University of York's top ten finish
Posted on 22 September 2008
York is ninth in the newspaper's 2008 league table of more than 100 UK institutions, and its consistently high rankings for teaching demonstrate the University's continuing academic quality.
The Sunday Times says that the University's investment in its £500 million campus expansion combined with excellent teaching and high levels of student satisfaction helped to rank York ninth in the UK, and top in Yorkshire.
This is further confirmation of York's continuing position as one of the UK's premier universities
Professor Brian Cantor, Vice-Chancellor
The Sunday Times puts the spotlight on York's excellent record on teaching quality and the high levels of student satisfaction. It says: "Teaching quality speaks for itself with 94.1% of subjects reviewed since 1996 earning excellent ratings... and the quantity and quality of research carried out at York is world class, too. Students appreciate this and have rated the university highly in the National Student Survey (NSS) published last week."
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Brian Cantor, said: "This is further confirmation of York’s continuing position as one of the UK's premier universities. We have appeared regularly in the top ten of almost all the important league tables over the last decade and a half. This reflects our relentless commitment to academic quality, as well as the huge dedication and hard work of all our staff.
Nearly 90 per cent of final year students who responded to the 2008 National Student Survey expressed satisfaction with teaching, and the survey has revealed improvements in every category at York.
A total of 71 per cent of the University’s 2,200 final year students responded to the survey, substantially above the national average of 65 per cent.
Archaeology, Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Electronics, Linguistics, Physics and Social Policy each figured in the top ten nationally in their subject groups for overall satisfaction.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Trevor Sheldon said: "The independent scrutiny offered by the NSS gives us more information about the experience of undergraduate students which we use to inform our continuous efforts to provide an excellent education. The University’s overall results were better than those of 2007, and showed marked improvements in several areas.
Tom Scott, President of York Students' Union (YUSU), added: "I'm very happy that not only have York's results improved across the board, but that so many students wanted to voice their opinion. There are definitely still areas for improvement, though, and - along with the rest of the Students' Union team - I look forward to working with the university to raise the bar even higher."
ENDS