University of Glasgow - Ranking & Reputation

Ranking & Reputation

The University's teaching quality was assessed in 2009 to be among the top 10 in the United Kingdom, along with its reputation as a "research powerhouse", whose income from annual research contracts also placing among the top 10 the UK. The university overall generates a total income of over £421,000,000 per year- also amongst the top 10 in the UK. The University is a member of the Russell Group of research-led British universities and was a founding member of the organisation, Universitas 21, an international grouping of universities dedicated to setting worldwide standards for higher education. The university currently has fifteen Regius Professorships, nearly twice the number held by the next nearest, Oxford.

Glasgow has the fourth largest financial endowment among UK universities at £133m, and the fifth largest endowment per student, according to the Sutton Trust, with investment in facilities of over £150 million in the last 5 years.

In the QS World University Rankings Glasgow jumped from 77th overall in 2010 to 59th in 2011 and to 55th overall in the world in 2012. According to The Times Good University Guide and The Guardian University Guide 2009, Glasgow University was ranked amongst the top 20 universities in the UK. In the most recent Times Higher Education World rankings of universities, Glasgow is among only a handful of UK universities in the top 100, placed at 13th in the UK and 79th in the World.

The University has recently published its "Building on Excellence" strategy for 2006-2010. The University's strategic plan sets out the ambition to be one of the best universities in the world. The University aims to be recognised as one of the UK's top 10 universities and as one of the world's top 50 research-intensive universities.

As of March 2012, the University had almost 17,000 undergraduate and over 6,000 postgraduate students. Glasgow has a large (for the UK) proportion of "home" students, with 40 per cent of the student body coming from the West of Scotland, an additional 39 per cent from elsewhere in the UK, leaving 16 per cent from elsewhere in the world. More recently the University has started to attract more overseas students, particularly from Asia. There are almost 6,000 staff, of whom 3,400 are researchers, bringing in £130M of research income (2006-7). Twenty-three subject areas, and 96 per cent of staff, were awarded 5 or 5* ratings in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise.

The most recent rankings from Times Higher Education, compiled by QS, place Glasgow in the top 75 Worldwide for Arts, Humanities, Biological Sciences, and Social Sciences. On top of this, recent statistics also show Glasgow to be among the top 10 in the UK for both entry standards, as well as the percentage of students who go on to gain first or upper second class honours degrees.

The University is ranked equal 101st by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities. In 2008, it was ranked in 73rd place in the Top 100 universities in the THE - QS World University Rankings 2008 (in 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings parted ways to produce separate rankings).

In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), almost 70% of research carried out at the university was in the top two categories (88% in the top three categories). Eighteen subject areas were rated top ten in the UK, whilst fourteen subject areas were rated the best in Scotland. The latest Times RAE table ranks according to an 'average' score across all departments, of which Glasgow posted an average of 2.6/4. The overall average placed Glasgow as the thirty-third highest of all UK universities, although placed fourteenth in the UK and second in Scotland for total Research Power.