St Andrews up 20 places in world university rankings

St Andrews students wearing the iconic red gowns seen on the town's pier. Picture: Jane Barlow

The institution secured 68th position in the QS World University Rankings, which also featured Edinburgh and Glasgow in the top 100.

However, the University of Edinburgh fell just outside the global top 20 after going from 17th position in last year’s table to 21 for 2015/16.

It was still Scotland’s highest ranked university as the University of Glasgow went from 55th last year to 62nd.

Education Secretary Angela Constance said: “I am very pleased to see Scottish universities again performing so well in the annual QS rankings. Edinburgh is again up there with the very best in the world and St Andrews has risen an impressive 20 places to 68.

“Our universities are internationally renowned for their research excellence and respected for their innovative and collaborative approach and these figures again show that we punch above our weight.

“The Scottish Government invests over £1 billion annually into higher education and we are demonstrating our ongoing commitment to research and knowledge exchange by providing £282 million through the Scottish Funding Council in 2015-16, building on increasing levels of funding since 2007.”

The UK had four entries in the top 10, with the University of Cambridge named third best, Oxford sixth, University College London in seventh and Imperial College London in eighth.

America dominated the rest of the top 10, with Massachusetts Institute of Technology retaining its position as best in the world.

St Andrews principal, Professor Louise Richardson, said: “This is a terrific achievement, and is largely due to the increasing influence of our research and the extent to which the remarkable work that takes place here is cited around the world.

“This result speaks to our continuing commitment to academic excellence and to our enthusiastic adherence to the essential values of independent scholarly endeavour.”