Cambridge plummets in national student experience survey

The University’s score was dragged down by poor performances in the areas of facilities, social life and student welfare

It is the first time the University has fallen outside the top ten in the survey since 2009Louis Ashworth

by Sam Harrison

This article is 8 years old

Thursday March 23 2017, 3:53pm

Cambridge has dropped to 29th place in the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey, the first time it has been ranked outside the top ten in the survey since 2009.

The annual survey asks 1,000 undergraduates from each UK university to describe how their institution contributes to a positive or negative experience across eight areas. Cambridge’s score this year is a significant decline from the 2016 survey, which put it at 9th place in the country.

The University was given a particularly low score for student welfare, for which it was placed at 59th on the scale. The student welfare measure principally refers to the University’s perceived success in helping students to deal with anxiety, stress, and mental health issues.

It also performed poorly in the rankings for quality of facilities, for which it came 39th, and for social life, for which it was placed 44th. It was ranked 27th in the country for the quality of the physical security it offers students.

Cambridge did make a better showing for industry connections, coming 9th in this measure, which indicates students’ perceptions of the opportunities for work experience and other such opportunities available within their university.

It was also ranked an impressive 6th for academic experience, though it is four places behind Oxford in this field. Its accommodation is held in relatively high regard, scoring 7th place.

The best-ranked institution overall was Harper Adams University, a specialist agricultural university located in Shropshire. It is followed by Loughborough, Sheffield, Leeds, and Surrey. The University of Oxford beat Cambridge handily, coming seventh in the survey.

Varsity has contacted the University for comment

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