Birkbeck profiled in latest Good University Guide
College’s transformation is ‘a hit with students of all ages’
Birkbeck has been profiled in the latest edition of The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2016.
The Guide notes that the College’s offering of evening-taught, three-year undergraduate degrees ‘has been a hit with students of all ages’, with demand for places growing by 60% last year. It highlights that the College ‘has transformed itself’ since the decline in national part-time study which followed the introduction of higher fees in 2012.
The Guide also declares that ‘the university’s academic reputation is not in doubt’, highlighting its strong showing in international league tables and Birkbeck’s placing of 30th in the UK following the 2014 Research Excellence Framework. The profile also references the College’s high scores for student satisfaction, noting that the most recent National Student Survey saw the four departments within its School of Arts – English and the humanities; history of art; cultures and languages; and film, media and cultural studies – ‘get top billing nationally’.
The profile also notes the high average starting salaries of Birkbeck graduates – among the best in the sector – and the College’s in-house recruitment service linking employers with its students and graduates.
While Birkbeck is profiled in the Good University Guide, it does not appear in the Guide’s ranking of universities because – as a relative newcomer to UCAS – the number of full-time undergraduate students studying these courses at the College is not yet high enough to provide a useful guide to the course.
The publication of the Guide follows a number of significant achievements for the College in the past 12 months, including:
- Its research ranking 30th in the UK in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF)
- Ranking within the top 10 of London’s best universities, and the UK’s top 40 institutions, in the QS World University Ranking
- The School of Arts taking the top spot for key aspects of its teaching in the National Student Survey (NSS)
- Placing number 1 for graduate employment for part-time students in a Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) survey
Find out more