I hope that you have enjoyed the summer break and have had a chance to take some time to relax.   Of course there’s always something happening on campus over the summer months: as the excitement of the graduations passes the campus plays host to a large range of international  conferences and events, around  70 in fact since May to September. These are all important markers of our place and standing in the international academic community and add further to our reputation and standing.

It has also been good over recent weeks to celebrate successes in various league tables, another marker of where we stand in national and international rankings.  In August  we were delighted to receive the National Student Survey Results which gave us an overall satisfaction rating of 90%. If one takes the average of all 22 NSS questions, we were the joint top rated university in Scotland 3rd in the Russell group.  Among the several  ‘firsts’  in the UK in various subject areas,  (highlighted  in my staff email in August),  it was also great to see that our Library, an undoubted jewel in our crown, scored 92% satisfaction,  making it top in Scotland. This was followed in September by the QS World University rankings which indicated that we had risen an unprecedented 18 places to achieve 59th place in the world rankings, confirming our position in the top 1% of Universities in the world.  And just last week we received the Sunday Times University guide which showed that we have moved up 6 places to 20, placing us second in Scotland.  

These are all very encouraging, positive results.  But, tremendous though they are,  I believe it’s not league tables in themselves that count, but what underlies the success they reflect.  This is why in 'Glasgow 2020: A Global Vision' we have avoided focusing on league tables but on indicators of academic excellence which matter to us.

Our strategy is not driven by league tables but by our commitment to delivering quality teaching, quality research, a quality student experience and all firmly rooted in an international context.  Get these right, and the league tables will take care of themselves!  And that’s exactly what we’re seeing now in these recent results. The NSS speaks for itself.  But it is also extremely gratifying to see that the QS indicates that our academic reputation has improved significantly as judged by academic peers, and the citations per staff have increased substantially improving our rankings in this respect by 34 places.

We know we have quality staff and that’s not just my opinion, or that of league tables compilers.  No less than eight University academics were selected to be the first members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s new RSE Young Academy of Scotland. The academy brings together the most able and innovative young academics, entrepreneurs, artists and professionals in Scotland to stimulate creative ideas and encourage collaborative working and it’s excellent that we have such able people involved in this new enterprise.

What all of these indicators suggest is that we are on the right trajectory to achieve our aspirations and that is down to you! I would therefore like to pay tribute to the commitment of everyone who has contributed to this success and thank you for all your efforts: you are making a difference.

We have now just entered Freshers week, and last week I had the great pleasure of welcoming some of our new  International students to Glasgow during their orientation week. This is an exciting time for many in our community as they begin to settle in to their life at Glasgow and as a new semester beckons. There is no doubt that challenges lie ahead, but I feel sure that we can face this new academic year with confidence because we have a strong base on which to build for further and future success. 

 

First published: 9 September 2011

<< Sep