The University of Sussex has risen three places in the latest Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020, which will be published in full this weekend (Sunday September 22).

The University has been ranked 38th out of 134 UK higher education institutions in the newly announced league table and joint fourth in the South East region alongside the University of Reading.

The rise back up the rankings is being driven by improvements in the National Student Survey (NSS) scores covering teaching quality and student experience and follows major steps taken by the University in developing initiatives to improve the student experience in response to the 2018/19 NSS scores.

The position in The Times’ guide compares with a UK rank of 19th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, published earlier this month, and 32nd and 41st, respectively, in the Complete University Guide and Guardian University Guide.

Prof Kelly Coate, Pro Vice Chancellor for Education and Students, said: “It is pleasing to see that we are making a move in the right direction up the rankings.

“38th in the UK is not our ultimate ambition - we want the University to return to where it belongs among the top 20 in the country, and we know there is more work ahead to achieve that goal.

“But we’re confident that the strategy and plans we have in place can deliver on these ambitions.

“By placing a strong emphasis and institutional focus on improving the student experience and creating a transformative, high-quality education through our Learn to Transform strategy, we’re confident our students will continue to see improvements.”

The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020 is made up of nine indicators including student satisfaction with teaching quality and their wider student experience, research quality, graduate prospects, entrance qualifications held by new students, degree results achieved, student/staff ratios, service and facilities spend, and degree completion rates.