University of Lincoln staff are “delighted” after placing 54th out of 119 universities in the Guardian‘s 2016 university league tables, a rise of 11 places on the previous year.
The university scored 61.3 out of a possible 100, sitting alongside the University of Hull and the University of Gloucestershire.
Despite the rise, Lincoln is still below its personal best, when it placed 47th out of 120 institutions in 2013.
There was good news for some of the University of Lincoln’s individual academic departments, ranking fourth in the UK for agriculture, fifth for journalism and ninth for engineering.
Nursing at Lincoln sank the lowest, coming 67th out of 70 institutions scored. Despite career prospects of 95%, just 57% of students were satisfied with the course and only 28.7% appreciated tutors’ feedback.
The only other areas of teaching at the University of Lincoln with a Guardian score of less than 50 out of 100 were architecture, which scored 48.4, and sociology, which scored 41.2. Both scores were pulled down by low feedback satisfaction rates.
The Guardian‘s calculations are based largely off student satisfaction rates on feedback, teaching, and courses, as reported in the National Student Survey (NSS); but also takes into account the student to staff ratio, the amount the university spends per student, prospects after graduation, and the “value added” to a student (comparing entry qualifications to final degree certifications).
The tables reveal that a relatively high proportion of Lincoln graduates – 67.5% – are in a graduate job or further study after receiving their degree, although this is a 2% drop on last year’s figures.
Meanwhile, improvements are continuing to be made to the staff-student ratio, with an average of one teaching staff member for every 18 students (compared to 19.4 students to one staff member in the 2014 tables).
The university’s average spend per student remains low compared to similar universities, with Lincoln scoring 4.3 out of 10 against Hull’s 4.5, Northampton’s 5.0, and Gloucestershire’s 5.2. However, spending on each Lincoln student has gone up in recent years, with previous scores of 3.8 and 4.1 in the 2014 and 2015 tables respectively.
Professor Ieuan Owen, Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Lincoln, said: “The Guardian University Guide measures important factors such as student satisfaction and graduate employability. The University of Lincoln’s continued success in these areas is testament to the commitment of our talented staff, their outstanding teaching and the state-of-the-art facilities that we continue to invest in.”
“We are delighted to see that Lincoln’s excellence in areas such as Engineering and Journalism has been recognised, with a number of our courses ranked among the top 20 in the UK. Our University is leading the way in a diverse range of subjects, and that is great news for our students and for the city of Lincoln.”
The University of Lincoln has not yet responded to The Linc‘s separate request for comment.
[…] University of Lincoln has moved up 11 places in the Guardian’s annual university rankings, which now makes us 54th in the country. The highest-ranking subjects include Film Studies, Media, […]