Cambridge comes third place in student-led league table

A 2022 ranking by Student Crowd sees the University of Cambridge take third place in their league table of UK universities. At 4.47 stars out of 5, Cambridge sits narrowly behind the University of Greenwich at 4.54, with the University of Sheffield taking the top spot with 4.6.

The ranking system at Student Crowd is uniquely informed by “students who have actually studied, or are still studying, at each university” through reviews. Their league table is based on over 25,000 reviews in total. Overall ratings are derived from the criteria of: “campus/facilities, clubs and societies, student union, careers service, and Wi-Fi.” This suggests that Student Crowd gives more weight to student quality of living than academic performance.

Scrolling through select reviews, the adjectives “inspirational”, “competitive”, and “friendly” repeatedly pop up. But the anonymous, student-based ranking systems mean more unserious reviews are also featured, such as from member828794 in 2017 who says ‘This university is honestly so overrated. It’s like ordering caviar and getting a tin of john west tuna. Just disappointing in every way and a waste of daddy’s money.”

The go-to Complete University Guide of 2023 bumps Cambridge up to second place behind the University of Oxford. Their ranking is instead based on: “entry standards, student satisfaction, research quality, research intensity, academic services spend, facilities spend, degree completion, student-staff ratio, and graduate prospects.”

A more overall picture then? Possibly not – Oxford and Cambridge do not have data on student satisfaction included in this league table.  When looking at student satisfaction exclusively, it is the University of St Andrews that ranks first, even though overall they sit in fourth place.

Times Higher Education ranks universities worldwide (more than 1,600 universities across 99 countries and territories). Oxford again takes the top position here with Cambridge falling to fifth place. Yet the universities sandwiched between Oxbridge are all American: the California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and Stanford University. The overall performance in this ranking is judged by “teaching, research, citations, industry income, and international outlook” – a very different set of categories to both Student Crowd and the Complete University Guide with a more internationalist approach.

Cambridge moved from 3^rd to 2^nd place in the Guardian’s rankings from last year, while Oxford remained at the top. Again though, when it comes to student satisfaction, Oxford and Cambridge do not have student satisfaction incorporated into their ranking in this league table.

Perhaps the best overall picture is then somewhere situated in the middle between the student-driven rankings of Student Crowd and the more performance and outcome-focused tables of the Complete University Guide and the Guardian.

Feature image credits: Sophie Carlin