League tables: What's new for 2024

Major league table climbers 2024 

While not every university can make it to the top of our tables, it’s important to note how much they improve and climb each year. The table below shows the universities that have leapt up the tables by five or considerably more places this year. Click on the university names below to find out more about them and how they score across several measures. 

Areas of excellence   

While the focus may be on the overall rankings, universities from lower down the league table can do much better than higher ranked institutions in the subject tables. The University of Bradford ranks 6th in the UK for its Forensic Science courses while sitting at 105th place in the main table. Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh ranks 103rd in the main table while being in the top five nationally for its Counselling, Psychotherapy & Occupational Therapy courses. This is true even in highly competitive subjects like Medicine, where Dundee sits in the top ten but does not make the top 50 in the main table. 

Explore the tables for yourself and find out where universities rank by subject, region, and overall. 

Post pandemic bounce back   

Last year it was clear that the pandemic had affected Graduate Prospects with most unis seeing a drop in their Graduate Outcomes scores in 2023 compared to 2022. However, in 2024 Graduate Prospects - Outcomes scores are up across the main table, with just 17 universities out of 130 having a lower score this year compared to 2023. All the other unis saw their scores go up by an average of almost 3 per cent. 

This year has also seen a rise in Student Satisfaction scores, with 99 out of 130 institutions scoring higher than in 2023, when only two universities managed to increase their student satisfaction scores. Looks like universities are finally bouncing back from the trials of the Covid pandemic.  

Professor Amanda Chetwynd, Complete University Guide Advisory Board Chair said:  

Universities and Students' Unions worked hard to support students during the challenging pandemic restrictions and student satisfaction rates only took a small dip but are now bouncing back to pre-pandemic rates.

Changes to the league table measures 2024  

This year a new continuation measure replaces the degree completion measure.  

The completion measure was the proportion of students expected to successfully complete their studies and get a degree. The new continuation measure shows how many students continue in their studies after their first year, regardless of whether they stayed on the same course or at the same uni. 

This new measure is calculated by comparing the HESA data for 2020-21 and 2021-22 to get the number of first-year students that continued to the second year, left with a qualification or transferred to another uni. This number was divided by the total number of first year students to calculate the continuation score. 

For 2024, the lowest continuation score in the main league table is 77.3% for Wrexham Glyndwr at the bottom of the main table overall and the highest is 99.3% for Cambridge at the top of the table, but this trend is not reflected throughout the table; Leeds Arts, for example, which is ranked 94th ranks 11th best for continuation rate. 

James Seymour, Editorial Adviser – Complete University Guide, added: 

Universities work hard to ensure students make the change to university life easily and settle in quickly – the high rates for continuation in first year show this and are amongst the highest in the G20 group of countries.

What factor can affect the scores?  

This year's continuation measure was calculated from data collected during the pandemic years. It's possible that the way that universities dealt with the pandemic, such as quickly adapting to online learning, facilities, clubs and societies to help new students interact with their new classmates and stay connected, helped students decide to stay on at uni and so boosted the continuation score. On a less optimistic note, the score may have been higher due to fewer available options, due to an unreliable jobs market or movement restrictions. 

In future years this measure could be affected by not only how a university helps its new students settle into uni life, engage with their course and fellow students, but also political, economic and world events.  

Since the cost-of-living crisis began, students have started looking differently at the cost and debt implications of going to uni, from accommodation costs to student loans. These costs are mostly out of the control of universities which will have to find new and innovative ways to keep their students.