Thousands of students around the country will be preparing to begin their university courses over the next couple of weeks as the 2023/24 term gets underway.
The Guardian has now released its list of the top universities in the country in its updated 2024 University Guide.
The universities have been ranked through a total of eight different scores with a total out of 100. The newspaper has used feedback from the National Student Survey, with students providing scores on a range of different aspects of university life, including how they rate their teaching.
How much money universities spend on teaching each student, student to staff ratio, and whether students’ academic performance improves at university compared to their A-level grades are also taken into account.
The league table also encompasses data including how many students get graduate jobs shortly after completing their course and degree results. According to these indicators, the University of Warwick topped the local list, and even made it to ninth place on the UK list.
Topping the UK list for 2024 is Scotland’s St Andrew’s University with an overall Guardian score of 100.
Oxford was second in the list with a score of 96.5, this was followed by Cambridge which has a Guardian score of 96.8. The London School of Economics is in fourth place (89.7), with Imperial College London completing the top five list with a score of 82.2.
Bath (81.4), Durham (81.2) and University College London (77.4) are the next three in the list, with Warwick (76.7) and Loughborough (75.6) completing the top 10.
Carry on reading below to see the top 10 universities on the list in the Midlands.
You can see the rankings in full on the Guardian website
1. University of Warwick
Warwick is the highest rated university in the region. The Guardian has handed it a 76.7 rating. It’s also ninth on the overall UK list
2. Loughborough University
Loughborough University - renowned for its sporting success — proves once again that it has brains as well as brawn, ranking 10th in the academic table overall. Overall Guardian score of 75.6 Photo: MICHAEL ZHANG
3. Aston University
Aston has a national rank of 25 in the table. In 2020, Aston University was named “University of the Year” by The Guardian and it continues to impress. It has a 65 score from the newspaper
4. University of Birmingham
The Outstanding research university sees Birmingham in 37th place in the UK table with a score of 61.4