The University has once again proved itself a great place to study, judging by the results of three influential league tables published within the last month.

The Sunday Times University Guide, the QS World University Rankings and the National Student Survey (NSS) have all seen Glasgow improve markedly on last year’s results as we achieved significantly higher ratings in all three tables.

The University came 20th in the UK and second overall in Scotland in this year’s Sunday Times Good University Guide which is drawn up from a broad range of criteria, taking into account student satisfaction, teaching and research quality, entrance qualifications held by new students, degree results achieved, student to staff ratios, graduate unemployment levels and university dropout rates.

The quality of Glasgow’s teaching was strongly reflected in this year’s results as changes to the methodology of the league table placed greater emphasis on student satisfaction - especially teaching quality, academic support, and assessment and feedback, as measured through the 2011 National Student Survey (NSS), published in late August.

The University was highly rated by our students in the NSS tables. Glasgow received a glowing 90 per cent satisfaction rating from our final year students, a result that put us joint top in Scotland and joint seventh overall in the UK. We also performed well in comparison with other Russell Group universities who scored an average of 83 per cent satisfaction.

The University gained a perfect 100 per cent satisfaction rating in four subjects - accountancy, dentistry, finance and sports science; and came top in the UK in a further four subjects - computer science (98 per cent), geology/earth sciences (98 per cent), nursing (98 per cent) and microbiology (95 per cent).

This year the University also achieved its best ever scores in the QS world University Rankings, soaring 18 places from 77^th to 59^th in the world. The QS league table looks at 600 institutions worldwide and assesses factors including reputation, graduate employability, research and student staff ratios. Glasgow’s good result, as one of only three Scottish universities in the top 100, reinforces our position as one of the world’s leading teaching and research institutions.

The Principal said: "Being in the top 1% of world universities is fantastic, and is a tribute to our tremendously hard working staff, researchers and students. We do not need League Tables to tell us how well we are doing, but we can still be justly proud of these independent endorsements of how much we have improved."

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First published: 9 September 2011