The University has placed 21st in the 2017 Good University Guide published by The Times and The Sunday Times placing the University 14th amongst the 24 members of the Russell Group.
The University had risen from 18th to 16th overall in last year’s Guide placing 11th within the Russell Group.
The Guide is made up of nine indicators including student satisfaction with teaching quality and their wider student experience, research quality, graduate prospects, entrance qualifications held by new students, degree results achieved, student/staff ratios, service and facilities spend, and degree completion rates.
Amongst the key factors in Southampton’s fall of five places in this year’s Good University Guide are the latest results of the National Student Survey (NSS) where scores for Student Experience (down 0.5 percent) and Teaching Quality (down 1.2 percent) have directly affected the University’s ranking in a very competitive environment.
“The results of this year’s Good University Guide clearly illustrate the importance of the NSS and student satisfaction as well as the quality of our student intake and graduate employability which have been the principle negative drivers in this year’s result, arising from the accumulated performance in recent years,” said Vice-Chancellor and President, Sir Christopher Snowden. “The Teaching Excellence Framework will only serve to make these factors more obvious and confirms why we must improve going forward.
“Our new strategy addresses these factors and we’ve already begun to take the first steps with the significant improvement in the quality of this year’s intake which demonstrates that our strategy delivers,” Professor Snowden continued.
“This will help in future league table results but also ensures that we remain focused on continually improving the student experience as well as our performance in other areas that underline our status as a world-leading university.”
The Times will complement coverage in The Sunday Times with two further supplements to be published on Monday and Tuesday, 26th and 27th September focusing on the best universities for student satisfaction and the universities that come top in different subject areas.
