Recently the University League Tables were released and we have seen a positive improvement in our position from 79 to 70. Go team Hallam!
This week Tom has got some analysis for us on the league tables and how our position has improved.
For more league table resources head to the League Table Page on the Source or the Tableau reports which Lizzie Morgan produces:
———————————————-
The Times published their latest University league tables this weekend, with Sheffield Hallam rising from 79th to 70th of 129 institutions. We have ranked higher than this only twice in the last 10 years (69th in 2010 and 62nd in 2015), in which time an extra 16 institutions have joined the rankings.
Overall table
The headline is that our improved position has been driven by a large improvement against the sector on teaching quality and student experience (both NSS), and in the percentage of students achieving a first or 2:1, outweighing slight drops in staff to student ratio, spend per student and graduate prospects.
On the two indicators based on NSS scores; teaching quality and student experience, we have moved from rankings of 76th and 71st to 36th and 38th respectively. It must be noted however, that 9 institutions have no published score and are therefore not included in this ranking. Last year, 3 of these institutions ranked higher than us for teaching quality and 5 for student experience. For the purposes of an overall score to feed the rankings, the Times took the 2016 NSS results for these providers and modified it by the average change seen in the rest of the sector.
The chart below shows how our ranking has changed from 2017 to 2018 on each of the indicators. There are three indicators where our performance lags behind our overall position. We are around 90th position for research quality (which remains fixed in line with REF scores), Entry standards, and graduate prospects.
This table shows the actual scores behind the chart below. As can be seen, sometimes decreases have actually led to improved rankings, and at other times, improved scores have not been enough to keep pace with the sector.
There are two important points to note: Firstly, the NSS questions behind the student experience score have changed with the new survey, and now include the organisation and management, learning resources, learning community and student voice sections and the additional question on overall satisfaction – this has led to lower scores across the sector. Secondly, Entry Standards are now displayed in the new UCAS tariff – our new score is basically in line with 2017.
Competitors
Headline: Our jump of 9 places has also taken us ahead of a number of our key competitors.
We are now ranked just above Bradford, Hull and Manchester Met. This is the first time that we have been ahead of Hull in the tables, after they fell by 10 places this year. We are also ahead of Oxford Brookes for the first time, after they fell from 55 in 2016 to 69 last year and 84 in this year’s table.
Universities seeing a big jump up the table include:
- Staffordshire – up 29 places – driven by an improvement in graduate prospects scores from 56.9% to 79.8%. Staffordshire had been in the bottom 20% of institutions on this measure for the last four years, but are now in the top 30%. Their NSS scores against the sector have also improved.
- Nottingham Trent have moved up 10 places and are now at 47th in the table – driven by a 3.6% increase in graduate prospects, and then small improvements on tariff, teaching quality and completion and student experience.
- The University of West London have moved up 28 places to 56th – ranking now in the top 10% for both NSS measures, with small increases in all other measures, particularly good honours rates. The University is only in 15 subject tables, compared to our 35.
- Chester up 20 to 61st – mainly due to a big jump in student experience rankings and a moderate increase in graduate prospect scores.
- Huddersfield up 12 places to 65th – driven by an improvement of 5.2% in graduate prospects and an increase of 5.8% in good honours rates.
- Leeds Trinity has moved up 29 places to 67th – this was driven by a jump in performance on student experience from the bottom 10% to the top 7% (and from the bottom third to the top 5% on teaching quality).
- Liverpool John Moores has moved up 16 places to be joint 70th with Hallam – mainly driven by an improvement in graduate prospects by 5.7% and improvements in the NSS indicators.
Subject tables
Headline: Our improvement in the overall table is reflected at a subject level, where we have improved performance in 20 tables, and moved down in 12.
Seven subjects improved by more than 10 places, whereas only one fell by that amount. Seven of our subjects are now in the top half of their tables, compared to only four in 2017 – however we are not near the very top of any single subject table. Only nine of our subjects are in the bottom quartile of their table now, compared to 16 in 2017. Our performance in subject tables has also been boosted by a remapping of REF UOAs that we requested of the Times, meaning that we now have a research score in 12 subject tables where previously we had none. This had a particular impact in Law, Sociology, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, and Drama, Dance and Cinematics.
The two charts below show where we now rank in each subject table (on the left) and how many places we have moved up or down since 2017 (on the right).
If you would like any further information please contact:
Tom Russell on 4966 or Lizzie Morgan on 5359.
