University's Second League Table Success In A Week
27 April 2012
The University's Library facilities and on campus atmosphere were particularly praised in the league table rankings.
The University of Derby has received its second national universities' league table boost in a week.
The Times Higher Education (THE) magazine's latest annual Student Experience Survey, just published, shows Derby rising 15 places in the ranking. The University is ranked 55th out of 105 institutions this year, up from 70th out of 113 in the THE 2010 survey.
This year's survey asked full time undergraduate students from 105 UK higher education institutions to rate their site across 21 areas, using a seven point scale - with one point standing for 'I strongly disagree that my university has this' to seven points meaning 'I strongly agree it has'. The survey was done between September 2010 and August 2011, with 102 Derby students completing it.
University areas rated included lecture quality, student halls, students' union, security, industry connections and teaching staff support.
Derby's strongest scores, at 5.9 points out of a possible seven, were for the categories 'good personal relationship with teaching staff' - the sector average was 5.6 - and 'good library and library opening hours'.
It also scored 5.8 each out of seven for the categories of 'good environment on campus' and 'I would recommend my university to a friend'.
Overall Derby showed a strong performance, scoring no more than 0.1 points below the sector average for even those attributes for which it received lower rankings.
The THE survey results, released yesterday (Thursday April 26), follow the latest Complete University Guide annual league table, published online on Tuesday (April 24).
The Complete University Guide showed Derby moving up ten places in its rankings, from 108 to 98 out of 116 UK higher education institutions. This made it the second most improved East Midlands' university this year.
Peter Allen, Marketing Director for the University of Derby, said: "It's great that students rate our facilities highly but what I'm most pleased about is the excellent score for the personal relationship with teaching staff.
"Derby really cares about its students and it's clear that we're delivering exactly what we promise, education with the personal touch."
