Wednesday 2 May 2007

"Economics": Guardian University League Tables Released


A number of national newspapers now make an effort to rank UK Universities. The latest release is from the Guardian. For Chinese students looking to study "BSc Economics" or "MSc Economics" in the UK such lists can prove invaluable to ensure they are picking the best Universities to study in. Going to an average or poor Univerity can be a very expensive mistake.

In the sidebar we already include links to the other bodies such that use various methodologies to rank Universities (the Times and the Newsweek top 100). What is interesting about the Guardian rankings is that it is done by subject so we can look at Economics directly.

Here is the link to the methodology used in the rankings.

We have used seven statistical measures to contribute to the ranking of a university or college in each subject, weighted as follows:
· Teaching quality - as rated by graduates of the course (10%)
· Feedback - as rated by graduates of the course (5%)
· Spending per student (17%)
· Staff/student ratio (17%)
· Job prospects (17%)
· Value added - comparing students' degree results with entry qualifications (17%)
· Entry score (17%)


So far so good. So what is the ranking:

ECONOMICS(Top 10)

Institution Guardian score/100

Oxford 100.00
Cambridge 93.40
Warwick 86.10
LSE 84.70
UCL 81.40
St Andrews 80.20
Birmingham 78.80
Edinburgh 78.00
Lancaster 77.20
Durham 75.00


OVERALL (top 20)

Institution Guardian score/100

Oxford 95.29
Cambridge 91.92
Imperial College 82.27
St Andrews 79.30
UCL 79.17
LSE 78.53
Edinburgh 75.15
Warwick 75.01
Loughborough 73.44
Bath 73.43
Soas 71.55
King's College London 70.58
Southampton 69.58
Bristol 68.89
York 68.60
Manchester 68.14
Durham 67.57
Birmingham 67.48
Nottingham 67.22
Leeds 67.10

Only Lancaster makes it into the top 10 Economics departments but not into the top 20 Universities.

The advice remains the same - try and study economics at one of the top 10 Economics departments at one of the top 20 Universities.

It is also useful to then compare the costs of living, the costs of the course and the size of the city (where there is more likely to be a thriving Chinese community which may help with the provision of temporary work etc.)

The Guardian website also provides profiles of each and every University.

See the following posts for more information:

Studying "Economics in the UK": General Links

Which UK University to study in? "Academic Ranking of World Universities"

Studying in the UK: Cost of Accomodation

World University Rankings: Rankings and text

"UK University Ranking": large city effect

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