Oxford is Britain’s best university, retaining an edge over old rival Cambridge, according to The Guardian newspaper in its annual guide.

The daily’s university league table assessed teaching quality, staff-student ratios and graduate job prospects and also took into account the average entry qualifications and spending per student.

The research placed Oxford ahead of Cambridge for the second year running, with London-based institutions taking the next five places.

However, the guide found that many less prestigious institutions offered high-quality courses.

Oxford and Cambridge are the oldest universities in the English-speaking world, believed to date back to the 11th century and 1209 respectively.

Prime Minister Tony Blair announced plans last month to attract 100,000 more overseas students to study in Britain over the next five years and encourage greater links with other universities across the world.

About 300,000 overseas students currently study in Britain and swell university coffers by about four billion pounds (7.3 billion dollars, 5,8 billion euros) each year.

Foreign students from outside the
European Union are an increasingly lucrative source of income for British universities as they pay higher annual fees than their home-grown and EU counterparts.

The Guardian university guide rankings:

1. Oxford
2. Cambridge
3. London School of Economics
4. University College London
5. Imperial College (London)
6. School of Oriental and African Studies (London)
7. King’s College London
8. Warwick
9. Bath
10. Bristol

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Tuesday, May 2, 2006 at 7:58 pm and is filed under Education News. Tags: Bristol, Britain, Cambridge, College, European Union, Imperial College, King's College London, London, London School of Economics, Oxford, School of Oriental and African Studies, Student, Study, The Guardian, Tony Blair, University College London, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.