Dear colleagues,
I am pleased to report that the University has continued to perform well in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2026 published today, with a ranking of =23rd within the UK and 4th in Scotland. While this represents a drop from 15th last year - the University’s highest ever position in this ranking – it is also the fifth year in succession that the University has placed within the top 25 UK-wide.
It is particularly pleasing to see that the University remains ranked in the national top quartile band for Student Experience, Entry Standards, Graduate Prospects and Good Honours.
Going forward, the University will be focusing on improving performance under various measures, including the National Student Survey metric for Teaching Quality. This year, despite an increase in score, the University’s position dropped from 17th to 44th, meaning other universities in the UK improved at a faster pace.
The People & Planet metric introduced last year, which focuses on sustainability, is the area with the greatest potential for improvement. The University will be undertaking further work to better understand this metric ahead of next year, with a view to ensuring that our score and ranking are more reflective of our strong performance in the THE Impact Rankings and QS Sustainability Rankings.
Subject Ranking Highlights
At a subject level, we are delighted to announce that we are ranked 1st across the UK for Archaeology & Forensic Science, coming top out of 49 institutions ranked for that subject.
We have also been ranked in the UK Top 10 in another six subjects: Anatomy & Physiology (6th), Politics & IR (6th), English (6th), Geology (7th), Drama, Dance & Cinematics (8th), and Education (9th).
A further seven subjects are ranked in the top 20 in the UK.
Full details on the metrics used in this ranking along with a detailed analysis of the results at University and subject level are available on the Directorate of Planning & Governance webpages.
Congratulations to the whole University on these excellent results.
Best wishes
Pete
Peter Edwards
Acting Senior Vice-Principal