Why league tables matter
Nothing makes clearer how competitive our world has become than the growing numbers of league tables ranking higher education institutions.
Professor Michael Farthing, Vice-Chancellor
Our university has traditionally done well – often in the international top 100 and the UK's top 20. But recently we have taken a bit of a knock and have had to work hard to recover.
Recent slippage needs to be seen in perspective: Sussex remains in the top 1% of the world's universities and we are recognised globally as a centre for high quality education and research.
But we cannot pretend it does not matter. Many of the brightest applicants at home and abroad make their decisions about where to study based on, or influenced by, league tables. Increasingly sixth formers and others with good 'A' level prospects are encouraged to apply early in the hope of getting the best possible offers. Here league tables can make all the difference.
We know that the Guardian league table – which is due out shortly – will almost certainly show a further slippage in Sussex's position. That fall will affect the number of applicants we get early in the cycle and so make the job of finding the high-quality, high-potential, students we thrive on just that much tougher.
The fall in Sussex's ratings will be driven by two things – a relatively lower level of graduates gaining “graduate level” jobs and National Student Survey (NSS) findings on timely feedback to students.
The good news is that both of these are reflections of the historic situation as opposed to where we are now, and the even better news is that the next round of league table results – beginning with The Times in September – will start to reflect more up-to-date, and much improved, performance.
You may already have seen data on how successful we have been in working with recent graduates to improve outcomes for them in the job market. We had to make a special effort here because, in 2010-12, the jobs market in Brighton and Hove caught a severe chill. We know our city is a special place and many graduates want to stay on here after getting their degree: but, as graduate opportunities ran dry, staying on could mean getting stuck in a jobs rut.
In response we increased our work with final-year students and recent graduates: putting them before employers and sharpening their skills. We gave more graduates a professional start in the job market as paid interns and we improved our offer to those considering staying on to take a Masters' degree. All of that, together with the recent improvement in the local economy, has made a significant difference, which will start to feed through to the tables when the official figures are published by HESA shortly.
On student experience we can already see things improving, but it is fair to say we could still do more. I know many colleagues have worked hard to improve feedback to students, but we need to do better still.
The good news on league tables is also starting to come through. On student experience, last week's Times Higher survey saw Sussex significantly improve its place – with the Library leading the way. And also last week, U-Multirank, a new web comparison service – funded by the European Commission - showed Sussex as an internationally significant research university, ranking alongside US “Ivy league” institutions.
Our core strengths remain: we are internationally focused and our research in many fields is of global importance.
Our growth plans aim to build on these foundations. A bigger university will be more strongly placed to win research funds and sustain strong research groups. And as we start to rise up the league tables I am confident we can entrench success.