Applying to university can be an incredibly stressful time for prospective students. With so much to take into account, it can easily feel like an overwhelming process. You’ll have to consider the location of the university, the facilities available, the academics who work there, the nightlife of the city, the cost of living… and so on, and so on! We have a full guide to the key factors that can help you choose your university here, but for now, we’re answering one important question: does university ranking matter in the UK?

Are League Tables Useful?

Many experts in university applications, university staff, and guidance counsellors warn their students not to take league tables too seriously. That said, almost every student will look at them whilst applying to university!

University league tables can certainly be useful tools, as they take into account a wide variety of different factors, including student satisfaction at that institution, entry standards, research quality and the all-important graduate prospects.

Of course, you can look at league tables for a particular university, but the more useful rankings are for your particular course at that institution.

Important information you can learn from a league table depends on your priorities. If you’re looking to become a research scientist, it might be significant to learn that a particular university has improved in their research output for a particular subject. If you’re main priority is your happiness whilst away at university, it’s worth looking into the background of any major plummets in the student satisfaction ratings. In these cases, you should treat the rankings as a jump-off point

What league tables can tell you (in detail)

Although different league tables can vary in what they prioritise – with the Guardian table relying more heavily on student experience than the Times Higher Education one, for example – all of them will take into account all of the following factors.

1. Student Satisfaction Scores

These can be a helpful measure of the day-to-day experience of students at that university, showing how they of how students rate elements of their university experience.

However, these scores can become distorted and slanted by that university’s current issues, which are often not related to academic matters.

Still, given you want to live at that university, it’s worth finding out how students rank their university experience – even if you take the results with a pinch of salt. As with all stats, check out how this has risen or fallen over recent years.

2. Student-to-Staff Ratio

This is also a common statistic across all major league tables and gives you an idea of how your university of choice might invest in its staffing. Generally speaking, a high student-to-staff ratio may not be a particularly good sign.

This will not tell you related factors such as how many contact hours (hours of teaching) you will receive per week, or who will be teaching you. This is information you can find out by researching your course website.

3. Graduate Prospects

This may seem like the most important factor – after all, who isn’t thinking about their graduate prospects when they apply to university these days? – and it gives you a snapshot view on what graduates from that institution and course do after leaving university.

That said, these figures are only a snapshot, as they are collected six months after leaving university (when many graduates are still working out their career options/planning their graduate gap year travelling), so bear this in mind as it may not give you an accurate picture of where graduates begin their long-term careers.

4. Entry Grades

In university league tables, “entry grades” typically refer to the average qualifications or grades achieved by students admitted to a particular university or programme. These can majorly impact subject rankings, but this is definitely not something to obsess over. Entry grades can influence subject rankings as higher grades often correlate with perceptions of academic excellence and prestige, but it’s important to recognize that they are just one factor among many.

Plus, in the long run, of course, how well students actually do at university – a factor which is not usually measured in these league tables – is far more important than the A-level grades they achieved beforehand.

Students usually achieve more UCAS tariff points than the actual entry requirements needed to gain entry to a course, and in some cases, students gain entry with lower grades than the entry requirements.

Make sure you check out UCAS for up-to-date entry requirements.

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In what ways aren’t league tables that useful?

Although they are useful guides, it is important to say that league tables absolutely do not give you all the information you need to make an informed decision about which universities to apply to.

If you deliberately applied only to the top 5 universities for your subject, you could well end up with a fantastic university experience, but (and there is a but), you might not, if you haven’t taken into account factors that are never included in the league tables.

These include the number of contact hours on your course, the costs of living, the kind of city in which you will be living, the distance from your hometown, the price of the average takeaway and gym… and so on!

Plus, if you don’t get an offer from the top university for your subject, or even decide to go there, that’s perfectly fine!

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Conclusion

So, does university ranking matter in the UK?

If this article can teach you anything about league tables and university applications, I hope it is this: they are useful tools for when you start looking at potential universities, but should not be used as your only guide.

Do not allow yourself to be pressured by the ever-changing and somewhat unreliable league tables when you are picking your university of choice: there are far more important reasons to choose the place where you will be spending the next three or four years of your life. Good luck!

If you’re a motivated high-school student looking to enhance your knowledge and build upon in-demand skills, then why not have a look at our award-winning summer courses. If you’re in the process of choosing a university, they can be a powerful accompaniment to your research, because you’ll spend two weeks living and learning on campus in either Oxford, Cambridge or London.