Harper Adams leaps a huge 21 places in national league table

Posted 1 May 2019

Harper Adams University is today revealed as one of the highest climbers in the Complete University Guide national league table – jumping from 48th to 27th place.

The university had already made significant strides in recent years, advancing from 84th to 60th to 48th in the league table of 131 higher education institutions. The 2020 position also makes Harper Adams the third highest ranked university in the West Midlands, with Birmingham and Warwick in first and second respectively.

Welcoming the news, Professor Peter Mills, Harper Adams University Deputy Vice-Chancellor, said: “I am so proud of the achievements of the university staff and students across all measures and delighted that the compilers of the Complete University Guide have recognised this through methodology that has seen Harper Adams climb from 84th to 27th place in five years – and now to the very cusp of the top 20% of all universities.

“The guide’s editor has commented on the significant improvement in graduate prospects across the sector this year and this is one area of particular success for Harper Adams, which scooped the Job Prospects WhatUni Student Choice Award last week – for the fourth year running. Our graduate employment rate of 97.2 per cent is achieved thanks to extensive support from our staff; strong, long-standing links to industry and compulsory placement year for all undergraduates.”

Dr Bernard Kingston, Chair of TheCompleteUniversityGuide.co.uk, commented: “The evidence is clear; the increased emphasis, including funding, on employability and career planning within academic departments and student services is bearing fruit.

“Many institutions now have this as a core element of their strategic plans with the introduction of innovative programmes of subject-specific careers events focussed on embedding and signposting graduate destinations.

“This is being supported through increased links to alumni and outside professionals leading to higher-skilled work experience. Such developments have been strongly encouraged by prestigious annual awards from AGCAS (the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services) and the Institute of Student Employers.”

Simon Emmett, CEO of IDP Connect, the group behind TheCompleteUniversityGuide.co.uk, said: “These independent and unbiased league tables are used by almost a million applicants and their advisers monthly and are, as importantly, also well respected by the universities themselves for their accuracy and stability.

“Fully online and free to access, TheCompleteUniversityGuide.co.uk university rankings provide users with independent and trustworthy league and subject tables. Each of the Guide’s tables can be sorted by their individual measures, year, region and mission group (including unaffiliated universities).”

The main University League Table is based on ten measures: Entry Standards, Student Satisfaction, Research Quality, Research Intensity, Graduate Prospects, Student-Staff Ratio, Spending on Academic Services, Spending on Student Facilities, Good Honours Degrees, and Completion. It includes 131 institutions.