A NORTH East university has again been named in the top five in the country.
Durham University has been ranked fifth in the 2014 Complete University Guide.
Durham has held that position in the league table of universities for the last two years and been in the top 10 since 2008.
Its accolade was last night welcomed by a city MP, who described it as a “real tribute to the staff and vice chancellor” at the site.
The guide used available data to rank universities on nine measures including student satisfaction, research, entry standards, staff to student ratios, spending on academic services, spending on facilities, good honours degrees, graduate prospects and completion data.
In total, 124 UK institutions were included in this year’s guide, which is published online, compared with 116 last year.
Durham was ranked fifth, behind only Cambridge, Oxford, London School of Economics and Imperial College London.
It finished above the remains of the top 10 – St Andrews, University College London, Warwick, Bath and Exeter.
Durham finished fifth in the 2013, 2012 and 2010 lists, having been fourth in 2011, sixth in 2009 and tenth in 2008. No one was available at the university for comment last night. Roberta Blackman-Woods, Labour MP for the city of Durham, said: “I am really pleased, it is very important for the city actually the university.
“We know it is important culturally and economically. It is obviously of national and international significance. It is a real tribute to the staff and the vice chancellor who have done a good job. It is really good because it keeps Durham people thinking about Durham as a site of academic excellence, and I think that is quite important.”
Dr Bernard Kingston, principal author of the guide, said it was “beyond dispute” that the table’s top 10 “includes some of the world’s finest higher education institutions.”
