Report: The UK universities offering best value for money
A new ranking table has emerged that assesses UK unis according to their overall value for money. Are you getting your money's worth?
University league tables normally tend to be based on factors like student satisfaction, research intensity and student-staff ratio.
But with tuition fees and living costs on the up, how much your uni experience will cost you in the long term is becoming just as important as the quality of your degree.
Which is why we're excited to finally see a new uni ranking table that takes all of this into consideration!
As well as the usual measurements like graduate salaries and job opportunities, the research behind the table also considers expenses like tuition fees, accommodation costs, and even the cost of a pint down the local pub!
The research, carried out by Expert Market, added a weighted ranking to each factor so that the results show which UK universities give students the best return on their (pretty weighty!) investment.
Which unis offer the best value?
As well as being famous for its sporting facilities and crazy nightlife, Loughborough University can now officially call itself the best value university in the UK, too!
The uni (with a bit of help from the city itself, of course!) topped the rankings by offering students an enviable combination of low living costs and excellent graduate prospects.
Richard Taylor, Loughborough University’s chief operating officer has said:
It is pleasing to see it independently confirmed that Loughborough offers its students the best return on their educational investment.
For once, neither Oxford nor Cambridge made the top ten for this particular table. Whilst both have outstanding graduate prospects, they're expensive places to live and study.
In fact, a student housing shortage in Oxford has lead to rent prices going up 10% this year alone, meaning the average living cost in Oxford is now £6,816 a year (it came 52nd in the ranking).
Nearly all unis included in the top ten are northern and midland universities, including two from Scotland and two from Wales.
This probably won't come as much of a shock, but none of London’s institutions made it into the top 20.
Whilst the capital hosts some of the UK's best universities, living costs are notoriously high, and the city's student housing situation is so dire that last year saw London experiencing the biggest student rent strike the UK has ever seen.
St. George’s University of London did come in 21st in the table, but mostly because, as a medical school, its graduate opportunities are some of the best in the country.
Did your uni make the cut?
And now's the moment you've been waiting for! Did your university rank?
| Rank | University |
|---|---|
| 1 | Loughborough University |
| 2 | Keele University |
| 3 | University of Warwick |
| 4 | Newcastle University |
| 5 | Cardiff University |
| 6 | University of Nottingham |
| 7 | University of St. Andrews |
| 8 | University of Bath |
| 9 | Swansea University |
| 10 | University of Dundee |
| 11 | University of Southampton |
| 12 | University of Cambridge |
| 13 | University of Manchester |
| 14 | Durham University |
| 15 | University of Exeter |
| 16 | Lancaster University |
| 17 | University of Kent |
| 18 | University of Sussex |
| 19 | Robert Gordon University |
| 20 | Harper Adams University |
| 21 | St. George's, University of London |
| 22 | University of Sheffield |
| 23 | University of Birmingham |
| 24 | University of Surrey |
| 25 | University of Huddersfield |
| 26 | University of Glasgow |
| 27 | Aston University |
| 28 | University of Hull |
| 29 | University of Cumbria |
| 30 | University of Leicester |
| 31 | King's College London |
| 32 | University of East Anglia |
| 33 | University of Strathclyde |
| 34 | University of Aberdeen |
| 35 | University of Leeds |
| 36 | University of Edinburgh |
| 37 | University of Bristol |
| 38 | University of York |
| 39 | Northumbria University |
| 40 | Abertay University |
| 41 | University of Liverpool |
| 42 | Heriot-Watt University |
| 43 | De Montfort University |
| 44 | Imperial College London |
| 45 | University of Reading |
| 46 | Glyndwr University |
| 47 | University of Hertfordshire |
| 48 | University of Essex |
| 49 | Royal Agricultural University |
| 50 | Leeds Trinity University |
| 51 | Edge Hill University |
| 52 | University of Oxford |
| 53 | Queen's University Belfast |
| 54 | University College London |
| 55 | University of Lincoln |
| 56 | University of Northampton |
| 57 | Sheffield Hallam University |
| 58 | Edinburgh Napier University |
| 59 | University of Portsmouth |
| 60 | Bangor University |
Source: Expert Market
While we’re on the topic of graduate salaries, why not find out average starting wage packet for your degree subject.
