Portsmouth top modern university in UK

Portsmouth is in top 400 universities worldwide and best modern university in UK

The University of Portsmouth is among the top 400 universities in the world and the top modern university in the United Kingdom in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings published today.

The University of Portsmouth is also ranked among the best in Europe.

The University of Portsmouth’s Vice-Chancellor Professor John Craven said Portsmouth’s rise in the rankings was due to continued investment in research, both in terms of staff and laboratory facilities.

He said: “We are delighted to feature so prominently in an independent guide to quality in higher education.

“The World University Rankings are used worldwide by governments and research councils to determine funding decisions.

“Importantly, international ranking and reputation is the most influential factor for prospective students and the Times Higher Education rankings are trusted by prospective students and their parents around the world when choosing where to study.”

Times Higher Education describes their global rankings as the most comprehensive, sophisticated and balanced global rankings in the world. They are collated using 13 performance indicators covering the core missions of a modern global university – research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international activity.

The independent rankings place the United Kingdom second only to the US in terms of world-class universities, with 48 of the UK’s higher education institutions in the top 400 in the world. The US has 111, Germany has 25 and Australia and Canada each have 19.

Portsmouth scored particularly highly in terms of citations, meaning Portsmouth academics’ published research is influential and widely respected. The guide drew on 50 million citations in six million journal articles published over five years.

Director of Research, Professor Tara Dean said Portsmouth’s high position was due partly to a continued rise in the influence Portsmouth researchers have among their peers globally.

She said: “Research is vital for universities and it benefits society, the environment and the global economy. Research also underpins our teaching and our reputation and here, at Portsmouth, it ranges from pure science to computer game design, from fraud prevention to Charles Dickens, with nearly 80 per cent of all our research rated internationally recognised or above.”

The World University Rankings come on the heels of last week’s National Student Satisfaction survey, which ranked the University of Portsmouth joint top of the post-92 universities and in the top 25 of English mainstream universities for student satisfaction. The University has also been rated highly for the quality of its teaching and year on year attracts increasing number of applications from prospective students.