England’s “best” universities

(note, you’ll need to open this post fully to read all the tables)

What are the “best” Universities in England? By apparently common governmental consent, the “best” universities are the most “popular” and/or the most “selective” – a lot of people want to go there, not a lot of people get in.

(of course this has no relation at all to the actual best university, which is the one that offers a particular course and supporting environment that suits a particular student’s needs. Everything else is prejudice, and league table compilers should be ashamed of themselves.)

Just finding the most popular universities yields a surprising list (start this tune here):

Most “popular” English Universities
Number of applicants in each UCAS cycle (data: UCAS)
Prepared by	http://followersoftheapocalyp.se
2010		2011		2012
University of Manchester	58,252	Manchester Metropolitan University	58,752	University of Manchester	52,780
Manchester Metropolitan University	54,286	University of Manchester	57,830	University of Nottingham	52,271
University of Leeds	52,823	University of Leeds	52,488	University of Leeds	49,389
University of Nottingham	48,904	University of Nottingham	52,122	Manchester  Metropolitan University	49,327
Sheffield Hallam University	46,218	Sheffield Hallam University	50,596	Sheffield Hallam University	41,737
Kingston University	44,083	Leeds Metropolitan University	46,644	Leeds Metropolitan University	39,504
University of Birmingham	43,383	Kingston University	46,540	Kingston University	39,341
Leeds Metropolitan University	42,806	Nottingham Trent University	43,218	University of Birmingham	38,807
University of Sheffield	39,920	University of Birmingham	42,962	University of Bristol	36,451
Nottingham Trent University	39,525	University of Bristol	39,305	Nottingham Trent University	35,898
Total 2010 applicants	2,720,498	Total 2011 applicants	2,847,012	Total 2012 applicants	2,636,252

The first thing you’ll note is that there is clearly something very wrong with the list – half of the most “popular” universities are post-92 “new” universities, as widely disparaged in the comments sections of  the web presences popular HE-focused magazines.

The second, and perhaps more important, issue is the relative stability of the “top 10″ despite three years of coalition inspired turmoil aimed at ensuring that students get to the universities that they want to. The University of Sheffield dropped out of the “top 10″ in 2011, to be replaced by the University of Bristol, but other than that it’s a fairly stable chart – with the share of the top ten near-static at between 16-17% of all applicants that year.

One further point to note – certain cities (Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds) are consistently popular with students, suggesting that the location of a university may be more important to many students than a number of more fashionable metrics.

All right pop pickers… how about the most selective universities – those that accept the smallest percentage of their applicants each year. Well:

Most “selective” English Universities
Percentage of applicants offered a place in each UCAS cycle, where total number of students accepted >1000 (data: UCAS)
Prepared by	http://followersoftheapocalyp.se
2010	%	2011	%	2012	%
London School of Economics	6.90	London School of Economics	7.20	London School of Economics	8.73
University of Bristol	9.79	University of Bristol	9.38	Keele University	11.18
King’s College, London	10.96	King’s College, London	10.21	University of Liverpool	12.49
City University	11.52	University College, London	10.49	University of Greenwich	12.87
University College, London	11.66	Keele University	11.19	King’s College, London	12.87
University of Warwick	11.98	City University	11.43	Brunel University	12.92
University of Birmingham	12.63	University of Chester	11.81	University of Bristol	12.94
University of Sheffield	12.65	University of Warwick	12.14	University College, London	13.01
Queen Mary, University of London	13.00	University of Liverpool	12.29	University of Southampton	13.06
University of the Arts, London	13.22	The University of Birmingham	12.85	University of Leeds	13.15
total % of 2010 applicants offered a place	17.35	total % of 2011 applicants offered a place	16.63	total % of 2012 applicants offered a place	17.01

Well. A good showing by the institutions that we may traditionally *think* of as selective. But no Cambridge. No Oxford (it still remains easier for an applicant to get in to Oxford Brookes than Oxford, as people from Oxford Brookes never tire of telling you!). Not quite as stable a list as the most popular – some one year surprises. And if you include institutions with a recruitment under 1,000 the list is dominated by small specialist institutions, with low applications and even lower student numbers.

One interesting point to note is Bristol University’s decision to become less selective this year, admitting nearly 1,000 more students this year than in 2010 or 2011. Such unexpected growth is possible because of the lifting of the cap on AAB recruitment – it appears Bristol has taken advantage of traditionally strong applications to recruit more students. So academics with itchy bottoms should bookmark the jobs page of Bristol University, one assumes. More prosaically, just because such a rapid expansion is possible for a university, is it necessarily a good idea? Wonks will be watching Bristol student stats very keenly in 12/13, and Bristol students have already picked up on the issue.

But how about the least selective institutions ? Let’s run down from 10 till 1 for each year… ready… not ‘arf:

Least “selective” English Universities
Percentage of applicants offered a place in each UCAS cycle, where total number of students accepted >1000 (data: UCAS)
Prepared by	http://followersoftheapocalyp.se
2010	%	2011	%	2012	%
University Campus Suffolk	46.95	University Campus Suffolk	42.31	University Campus Suffolk	39.91
Plymouth University	33.16	University of Cumbria	28.74	Roehampton University	28.77
University College Falmouth	29.08	London Metropolitan University	28.31	Southampton Solent University	27.34
University of Cumbria	28.31	University of Lincoln	27.01	University College Falmouth	27.26
Teeside University	27.63	University of Bolton	26.56	University of Hull	26.61
Roehampton University	27.45	University of Gloucestershire	25.04	Teeside University	25.89
University of East London	27.35	University of Hull	24.48	University for the Creative Arts	25.24
University of Bolton	24.15	University of East London	24.34	University of Cumbria	25.02
University of Hull	23.88	Anglia Ruskin University	24.15	University of Gloucestershire	24.45
University of Bradford	23.75	Southampton Solent University	24.02	Buckinghamshire New University	23.97

First thing to remember is that between 2/3 and 3/4 of applicants to these institutions do not get a place to study there. That’s hardly taking everyone who asks.

Secondly – least selective can also mean most effective marketing. If the students applying are going to be the students  that the institution wants, this is clearly wasting a lot less of everyone’s time. You can see that if you add back in institutions with less than 1,000 students – again, there’s small specialist and local institutions with carefully targeted marketing. A couple of the institutions in the list above (Suffolk, Cumbria) were established comparatively recently to meet particular local needs – the fact that they are accepting so many of the students that are applying could suggest that they are doing what they are designed to do.

But finally, it suggests that we have about the right number of student places in the system for students who want to and are able to benefit from them, and that few if any students would just attend any institution that will take them. Which is a shame, as Lord Browne decided that there weren’t enough places and students would go to the “best” universities they could. A missed opportunity, or a long-term forecast?

I guess we’ll know next year for sure, but changes to the university system like the one last year are nearly as rare as Halley’s Comet.

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