply outperform their Sunday Times ranking include Edinburgh, ranked 5= in Europe and 20= in the world, but a comparatively lowly 15= in the UK. Similarly, King’s College London, 13th domestically, has put on a good show when compared with overseas institutions, ranking 7th in Europe and 23rd in the world.

While Cambridge, UCL, Imperial and Oxford top both the QS and Sunday Times rankings (albeit in different orders), the world rankings are not always popular among our leading universities. “The world ranking is the league table we love to hate,” said Niall Scott, director of corporate communications at the University of St Andrews, “because the methodology seems to punish smaller institutions. To us it’s an anomalous result. We are consistently top five domestically but suddenly find ourselves further down the world rankings and behind universities that are behind us domestically. There’s no logic, no science to that. It is a different methodology.”

So which rankings should would-be students believe? As with all league tables, it pays to read the small print. The world rankings methodology measures six indicators, two of them surveys — one of academics across the world asking them which university they think is the premier one in their discipline, another of employers, asking them what they thought of the graduates they interview and therefore the universities that these graduates had attended. The ratio of students to staff is another indicator, as is the number of citations per faculty – which measures how often work by each university’s academics is cited by other academics. Scores are also given for the proportions of international staff and students at each university.

The Sunday Times rankings, on the other hand, give most weighting to the quality of the student experience, taking account of teaching quality and learning resources, together with the academic quality of a university’s intake. Graduate employment, research quality and dropout rates also feed into the domestic rankings.

Professor Chris Higgins, vice-chancellor of Durham University, thinks that while the world university rankings show the strength of UK higher education, the picture is not wholly representative. “The UK would fare even better if the quality and intensity of research and education was given as much weight as quantity and profile. Medium-sized universities, such as Durham, where quality and intensity of research and education are more important than quantity, do exceptionally well in UK league tables but are not favoured by the parameters used in world league tables,” he said.

Size might count against the likes of Durham and St Andrews in international rankings, but Higgins is certain it does not among applicants. “I know at which type of university I would rather work and study — one which operates on a human scale and can provide personal contact between staff and students, in which most teaching staff also carry out research at the forefront of their discipline.”

St Andrews’ Scott believes the student experience should be a key indicator. “The national student survey has had a positive effect on our league table rankings, but it’s not taken into account [in the world rankings] so it’s obvious that we are going to suffer.”

Ben Sowter, head of the QS Intelligence Unit, said student experience was not totally ignored in the QS rankings, but he is open to expanding its significance further. “We are asking employers about the quality of graduates, but that doesn’t just look at their academic ability, it looks at everything else they have done and how complete they come out of university. We are keen to look at what students think as well, and in the future perhaps we will introduce a student survey of our own to complement the existing indicators.”

In the meantime, the disparity between domestic and world rankings looks unlikely to even out. The advice to would-be students is to look closely at the factors that contribute to a university’s overall ranking.

“What I always advise prospective students to do is that if you know in which country you want to study, go look at the domestic rankings,” said Sowter. “They are able to embrace more indicators than an international table just by their nature. But if you’re unsure about what country to go to, then our international rankings can provide a powerful shortlisting tool. But whatever you do, don’t make a decision on just a ranking position.”

Source: QS Intelligence Unit (www.topuniversities.com) Copyright © 2004-2009 QS Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd

Times recommends

• Students face big rise in university fees
• Students to rate lecturers online
• Lord heads team to look at raising tuition fees