The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025

Dear colleagues,

I am delighted to report that not only has the University risen from 19^th to 15^th in the UK in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025 published today, but the University has also risen from 4^th to 2^nd in Scotland.

This means that the University is now ranked in the top 15 in the UK and 2^nd in Scotland in both the Good University Guide and the Guardian University Guide published a fortnight ago (where we rank 12^th), marking a new high point for the University in these UK rankings.

Big improvement in Graduate Prospects

It is particularly pleasing that a key driver of our improvement in this year’s Good University Guide is a rise of 19 places in our ranking for Graduate Prospects, from 47^th to 28^th. This assesses the proportion of our graduates in graduate level employment or further study 15 months after graduation. Our focus under Aberdeen 2040 on this key measure that is so important for our students is resulting in strong progress. This is testimony to the excellent combined efforts of the Careers and Employability Service and Schools.

Continued strong performance in the National Student Survey means that we continue to remain highly ranked for Teaching Quality (17^th - down 3 places) and Student Experience (7^th - up 2 places). As with the Guardian University Guide, other ranking elements have remained unchanged due to delays in sector data collection – Entry Standards (8^th), Continuation (34^th), First/2:1s (12^th) and Student Staff Ratio (45^th). Our ranking for Research Quality (63^rd) is derived from REF 2021 and will remain unchanged until the next REF. Improving our research performance is of course another key strategic focus.

Finally, the Times & Sunday Times has this year introduced a new measure, based on ranking in the People & Planet Guide, which sets out to assess environmental and ethical performance. The University is ranked 83^rd on this measure. We have not hitherto focused on this Guide and will now seek to understand this result and what steps we might take to improve our performance.

Subject Ranking Highlights

At a subject level, we have been ranked in the UK Top 10 in seven subjects: Anatomy & Physiology (2^nd), Anthropology (4^th), Education (8^th), English (6^th), French (7^th), Medicine (10^th), Sociology (7^th). A further 11 subjects are ranked in the top 20 in the UK.

Full details on the metrics used in this ranking along with a detailed analysis of the results at University and subject level are available on the Directorate of Planning & Governance webpages.

Congratulations to the whole University on these excellent results.

Best wishes,

Karl

Professor Karl Leydecker
Senior Vice-Principal