University achieves highest ever UK ranking

The Guardian University Guide ranked the university 21st out of all UK universities and the top performing in the region.

University of Portsmouth vice-chancellor, Professor Graham Galbraith, commented: ‘This is incredible news for the university. We continue to outperform some of the most established universities in the UK.’

It’s the fifth successive year the university has improved its position and represents a meteoric rise of 64 places from being ranked 85th in 2012. It’s also a jump of four places from last year’s position of 25th.

The University of Southampton was the region’s next best performing establishment, being ranked 24th, with Chichester and Solent Universities both placed in joint 73rd position. Winchester was ranked 96th.

A key focus of the ranking criteria was student feedback on the quality of teaching and overall satisfaction with courses. The university scored particularly well on career prospects with the highest number of students in the south east entering graduate level employment within six months of course completion.

Professor Galbraith added: ‘I am delighted that our outstanding and distinctive student experience, with a focus on career enhancing activities, teaching excellence and innovative learning technology, has once again seen us as the leading institution in the south east for the factors that are most important to young people. This is greatly rewarding because students are at the heart of everything that we do.’

Other criteria on which final placements were judged included spending per student, student to staff ratio and a value-added score that compares students’ entry qualifications with their final degree results.

Academically, eight subject areas were ranked in the top 10 nationally. Biosciences and design and crafts and were ranked third behind Oxford and Cambridge, American studies, nursing and Criminology fifth, Anatomy seventh and mathematics and sports science were placed ninth.

The newly published table represents an upward trajectory of continued success for the university with a range of leading independent guides promoting the university’s improvement. In the 2020 Complete University Guide, published last month, the University of Portsmouth was ranked 53rd and in the most recent (2019) The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide Portsmouth rose six places to also be ranked 53rd.

The university was rated gold in the government’s Teaching Excellence Framework and was ranked in the top 20 UK universities for overall student satisfaction in the National Student Survey. The Economist also rated the University of Portsmouth as number one in the UK for boosting graduate salaries, with 97.5 per cent of graduates working or in further study six months after they graduated.