Birmingham announced as University of the Year

The University of Birmingham has been named University of the Year 2013-14 in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide.

An outstanding performance has led to the University of Birmingham claiming this prestigious accolade. The University has risen eight places overall this year, coming 16th nationally. It’s in the top ten, up 21 places, for graduate prospects, with 80.8% of students going on to professional work or graduate study. It’s also in the top ten for its facilities spend, £2,219 per student. It also finished just outside of the top ten in the country for the percentage of students gaining a first or 2:1 (78.8%) and completing their degree programmes (95.1%).

Judges also praised the university for its innovative approach to student recruitment this year when it made over 1,000 unconditional offers to applicants who were predicted to get at least AAA at A-level. It helped the university recruit some of the brightest school-leavers in Britain, while taking the pressure off the sixth-formers when they sat their summer examinations in June.

University of Birmingham Vice-Chancellor Professor David Eastwood said: ‘Winning The Times and The Sunday Times University of the Year represents a huge team effort. The quality and innovation seen across Birmingham’s bold and sector-leading initiatives has been noted and applauded by this national accolade.’

Today’s ranking further builds on the University’s recent strong league table performances in the QS World Rankings, Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey 2013, The Guardian University Guide 2014 and The Complete University Guide for 2014.

The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2014 provides students and their parents with an invaluable first reference point on the path to finding a university place. It contains full profiles of all universities. The league table is drawn up from criteria including student satisfaction, research quality, graduate prospects, entrance qualifications held by new students, degree results achieved, student/staff ratios, service and facilities spend, and university dropout rates.