Oxford comes second to Cambridge in university league table for sixth year

running.
Oxford has come second to the Cambridge in The Complete University Guide's
University League Table for the sixth consecutive year.
The table, published on Monday, ranks UK universities based on categories such
as Student Satisfaction, Graduate Prospects and Research Quality. Oxford was
ranked narrowly behind Cambridge in terms of Graduate Prospects, the two
universities scoring 86.7 and 89.0 respectively. It also had a lower ratio of staff
to students at 10.5, the lowest ratio of any of the top eight universities. However,
Oxford and Cambridge scored an equal number of points in the Student
Satisfaction category, whilst Oxford scored 0.1 points more for the quality of
their research.
Oxford finished second to Cambridge in a large range of subject-specific tables
compiled by The Complete University Guide including Law, Medicine, Economics,
Mathematics, Chemistry and History. It secured a top-five position in many other
subjects, such as Classics and Iberian Studies. In a few subjects, Oxford did take
the top spot, most notably in Politics and Music.
The table indicated a disparity between the UK's top two universities and those
that were ranked below them. Although Cambridge's total points for all subjects
was 1000 and Oxford's 998, the London School of Economics, came third on the
table, scored 940.
Speaking about the results, an Oxford university spokesperson said that : The
various university ranking tables vary greatly in their criteria and in their
placings from year to year. What is most important is that across these tables,
Oxford is consistently ranked among the worlds leading institutions, both for the
strength of its research and the quality of its teaching.' They did not comment on
the fact that Cambridge has been consistently ranked more highly than Oxford.
However, it is questionable whether such a narrow gap in the ratings is
something that students should be concerned about. 'Coming second to
Cambridge doesn't really bother me. There's probably a reasonable explanation,
like the fact that they take a higher proportion of science students, whereas
Oxford is more humanities heavy. I don't think it affects my existence too much
anyway,' says undergraduate student Zachary Leather. What is certain is that
these results will do little to dent Oxford University's reputation as an
outstanding centre for study and research.
There was no change to the top five universities since last year. Imperial was
ranked fourth and St Andrews remained Scotland's highest placed university in
fifth.
Congratulations to Manchester Metropolitan University who were this year's
biggest climber, rising sixteen places to fifty-seventh.

London Metropolitan was the lowest placed university in the table, coming one
hundred and twenty-seventh. They fell from one hundred and twenty-sixth.
The full table can be found on The Complete University Guide's website.