Want to study Art at a UK University?

If you want to study art at a UK University, you might like to take a look at the Guardian Rankings of the different Universities offering degree courses for both Art and the History of Art.

The Guardian has published a University Guide. This includes the University League Tables for 2017. There is a key to the meaning behind the headings which is it important to read before consulting the actual tables for the subject you are interested in - I've quoted them below

Key to the table headings
1. The Guardian ranking of the university
2. Name of university
3. The Guardian score out of 100 is a rating of excellence based on a combination of all the other factors
4. Course satisfaction is the percentage of final-year students satisfied with overall quality, based on the National Student Survey (NSS)
5. The teaching quality score is the percentage of final-year students satisfied with the teaching they received, based on the NSS
6. The feedback score is the percentage of final-years satisfied with feedback and assessment by lecturers, based on the NSS
7. Staff-student ratio is the number of students per member of teaching staff
8. Spend is the amount of money spent on each student, given as a rating out of 10
9. Average entry tariff means the typical Ucas scores of students currently studying in that department
10. The value-added score compares students’ individual degree results with their entry qualifications, to show how effective the teaching is. It is given as a rating out of 10
11. The career score is the percentage of graduates who find graduate-level jobs, or are studying further, within six months of graduation. It’s our way of ranking employability

If so minded you can actually download all the tables in full!

Rankings of UK Universities offering Art

The top five universities - which I found a little surprising - are:

Slade School of Art Facebook Page

• University College London (Slade School of Fine Art) - top in part because highly rated by the Guardian as a university. Very high satisfaction with course and value added scores
• Oxford University (Ruskin School of Art) - highest entry hurdles and best student to staff ratio - but students are more critical about the quality of feedback and assessment
• Newcastle University - Middling spend per student but high satisfaction scores
• Oxford Brookes University - Spend per student is very high relative to others
• Goldsmiths (University of London) - High value added and just under half the graduates have a job after six months of graduation

The bottom five universities are (in reverse order - worst first) are:

• South Wales 
• Canterbury Christ Church
• East London
• Salford
• Leeds Beckett

These are all what I would call 'late comers' to the university title.  Universally they ALL have:

• very low spend per student
• low to lowish entry tariffs
• high to very high student to staff ratios
• very low assessments of the calibre of the host university by the Guardian

Booking is now open for the Slade Summer School and Foundation courses 2016.

See also Brexit #1: What does it mean for UK and EU Art Students and Schools?