Is St Andrews considered one of the top universities in the UK?

[ThatOliveRobin]

From an international perspective, I’m a bit confused by the gap between St Andrews’ global QS ranking (around 113) and its strong reputation within the UK.

How is St Andrews generally viewed by British students and parents, and which UK league tables are considered the most relevant?

This is in the wrong section. Boarding schools aren’t universities.

Yes. It's top ten - generally top 5. But its very small and has a set number of RUK places and is a very long way away for a large proportion of the UK so many people won't consider it.

It does come within the top 20 U.K. unis in the QS tables.
Re uk league tables, the CUG (complete university guide) and Times/Sunday Times ones generally seem fairly sensible. The guardian one often seems weirdly random.

yeah, you might want to get this moved to the Higher Education board, @ThatOliveRobin.

It's well regarded. Generally it goes Oxford and Cambridge, then London - imperial, LSE, UCL - then Edinburgh, St Andrew's, Durham, then possibly Warwick, Bath,.Glasgow and Manchester too.
Obviously a lot is subject dependent but that's a very general take, it certainly high in the top ten.

And also of course depends what subject your DC is interested in. I’ve got no opinion on St Andrews because (afaik) it doesn’t offer engineering courses.

The complete university guide is generally regarded as the most reliable ranking for undergraduate studies.

Those listed above are all top 20 in most rankings (although not always for Manchester and Glasgow which sometimes go to top 25). Loughborough and Lancaster are in the top 10 too.

Oh…the op has asked the same on the HE board so probably best comment there
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/higher_education/5473262-is-st-andrews-considered-a-top-university-in-the-uk?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

It's around 113 globally because there are around 112 better universities globally.

I sincerely apologise for bothering you

Since this is my first time using this forum

It's probably handy to know that a university is not a school..just for the age limits that apply.

It’s lower down on global rankings because it’s a) very small and b) less focused on research.

it’s a fantastic university with very high satisfaction ratings, hard to get into especially for English students and very international. Aprox 30% of students are from the US. Many but not all of the kids are affluent. There are lots of prestigious societies and lots of ancient traditions.

I think it is known in the UK as a nice place for the types of bright but not brilliant UK students who might once have gone to Oxbridge from their fee-paying schools but have now been squeezed out by international competition.

Does that explain the hiatus between international reputation and the way it is talked about in the UK?

ETA maybe US students might be lured by that, a few Europeans, but more globally I think that vibe has less attraction than the universities very strong in research.

It's not a bad choice depending on what you are looking for ...

Not international competition. Oxbridge have just been doing some social engineering and are taking more state school pupils and rejecting private school pupils that have higher grades. So Durham has now overtaken Oxbridge in the league tables, being non-private school averse. St Andrews is also not anti-private schools so will probably rise through the rankings in a similar way.

Actually I do agree with a lot of that.

Long story short I think we are saying the same thing ie; St Andrews has become one of the places to scoop up many who might once have been Oxbridge offerees.

I do think Oxbridge has a stronger international pull though, so that feeds in as well, as overseas study becomes progressively more common than it was in, say, my parents generation.