UofG rises two places to 14th in the UK and remains 2nd in Scotland
Published: 18 September 2020
The latest ranking in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021 marks the third improvement for Glasgow in recent weeks
The University of Glasgow has scored its third rise in recent weeks in university rankings.
In The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021, the University has risen two places to 14th in the UK and remains 2nd in Scotland.
This follows improvements in THE World University Rankings in which Glasgow moved up seven places to 92nd and the Guardian University Guide in which Glasgow rose two places to 12th in the UK.
The Principal, Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, said: “These improvements in our rankings in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide are excellent news and are further endorsement of our increasingly strong position in the highly competitive environment of university rankings.
“All three higher education league tables published in as many weeks measure performance in slightly different ways. It is therefore very encouraging to see our performance being rated well in so many indices. I should like to take this opportunity to thank colleagues across all our campuses for their dedication to delivering excellence across research, teaching and student experience.”
Robert Gordon University has been named Scottish University of the Year in the The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021. The sunny outlook of students has made for its best results yet for student satisfaction. It is up 17 places in the guide’s overall ranking, scores 8th= for satisfaction with the student experience and 12th in terms of teaching quality.
Elsewhere, Abertay University was named UK University of the Year for Teaching Quality.
The guide authors said: “Its small class sizes and integrated student support facilitate personalised learning, and the university has had a second successive year of stellar results for student satisfaction in the National Student Survey. Strathclyde, having been named Scottish University of the Year in 2019, was shortlisted for UK University of the Year, losing out to Oxford.”
The University of St Andrews has retained third place in the UK academic ranking, but has closed the gap on Oxford in second place and Cambridge at the top to the narrowest it has ever been.
The new edition of The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021 will be published this weekend in The Sunday Times (September 20).
| Scotland rank | University | UK rank | Last year’s UK rank | 2020 National student survey teaching quality (%) | 2020 National student survey student experience (%) | Graduate prospects (% in high-skilled jobs or graduate-level study) | Completion rate (%) |
| 1 | University of St Andrews | 3 | 3 | 86.7 | 86.3 | 81.9 | 95.0 |
| 2 | University of Glasgow | 14 | 16 | 78.4 | 79.4 | 81.3 | 88.0 |
| 3 | University of Edinburgh | 17 | 25 | 72.8 | 72.9 | 81.2 | 93.8 |
| 4= | University of Dundee | 23= | 24 | 80.9 | 80.7 | 84.4 | 87.7 |
| 4= | University of Strathclyde | 23= | 36 | 78.5 | 79.5 | 83.4 | 87.8 |
| 6 | University of Aberdeen | 27 | 27 | 78.4 | 80.3 | 79.8 | 88.9 |
| 7 | Heriot-Watt University | 35 | 33 | 77.1 | 78.0 | 80.8 | 84.4 |
| 8 | University of Stirling | 38 | 47 | 82.2 | 78.6 | 77.4 | 81.3 |
| 9 | Edinburgh Napier University | 63 | 101 | 81.6 | 80.2 | 74.3 | 81.1 |
| 10 | Robert Gordon University | 66 | 83 | 84.3 | 82.2 | 78.5 | 84.5 |
| 11 | Glasgow Caledonian University | 75 | 96= | 80.8 | 79.0 | 74.6 | 85.0 |
| 12 | Abertay University | 80= | 98= | 87.0 | 81.2 | 67.3 | 74.3 |
| 13 | Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh | 89 | 82 | 80.3 | 76.1 | 71.8 | 79.3 |
| 14 | University of the West of Scotland | 116 | 108 | 81.6 | 78.4 | 72.0 | 78.5 |
First published: 18 September 2020