13/09/2021
From Professor Alec Cameron, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive at Aston University:
The Guardian University Guide 2022 was published over the weekend and I am writing to update you on Aston University’s performance in this league table. We are delighted that we have been ranked 25th of the 121 UK’s higher education institutions, which is five places higher than our position last year and our best performance since 2015.
The guide assesses the UK institutions against nine key criteria, including: satisfaction (with the course, teaching and assessment); student/staff ratio; spend per student; entry tariff; value added; careers prospects; and continuation.
There are a few notable highlights:
• Of the 21 subject lines for which Aston University receives a rank, four are in the upper quartile of ranked institutions, with a further eleven subjects ranked in the top half.
• The subject lines which are ranked in the upper quartile are: Health Professions (2nd/71); Building and Town and Country Planning (5th/44); Economics (15th/69); and Business, Management & Marketing (24th/121).
• An improvement of six places for Student/Staff Ratio means that Aston University is now ranked in the top half of the sector for this metric. This metric has continued to improve year on year, and has been turned around from our position just three years ago when we were in the bottom five in the UK. Our Expenditure per Student measure has also climbed two places to 39th.
• For the Career Prospect metric we ranked 31st, and our Continuation metric is ranked at 23rd.
• Our overall ranking of 25th places us higher than most of our regional competitors, behind only the University of Warwick in the West Midlands.
Times Higher Education (THE) University of the Year shortlist
It was also announced on Thursday last week that Aston University has been shortlisted for THE University of the Year. The winner of this highly prestigious award will be announced on Thursday 25 November 2021.
More information about the six shortlisted universities, including a video about their nominations, can be found here https://www.the-awards.co.uk/2021/en/page/shortlist.