Which is the best university in the UK? Obviously the answer will be found only Oxford and Cambridge. But the sovereignty of these two universities has been snatched away for the first time. The 608-year-old St Andrews University has overtaken them and has become the top. The university has been placed at the top of the league table in The Sunday Times’s ‘The Good University Guide’ (GUG) released on Friday. Oxford is second and Cambridge third.
St Andrews has been able to achieve this position due to continuous improvement in student satisfaction. 135 universities were included in the ranking. Surprisingly, so far no UK ranking has topped any institution other than Oxbridge (Oxford and Cambridge). St Andrews had been outperforming the rankings for many years. But during the pandemic the level of satisfaction of its students reached the highest level.
Apart from this, it is far ahead of the rest of the universities in terms of teaching quality and student experience in the National Student Survey (NSS). Its Life Institution has done an excellent job in the field of academic research. It scores high in the Research Excellence Framework due to its work in physics and chemistry with the University of Edinburgh.
Apart from medical, the university has also done a better job in terrorism study and political violence. St Andrews has also received top 10 ratings in terms of degree completion rate, high class degree award ratio, staffing level and services and facilities provided to its students. It got the advantage in ranking.
St Andrews was founded in 1413. It has risen to the top of the GUG league table after increasing 7 out of the eight ranking standards. The university also offers admission at higher tariff points than Cambridge. Admission is available here at 207 University and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) tariff points, while Cambridge at 206 tariff points.
UK’s most expensive degree in the world, fees increased 3 times in a decade: OECD
The UK has the most expensive university degree in the world. This has been revealed in a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). According to this, English universities charge far more fees than other countries. According to research, university fees in the UK have increased three-fold in the past decade. Which is faster than developed countries.
The average fee for a bachelor’s course in the UK in a government university is Rs 9.38 lakh, for foreign students it is even higher. While in New Zealand it is 3.48 lakh, in Japan it is 3.94 lakh. In the US, the fees in private universities like Harvard and Yale are Rs 39.55 lakh and Rs 42.59 lakh respectively.