King’s rises from 40th to 36th in Guardian university rankings

Four places is better than nothing


KCL has risen from 40th to 36th place in The Guardian’s newly released 2016 UK university league tables.

The rankings are assessed according to a number of criteria, including how satisfied students are with their course, teaching and feedback. KCL has been shown to have one of the best employment rates of any UK university, with almost 80% expected to be employed within 6 months of graduating.

The  newspaper bases a large proportion of universities’ rankings on “student satisfaction”, which some prospective students think is an inappropriate way to assess potential universities.

Matthew Guertler, a KCL offer holder for Law, said, “The concept of ‘student satisfaction’ bemuses me as it is highly ambiguous. Naturally, universities with more challenging degrees are likely to have a lower ‘student satisfaction’ level than universities offering easier degree subjects. I place more of an emphasis on international reputability than domestic reputability.”

Many students aren’t convinced by the  legendary league table, which also suggests that Queen Mary is now higher ranking than Durham, LSE and King’s for Law. This is despite the fact that previously, the QS World University Rankings ranked KCL 16th in the world: above the University of Bristol and Cornell University.

However, some students do think some factors, especially the ’employability rating’, serve as important information for potential applicants. Another King’s offer holder, Olena Cytryna, said, “If I didn’t care about employability I wouldn’t look at tables, but I am afraid that they are an important indication for employers.”

Even so, although though King’s has climbed a few places in this year’s league table, and ranked very highly on individual subjects such as Philosophy, the general consensus among both current and prospective students seems to be that due to the focus on student satisfaction, the Guardian’s league tables should generally be taken with a pinch of salt.