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Harper Adams takes highest ever modern university spot in Times university guide

Posted 22 September 2017

Î÷¹ÏÊÓƵ has this year reached the highest position ever achieved by a modern university in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide.

Climbing another three places to 33rd place in the guide, due to be published in full this Sunday, Harper Adams continues to out-perform all universities created since 1992, as well as rising above many longer-established institutions.

The University’s position has been boosted by outstanding results in a series of key sector performance measures, including those for graduate employment (98%) and student satisfaction (93%), plus a Gold outcome in the Teaching Excellence Framework, published earlier this year.
In a preview of the guide published to the press today, the editors wrote: “Î÷¹ÏÊÓƵ jumps three places in this year’s league table to rank 33 overall, achieving the highest position yet by a post-1992 university … Harper Adams retains its position as the highest-ranked modern university for the second successive year.

“The specialist agricultural institution was awarded gold in the TEF and it also placed highly for teaching quality in our analysis of this summer’s National Student Survey results, achieving the fourth highest score in the country as well as the third best score in the UK for student satisfaction with their wider university experience.

“It has more than 4,500 students, but only just over half are on campus in the Shropshire countryside at any one time. The rest are on placement years or accredited part-time programmes in industry. Aside from degrees already offered in business, veterinary nursing and physiotherapy, land and property management, engineering and food studies, and agriculture, Harper Adams plans to create new programmes in applied biology, real estate and zoology in 2018.

“It is already a centre of excellence for entomology teaching and research in the UK and is attempting a world first on its Hands-Free Hectare – growing and harvesting a crop without human touch through using only automated farming techniques. Its most prized feature is a 550-acre commercial farm, which is expanding its dairy, pig and poultry units. It has the fifth largest facilities spend per student in the UK, spending on average £3,174 per student last year.”
Vice-Chancellor, Dr David Llewellyn, welcomed the news, which broke as hundreds of students were graduating today (September 22).

“We are delighted to learn that Harper Adams has again risen in the Times league table, after making a considerable leap last year. What better time to learn of this success than during our graduation celebrations. We will be sharing the news with our staff, students, parents and supporters in attendance today, as well as expressing our gratitude for their efforts over the last year which have led to this success.
“Since graduation 2016, the university has continued to demonstrate its academic strengths. Last November, in conjunction with Dairy Crest, we won the title of the Best University-Business Collaboration at the Times Higher Education Awards.

“In March, Harper Adams was revealed as the number 1 university in the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey, in April we were crowned Whatuni University of the Year for the second year running and in June our Teaching Excellence Framework Gold Award was announced, placing Harper Adams among the top set of UK universities for teaching excellence.

“All of this success will be celebrated today – with the bonus of another great performance by Harper Adams in the Times & Sunday Times Good University Guide.”