St Andrews students have given their university top marks in a new national survey.
The National Student Survey (NSS) has named the university as one of the country’s leading multi-faculty institutions. An impressive 93% of final-year students awarded St Andrews high scores for the quality of learning and teaching.
It is the fifth successive year that St Andrews has led the independent survey, which measures how satisfied students are with the quality of their higher education experience.
St Andrews shares top spot this year with Oxford University.
Scottish universities have again performed well, with nine among the UK’s top 50 and four among the top 10 St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Stirling. Dundee University is listed fifth best in Scotland, with a satisfaction rating of 87%.
A spokesman said, “The university has always performed well in the survey and notes that further improvements have been made this year, particularly in teaching quality, assessment and feedback and in the provision of academic support.”
St Andrews principal and vice-chancellor Dr Louise Richardson said the result is a vote of confidence in Scottish higher education.
“Scottish universities have again performed strongly in this important barometer of the quality of our learning and teaching, despite the additional competitive advantage afforded English institutions by top-up fees,” she said.
“It is the fifth year in succession that St Andrews has featured at the top of the NSS and demonstrates our deep-rooted commitment to academic excellence and the student experience.”
The NSS this year polled the opinions of more than 170,000 final-year students at over 140 institutions. St Andrews School of Medicine, which has recently moved to a new £45 million building, was named top UK medical school for student satisfaction. Geology and divinity at St Andrews were also top.
It follows high rankings for St Andrews in major independent university league tables this summer. The Times Good University Guide and the Guardian University Guide both named St Andrews top in Scotland and within the UK top five.