Southampton success in Complete University Guide

The University of Southampton gained seven places in the Complete University Guide published in The Independent today (30 April), making it the leading university in the south-east after Oxford.

In this Guide Southampton is ranked 13th equal in the UK, a rise of seven places from last year. In the South-East, the top 10 universities were (in order): Oxford, Southampton, Royal Holloway, Sussex, Surrey, Reading, Kent, Oxford Brookes, Portsmouth, and Brighton. The Independent comments: 'In the South-east, the University of Southampton has begun closing the gap with world-leading Oxford, which inevitably leads the way in the region. The coastal campus rose by seven places to reach No 13 nationally, thanks to an improved ratio of students to staff and a boost in academic services spending of more than £150 per student.'

Electronics and Electrical Engineering in ECS was ranked 2nd in the UK and Computer Science was ranked 9th. The tables were compiled on a number of factors, including student satisfaction, research assessment, entry standards, graduate prospects, and facilities spending. The School urges caution on an over-reliance on league tables, since the methodology that is used to construct them can vary widely across league tables.

However, the Research Assessment Exercise, backed by the UK Government and held every seven years, provides a respected assessment of research in all universities in the United Kingdom. ECS has achieved outstanding success in previous RAEs, and was also exceptionally successful in the last exercise, held in 2008. Computer Science at ECS was ranked joint second in the UK for the quality of its research, with 85 per cent of its research work being graded world-leading or internationally excellent.

In Electronics and Electrical Engineering (in which ECS was assessed jointly with the Optoelectronics Research Centre), ECS (and the ORC) came second in the 'medals' tables, with 42 researchers rated as achieving research of either world-leading or internationally excellent quality. Overall ECS submitted 106 staff to the Research Assessment Exercise and 97.5 per cent of their research work was deemed to be of international standard.