The Guardian’s annual university league table was released last week, which ranks 116 universities based on criteria including satisfaction, student to staff ratio, spend per student, and the percentage of students in a career (be that in a graduate-level job or further study) after 6 months of graduating.
This latest table produced some shock results. University College London fell out of the top ten while Surrey climbed up to sixth, our varsity rivals Hull slipped into the bottom half of the table, and one prestigious Russell Group university was ranked as low as 45th.
Yet what will surprise University of Lincoln students and staff most is that their university, which prides itself on “our rapid rise up the HE league tables” in its current strategic plan, dropped nine places from 56th to 65th.
This followed another nine place drop between the previous two league tables, when the Guardian put the university at 47th in the country.
It comes in spite of a slight rise in terms of graduate career prospects (now at 69.5% compared to 67% in the 2014 table) and spending per student (now at 4.1 out of 10 compared to 3.8).
A University of Lincoln spokesperson said: “We are confident that the University of Lincoln remains on course to achieve its strategic ambitions. The latest Guardian guide shows Lincoln continues to perform strongly on graduate prospects and student satisfaction, which are priority areas for students.
“We continue to invest in enhancing the student experience, including new facilities, infrastructure and staff, and we are recruiting world-class academics from around the globe. With a number of exciting developments on the horizon, we are strongly placed to consolidate and build upon the enormous strides the institution has made over the past decade.”
The table also notes that the average entry requirements for a University of Lincoln course has risen from 324 to 338 UCAS points.
You can see the full results of the Guardian’s university league table by clicking here.