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Moving on up: Manchester universities climb Guardian league table in boost for city’s education

By Sam Richardson

Higher education standards in the city look to be reaching new heights – with both universities in Manchester shooting up the Guardian University League Table this year.

The University of Manchester has jumped up the table by ten places in the last year, moving from 41st to 31st.

Nick Pringle, General Secretary of the University of Manchester Students’ Union said he was very pleased with the improvement.

“The Students’ Union has been working in partnership with the university to improve the student experience over the last few years, and it’s great to see a rise in the league tables as a result of this,” he said.

“There’s far more to choosing a university than to base on a league table though, so anybody thinking about going to university should visit as many universities as they can first hand!”

However, the institution decided in 2004 not to comment on newspaper league tables because of how many there are, and the different methodologies they use.

Manchester Metropolitan University’s ranking has gone up by an incredible 15 places – the eighth biggest improvement in the UK – taking it from 108th to 93rd in the table.

This sees the university jump out of the bottom 15 and into the top 100.

A spokesman for the university said: “We are obviously very pleased to have risen 15 places in this year’s Guardian University League Table.

“This rise is testament to all the hard work that has been put in by staff, and with so many improvements being put into place at MMU we would expect to rise even further next year.”

Examples of improvements put in place by Manchester Metropolitan University include the completion of a new School of Art building, and a strong research submission to the national Research Excellence Framework.

The entry points are higher than they have ever been for the university, and application numbers are up.

Salford University has dropped one place to 85th in the table this year, after rising 25 places from 2012-13.

Universities are judged on subject-level league tables, ranking institutions that provide each subject according to their relevant statistics.

Picture courtesy of WikiCommons.

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