CUG university rankings 2024

The CUG (Complete University Guide) university rankings is a well-regarded independent rankings provider for universities in the UK. CUG also provides course and expert advice for students who wish to find out more about studying in the country.

The metrics that CUG uses to rank each institution include: entry standards, student satisfaction, research quality, research intensity, graduate prospects (outcomes and on track), student-staff ratio, academic services spend, facilities spend, and proportion of students who continue in their studies after the first year.

For a start, the data used by CUG come from public sources, namely the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), as well as from the National Student Survey and the 2014 Research Excellence Framework.

The latter two are overseen by the regulatory bodies for UK universities: Office for Students (OfS) for England, Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), and The Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland.

Measures used by CUG

Entry standards

The average UCAS Tariff score - a point system that UK universities refer to for course entry requirements - of new undergraduate students admitted to the university, taken from HESA data for 2021–2022.

Student satisfaction

A measure of student opinion on the teaching quality at the university, with data extracted from the National Student Survey (NSS) - a survey of final-year undergraduate students in 2022.

Research quality

An assessment of the quality of research done at the university, with data coming from the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) undertaken by the funding councils.

Research intensity

A measure of the proportion of staff involved in research. Data is gathered from HESA data from 2019–2020.

Graduate prospects

This measures both the success of graduates in finding employment or furthering their studies on completing their first degree, and the proportion of graduates who agree their activity is on track with their future plans. The data comes from a survey done 15 months after the students graduate.

Student-staff ratio

A measure of the average staffing level in the university, calculated based on HESA data for 2021–2022.

Academic services spend

How much a university spends per student on all academic services - including library and computing services, museums and observatories - with HESA data coming from 2018–2019, 2019–2020 and 2020–2021.

Facilities spend

How much a university spends per student on staff and student facilities, based on HESA data from 2018–2019, 2019–2020 and 2020–2021.

Continuation

The metric tracks the proportion of students who continue in their studies after the first year.

CUG top universities in the UK 2024

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