University Statistics
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Times Good University Guide
Exeter University
Statistical data about universities provide a way of comparing one institution with another. But do not look at statistics without understanding where they come from, and do not consider the conclusions without placing them in context. Above all, if a particular table says that University A is above University B, remember that this is just one measure: it certainly doesn't mean that you should only consider universities which happen to be top of a particular league table. You must look further: how well is your subject taught at a particular university, does the course content suit you?
Times Good University Guide: League Table
One of the key tables is that calculated by the Times Good University Guide. You can find it here as a downloadable spreadsheet, but first look at the table below which explains how the data have been collected.
| Column | What it means | Scoring |
| Teach | The average teaching quality | Out of 24 |
| Research | The average quality of the research | Out of 7 |
| Entry | The average A-Level score of new entrants A = 10, B = 8 ... | |
| Staff | Measure of the average staff-student ratio | |
| Lib/staff | Expenditure per student on library and computing | |
| Facil | Expenditure per student on student facilities | |
| Deg class | Percentage of students gaining a First or Upper Second | |
| Grad dest | A measure of the employability of graduates | % employed |
| Compl | A measure of the efficiency of study | % of whole course studied |
| Score | Overall score compared to best University, which is set at 1000 |
Applications from Tonbridge for 2003/2004
The following universities received at least 40 applications from Tonbridge UVIth and post-A level applicants:
| Bristol | 80 |
| Nottingham | 72 |
| Leeds | 50 |
| Southampton | 47 |
| Exeter | 41 |
| Edinburgh | 40 |
| Durham | 40 |
Perhaps not surprisingly, the highest rejection rates were from Edinburgh, Bristol, Durham and Nottingham. Leeds, however, had the lowest rejection rate of all universities applied to.
A general rejection rate is not a particularly useful measure, especially since one department in a university might have a high rejection rate, another might make offers to everybody. So, for the more popular subjects, the list which follows shows which universities rejected at least half of Tonbridge applicants for 2003/2004 ("none" indicates that offers were made to at least half of the applicants). Again, beware of reading too much into these statistics. Some might be based on a very few applicants. For some departments the rejection rate is high simply because the course is so popular. The advice, though, is simple: if you are applying to several universities which have a high rejection rate in a particular subject, make sure your application is darn good!
Business Courses
None
Chemistry
None
Drama
Bristol
Economics
Bristol, Cambridge, LSE
Engineering
None
English
Bristol, Durham, Edinburgh, Nottingham, UCL, Warwick
European Studies etc
None
French
Nottingham
Geography
Bristol, Durham
German
None
History
Bristol, Oxford
Philosophy
Edinburgh, Nottingham
Physics
None
Psychology
Bristol, Durham, Nottingham
Medicine
Medicine is a special case. Applicants often only get one or two offers. For what it is worth, the following medical schools did not make any offers to Tonbridge candidates:
Cambridge, Edinburgh, KCL, Imperial, Nottingham, Sheffield