In the latest of the university rankings for 2020 to be published, St Andrews has slipped from 97th to 100th in the world. Edinburgh is ranked ahead of St Andrews in 20th position (down 2) as is Glasgow which, in 67th place, bucked the general downward UK trend by moving up 2 places. Other Scottish rankings include Aberdeen, 194th (down 22), Strathclyde, 296th (down 28), Dundee, 302nd (down 30), Stirling 478th (down 61).
At the top of the table, Massachusetts Institute of Technology retained top spot, with Stanford and Harvard in 2nd and 3rd place as last year, followed by Oxford in 4th place (up 1). Cambridge dropped a place from 6th to 7th, continuing a downward tend which began in 2016.
The overall downward trend in UK university placings has been attributed to Brexit, with lower levels of university investment and difficulties in attracting top EU staff.
Relative to other UK universities, St Andrews was ranked 17th while only last week, StAndrewsQV reported that the Guardian University Guide had placed it 2nd to Cambridge and ahead of Oxford. The reason for this discrepancy is different methodologies. The Guardian places heavy emphasis on student satisfaction but does not include research performance, an important component of the QS world rankings
For the full list of QS rankings go to https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2020
