York falls fourteen places in world university rankings to 124th

The University of York was ranked 124th in the QS Top University World Rankings, 14 places lower than in last years survey, and below many others in the Russell Group, including Durham and Leeds.

Overall the UK did well in the survey, with 29 UK Universities making the table, and UK institutions did especially well in the top 10 with Cambridge coming in at 3rd, UCL 4th, Imperial 5th and Oxford 6th. American Universities MIT and Harvard, filled the first two places in the table first and second in the rankings, which were calculated by the criteria of Academic Reputation, Employer Reputation, Faculty Student, International Faculty, International Students and Citations per Faculty. However despite the success of UK Universities at the highest level, the table also showed that many UK institutions have fallen behind their international rivals since the global recession with 29 of the 45 UK Universities in the top 400  in a lower position than five years ago.

York was ranked 20th out of the 29 UK Universities in the top 400 table, one place lower than last year. The University did especially poorly when it came to the International Rankings, coming bottom of the 29 UK Universities in International Faculty, and in the bottom 6 of the 29 UK Universities in International students. The University did, however, manage to come in ahead of its Roses rival Lancaster.

YUSU President Kallum Taylor urged us not to worry about our place on the rankings, commenting: “It’s important we don’t obsess too much over league tables. What’s crucial is the experience of our students during their time here, and their prospects post graduation – this table doesn’t say we’re doing anything terribly – we’re obviously not, but we know roughly that in relation to our nearest competitors, York has to up its game.

“Perhaps with the new VC we’ll see some new ideas that will set York apart somewhat from the rest, instead of always being the one to follow – which will inevitably leave us slipping behind.”

The University commented “While our fall in the QS world rankings is disappointing, this sort of fluctuation does occur periodically in league tables. However, the fact remains that the University of York is one of the best universities in the world, with excellent teaching and world-class research. York is ranked one of the top 20 UK institutions, with 11 out of 18 of its QS subjects in the world top 100.

“What we have achieved in 50 years is remarkable: We have managed to forge a powerful global reputation as a strong research-led university, performing well against the world’s elite heritage institutions. We also recently joined the prestigious Russell Group of leading UK universities.

“Earlier this year, the University of York was the only UK University to rank in the top 10 in the Times Higher Education (THE) world rankings of universities less than 50 years old.”