By Mat Johnstone, News Editor
The University of Strathclyde was ranked 115th in the UK and the worst in Glasgow for the quality of its teaching.
The rankings were part of the Times’ University league tables released this month.
Using information gathered from a national survey of students, the Times ranks each institution based on “teaching, assessment and feedback, and academic support sections.”
Strathclyde was in the bottom 15 per cent, placed 115th out of the 127 universities that were featured.
This is below both the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian University, at 77th and 109th respectively.
Michael O’Donnell, the Vice President for Education at the USSA, questioned the results, saying: “I do not think the teaching quality of Strathclyde is reflected in these new rankings but as a student representative it is my job to find out why these sorts of rankings are happening and what is causing the student body to rank the institution so lowly.”
He noted that there are various ranking systems available, and that Strathclyde is above the UK average for “overall satisfaction”.
The University of Buckingham was rated the best in Britain for teaching quality, with an 88% satisfaction rating.
For the quality of its academic research, Strathclyde is ranked joint 21st in the country, but only the University of Edinburgh is ranked lower than Strathclyde in Scotland for teaching.
O’Donnell said: “there are pockets of the University where the focus does fall on research as oppose to teaching, and there is an adverse effect on student satisfaction.”
“There needs to be a clear remit set out that, while there needs to be understanding that some academics are also researchers and this will affect such things as contact time etc., some academics must also understand that they are also lecturers and should take this role as seriously as they take their research and put just as much effort into teaching our students than they would put into doing their research.”
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