AUB had already been awarded Gold status by the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), a new scheme introduced to recognise excellent teaching.
Now, according to the TEF Metrics ranking produced by Times Higher Education, AUB is the country’s top specialist university for employability.
Times Higher Education’s analysis used a range of “Z-scores” assigned to universities by Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) as part of the TEF assessment.
These were calculated by judging how each university performed in relation to the proportion of graduates in employment or further study, versus a benchmark value expected when taking into account factors including the particular cohort’s age, sex, ethnicity and entry qualifications – the higher the value the better.
For employability, AUB scored a Z-score of 10.44, ranking it the number one specialist university and fifth overall.
University of the Arts London had a Z-score of 7.71, Ravensbourne was 5.42 and Falmouth University was 4.06.
Norwich University of the Arts was 2.15, Goldsmiths, University of London was 1.71, Bath Spa University was 1.68, Nottingham Trent University was 1.66 and University for the Creative Arts was 0.16.
When looking at other top institutions, the University of Cambridge was 4.19, University College London was 2.9 and the University of Oxford was -2.95.
Universities were given a Z-score above zero if they performed better than expected against the benchmark value.
Those institutions which performed worse than expected against the benchmark were given a negative Z-score, hence the University of Oxford’s -2.95.
The Times Higher Education’s TEF Metrics ranking also compiled the figures for “highly skilled employment”, “retention”, “academic support”, “assessment and feedback” and “teaching on course”.
For “retention” AUB was 11th overall and for “highly skilled employment” it was 15th overall, while when all six metrics were added together it was 13th overall.
