Leicester is one of just 23 UK universities to feature in the world’s top 200 universities in the Shanghai Jiao Tong table (2009), and is ranked 196th in the world by the Times Higher Education magazine. In the league tables published by UK national newspapers, the University is ranked 20th by The Independent's Complete University Guide, 15th by The Guardian and The Times University Guides and 20th by The Sunday Times University Guide.
In October 2008 the University was named University of the Year 2008-09 by the Times Higher Education magazine at their annual awards. The judges cited Leicester's ability to demonstrate "commitment to high quality, a belief in the synergy of teaching and research and a conviction that higher education is a power for good".
Leicester is a leading provider of graduate education, both campus-based and distance learning. Over half of our 20,000 full- and part-time students are postgraduates. International students make up about 18% of our full-time student population.
The University occupies an attractive campus close to the centre of Leicester, a multicultural city of 300,000 people located 160km north of London, a journey of 70 minutes by train.
Academic strengths
Leicester is a strong, research-active university across the range of academic disciplines. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) Leicester emerged as having one of the highest proportions of research-active staff, with approximately 93 per cent of staff contributing research to the RAE. Leicester is a member of the 1994 Group of internationally-recognised, research-intensive universities.
For five consecutive years the University of Leicester has achieved some of the highest scores for student satisfaction in the National Student Survey. In 2008 91 per cent of full-time students expressed satisfaction with their programme. This put Leciester in equal first place with the University of Cambridge amongst mainstream English universities teaching full-time students.
Teaching in 18 subject areas has been graded as “Excellent” by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), including 14 successive scores. Our MBA programme is accredited by the Association of MBAs.
Leicester has a strong track record in ensuring that students who enter our University go on to complete their studies, with a completion rate consistently above 90 per cent, one of the highest in the UK. Our welfare and academic support services, as well as students’ satisfaction with our teaching, are key to this success.
