Three Scottish universities in Guardian top 20

Three of Scotland's universities made the Guardian's top 20. Picture: Ian Rutherford

St Andrews was recently named the best in Scotland and joint fifth in the UK in the Complete University Guide’s league tables while Edinburgh was ranked as one of the top 30 universities in the world in the Times Higher Education Reputation Rankings in March.

In the Guardian table, St Andrews maintains third place while Edinburgh falls two places from 18th to 20th and Heriot-Watt falls five places from 13th to 18th.

The league table ranks higher education institutions based on spending per student; student / staff ratio; graduate career prospects; required grades for entry; value-added-score comparing entry qualifications with final degree results and satisfaction of final-year students.

Sitting at number 15 in the table, Coventry has reached the highest position ever recorded by a former polytechnic in the Guardian’s rankings.

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) dropped out of the top 10 and was replaced by Exeter University, while University College London (UCL) and Imperial also fell slightly.

Glasgow University rises one place from 25th to 24th while Strathclyde also rose from 38th to 33rd.

The University of Dundee jumps nine places from 47th to 38th while Aberdeen remains at number 41.

Robert Gordon is up to 46th from 51st and Edinburgh Napier surged from 78th to 64th, one ahead of Stirling University, which fell two places from 63rd to 65th.

Other Scots universities include Queen Margaret (76th); Glasgow Caledonian (89th); Abertay (93rd) and the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) at 115th.

Scottish institutions performed well on individual subject rankings, with St Andrews topping Computer Science, Geography, Politics and Religious Studies, while Edinburgh came top of Fashion and Textiles and Film Production and Photography.

Glasgow was top for Nursing and Midwifery while Heriot-Watt placed second for Civil Engineering.

Edinburgh placed second for Design and Crafts, Music and Nursing and Midwifery while St Andrews took second place for Chemistry, History, Art History and Philosophy.

Overall, St Andrews made the top five for 15 subjects; Edinburgh for nine; Heriot-Watt and Glasgow for five; Robert Gordon for three and Dundee and Glasgow Caledonian for one apiece - fourth for Medicine and second for Anatomy and Physiology respectively.

• View the full league table here >>>