York has missed out on a top ten ranking in this year’s Complete University Guide league table.
The University has been ranked as the leading institution in the Yorkshire and Humber region for the 2014 league tables, but 12th in the UK.
Arch-rivals Lancaster have pipped York into eleventh spot just days before Roses begins. 
York is, however, substantially ahead of its nearest regional rivals, with Sheffield ranked 26th and Leeds in 32nd.
Cambridge again tops the rankings of over 100 UK universities, with the Oxford in second place and the London School of Economics in third.
Nationally, the top ten universities are ranked in order of: Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, Imperial College London, Durham, St Andrews, UCL, Warwick, Bath, and Exeter. This year’s rankings include ten additional universities, including Leeds Trinity.
York has fluxuated quite considerably in recent years, making the top-ten cut three years ago but in 2011 was ranked as low as 15th.
YUSU President Kallum Taylor told Vision: “Being ranked the best in the region is something to be happy with, for sure, but we really shouldn’t obsess with league tables too much. There’s barely a gap between York and our competitions and given a few slight variations, we could go higher or lower. I don’t think it’s news to anyone that we’re doing well, but to stay up with the big players in the longer term, we really do have to improve in the areas of employment prospects and the student experience had by our members here.”
In separate listings for the leading universities and higher education institutions covering 68 subjects, York is in the top ten nationally for 11 of the 26 subjects it offers.
Dr Bernard Kingston, principal author of The Guide, said: “What is beyond dispute is that the Top Ten includes some of the world’s finest higher education institutions.”
And one second-year student told Vision: “It speaks volumes that the fees have increased three-fold but the performance and standards seem to be slipping – and I fear the new Vice Chancellor won’t be any different whatsoever. In his recent interview, he said a lot but didn’t offer any break from the status quo.”
There have been various suggestions of what may have caused York’s slip in the league tables in recent years, with another student suggesting the lack of contact hours as a contributing factor.
Other information, including the full league tables, is available here.
Massively over-compensate on research; massively under-compensate on graduate prospects – York all over.
“It speaks volumes that the fees have increased three-fold but the performance and standards seem to be slipping”
I think that the fact this student cannot grasp the concept of relative standards is the thing that really speaks volumes.
If fees treble, that doesn’t mean that the University has three times as much money.
All universities have raised their fees to match cuts in subsidies. If all universities have done this, actual standards aren’t slipping necessarily, our performance relative to other universities, who have also raised their fees, has slipped.
Fee rises have nothing to do with the University’s standards slipping. One of the biggest factors that lets the Uni down is the lack of careers support.
In response to Paul Swift:
Of course I am aware that a trebling of fees does not equate to three times the money to the university and that the trebling of fees is largely a switch of source of funding from central government to consumer.
However, the fact remains that it is a natural human tendency to expect a higher quality or quantity of product or service as the price increases, particularly when the price has increased as largely as tuition costs have. Therefore, a student will naturally expect an improved quality of teaching or at the very, very least a consistent quality of teaching to justify paying treble, regardless of the reason behind a price increase which in this case is due to government funding being heavily reduced. As I said, it is natural human tendency to expect more in return for paying a higher price.
Plenty of ‘Careers support’ at Uni. Going in to the Careers building was really helpful for me.
However, It’s up to students to get off their arse and use it!
Misleading headline – York was 12th in last years rankings, so it’s gone up a place. Not top 10 but not end of the world
Agree on the point that careers services are available for those who seek it.
Sorry 12th last year, so no change. Again not end of the world
Couldn’t agree more with the above. Too expecting it on a plate.
I don’t think it is a natural human tendency really. If I go into Costcutter on Monday and buy some Jaffa Cakes that are 50% off I wouldn’t expect better and more delicious Jaffa Cakes when they were back to full price.
That promotion is there to encourage people to buy Jaffa Cakes. Subsidised tuition fees are there to encourage people to go to university. The fact that this ‘promotion’ ends does not mean that the quality should improve.
As far as the careers service, I think it is a fair point that it is under used rather than under resourced; to an extent. If you are looking into different career paths it can be very useful to know a full range of options, they are quite nice in there, and if more people were proactive and used it then the employability ranking would improve.
However, it does not do a good enough job of advertising the services that it offers. Things are improving, e.g. the recent professional connect event, but the actual individual support given to help people with application processes is not as good/well advertised as at other unis.
Overall, it’s undeniable that the Uni’s employability rating is relatively low compared to similarly ranked unis. I think it’s a fair assumption that students at similar universities are similar. So there must be some element of responsibility on the careers service for that low rating. That is not to say that the individuals in the career service are at fault, the university should put a greater emphasis in investing in this area.
@ 2nd year student:
‘from central government to consumer’; I’m not a consumer, I’m a student.