Top 75 ranking confirms Nottingham’s global status

PA 262/11

The University of Nottingham’s place among the world’s top 75 higher education institutions has again been confirmed in the QS World University Rankings 2011/2012.

In the latest results, Nottingham is 74th worldwide and 14th out of just 37 UK universities in the top 300, reflecting the University’s acknowledged excellence in teaching, learning and research.

The QS World University Rankings sought the views of over 33,000 global academics and 16,000 graduate employers – the largest survey of its kind ever conducted.

The University of Nottingham’s Registrar Paul Greatrix said: “Once again, the QS World University Rankings league table recognises the high value this University offers its community of students from over 150 nations, as well as our world-class researchers and staff.

“Nottingham scored particularly highly in sections assessing our reputation with employers, where we are equal 15th in the world, as well as our international mix of academics and students. Graduates from Nottingham’s Ningbo Campus in China continue to benefit from 100 per cent employment.

“At a turbulent time for higher education, this University dropped just one position; still 17 places higher than in 2009.”

The QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) Intelligence Unit considered more than 2,000 universities and evaluated over 700. The World University Rankings measure university research quality, graduate employability, teaching excellence and international commitment – all key missions for world-class universities as they seek to serve students, academics, employers and other stakeholders. The table also takes account of citation counts and survey responses from thousands of academics and employers around the world.

These Rankings note the University’s very strong performance in the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008, which calculated Nottingham is the 7th most powerful research university in the UK. RAE 2008 described 90 per cent of all research at Nottingham as of ‘international standard’, with almost 60 per cent classed as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’.

The QS Rankings began in 2004 and remain among the most trusted of any league tables. They derive 40 per cent of each institution’s score from the university’s academic reputation based on peer review; 20 per cent from scholarly citations per faculty member to assess research strength; 20 per cent from the faculty-student ratio, which assesses each university’s commitment to teaching; 10 per cent from employer reputation, a unique measure of employability; and 5 per cent each from the proportion of international students and the proportion of international academics.

Meanwhile, in the Shanghai Jiao Tong University ‘Academic Ranking of World Universities 2011’ published last month, Nottingham’s UK top 10 position was confirmed for the third year running. In that table, Nottingham remains in the world’s top 85 universities.

This year’s QS World University Rankings is at: www.topuniversities.com. The Shanghai Jiao Tong (SJTU) Academic Ranking of World Universities 2011 is here: www.shanghairanking.com.