As well as claiming to offer better punting and more Nobel prize winners, Cambridge now have the satisfaction of being ahead of Oxford in university league tables once again.
The rankings, recently released by the Guardian, rate each university on a wide range of metrics. These include student satisfaction with their teaching course, quality of feedback, spending and number of staff per student, entry tariff and whether the graduate career after six months.
The data was compiled by an independent company using information provided by the universities themselves and drawn from the National Survey of Students to measure satisfaction scores.
Oxford did top Cambridge on student satisfaction with teaching, achieving 92.9 points against the other institution’s 91.3, and satisfaction with courses, 91.6 to 88. Oxford also spends more per student, while Cambridge edges out its rival in jobs, with 89.6 holding a career after six month to 87.6 from Oxford, and higher UCAS point entry tariff s – a score of 600.1 to 576.9.
Cambridge, Oxford and St Andrews have held first, second and third positions respectively for the third year in a row, and Surrey holds onto a fourth place from last year. The big mover is Loughborough, which has shot from 11 to joint fourth since last year.
Oxford edged out Cambridge in both Mathematics and Economics, but was ranked lower in some staples like Classics, Law and History.
An Oxford University spokesman told Cherwell, “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 world’s leading institutions, both for the strength of its research and the quality of its teaching.”
First year History and Politics student and Oxford resident Hugh Tappin cited the greater range of course options as one of the reasons he chose his hometown over Cambridge as well as the nightlife.
He told Cherwell he made the decision “principally because they don’t do HisPol at Cambridge and it’s very small: I have heard bad things about the night life – there’s a distinct lack of Bridge.
“You can’t really say no to the Rad Cam being your faculty library and despite what people say about History at Oxford being very traditional, there is actually a fair degree of choice and you’re not as bound to studying British kings and queens as some people would have you believe.”
Some took a silver lining from the loss. “Both educational institutions are world class and the constant competition between us is what create the environment where we keep improving and developing,” first year Magdalen student Hannah McNicol said.
