The University of Edinburgh has been ranked 25th in the United Kingdom by The Sunday Time’s Higher Educational Guide 2019, an improvement of three places from last year.
The University has also retained the title of the leading Scottish University for research and was described as “Scotland’s most prestigious institution”.
A University spokesperson said: “The University of Edinburgh is regularly ranked as one of the leading global universities. Our strong position is a tribute to the hard work and commitment of the entire University community.”
The Sunday Times did note that Edinburgh is ranked 20th in the global rankings, yet failed to reach such heights in their recently published guide.
This is due to the fact that the University is still “hampered by poor scores for student satisfaction – languishing in the bottom 10 for satisfaction with teaching quality and wider student experience.”
It is clear that the University intends to improve on this in the future, promising to invest £1.5 billion over the next decade to target the area of student satisfaction in particular and foster a “strong sense of community.”
The debate surrounding social inclusivity in Higher Education rages on, particularly after the Labour Party have recently adopted plans to “integrate” private schools into the public sector.
Just 58.6 per cent of students at The University come from non-selective State Schools despite the fact that this accounts for the vast majority of children educated in the U.K.
The institution came in the bottom three in The Sunday Times’ Scottish social inclusivity ranking.
Yet such statistics are common to the most prestigious institutions in the U.K and The University of Edinburgh fairs better than both the University of Glasgow and St Andrews in these social inclusivity rankings.
New programmes including part-time paths for adults, additional funding, and the establishment of school partnerships, has allowed the University to meet the government targets for diversity three years early, indicating that genuine progress has been made. In fact, 11 per cent of last year’s students came from the most deprived areas of Scotland.
Image: Lorna M Campbell via Wikipedia