The University of Cambridge has been the named the best in the UK by The Complete University Guide 2018. This is the seventh year that Cambridge has topped the guide, with Oxford remaining in second place for the fifth year running.

The points were consolidated from individual categories such as entry standards, student satisfaction, research quality, and graduate prospects. Competition for first place was close, with Cambridge beating Oxford’s overall score by just two points.

Student satisfaction was higher for Cambridge, albeit by a margin of 0.01 out of a total score of five, and Cambridge also scored higher on entry standards and graduate prospects. The most significant difference between the universities was on money spent on facilities, where Cambridge spent more. In some areas, Oxford scored slightly higher than Cambridge. Cambridge’s research quality was rated at 3.33 whereas Oxford’s was very slightly higher at 3.34. 

In the Subject League Table of the University Guide Cambridge came top in 34 subjects, making the top ten in all 44 subjects that it offers.

Experts behind the table said that all prospective university students had reason to feel optimistic, claiming that there is evidence of more positive employment prospects and increased spending on facilities and services within universities.

While those universities ranked in the top 10 have not changed since last year, there has been a change in the order of their ranking. In third place was St Andrews, rising from fifth position last year. This was followed by London School of Economics in fourth place, and Imperial College London in fifth, each of them having dropped one place in the past year. In 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th place were Durham, University College London, Warwick, Lancaster, and Loughborough, in that order. 

Anglia Ruskin University was down eight places from last year, coming in at 118th. It scored less highly on degree completion, entry standards, and graduate prospects, but scored highly on student satisfaction.

These new figures come after recent news that Cambridge has shown the most consistent performance in the QS World University Rankings, having placed in the top ten for more individual subjects than any other institution. 

In response to the Complete University Guide response, a University Spokesperson told Varsity that this “reflects the fact that the University of Cambridge is among a small group of the most respected and influential higher education institutions in the world.”