Aston University in Birmingham is one of the top 50 in the UK. Birmingham is called the city of thousand trades- being the first manufacturing town in the world. The university has leveraged its geographical location and has been showing amazing results in job prospects and employability.

Aston University World Rankings

QS Top Universities has ranked the university on a global scale considering certain aspects. The university has got a rank of 511-520 for the year 2021. A comparison of its rank over the years is shown below.

YearQS World University Rankings
2017358
2018373
2019381
2020442
2021511-520

The scores awarded for the various criteria by QS are given below.

Ranking CriteriaScores awarded
Employer Reputation37.5
Citations per Faculty27.5
International Faculty95.8
International Students35.6

The international faculty category gets a score of about 95.8, which is hugely responsible for the value-added scores attained by the university. Value added scores try to figure out the value added to a student during his term in college. It is a comparison of his degree results to that of his entry qualifications.

  • Aston University climbs eight places in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020

Aston University has risen eight places to become ranked as the 48th best university in the UK out of a possible 131institutions by The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020.

The guide ranks universities on nine indicators โ€“ teaching quality, student satisfaction, research quality, graduate prospects, entrance qualifications held by new students, degree results achieved, student/staff ratios, service and facilities spend, and degree completion rates.

The ranking was prompted by number of improvements in areas such as the Staff Student Ratio and the excellent academic attainment of Astonsโ€™ studentโ€™s for the number of students gaining 1stโ€™ class honours or 2:1 degrees.

Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Helen Higson, Aston University said: โ€œWe are delighted Aston has made it back up into the top 50, this improvement reflects the dedication and hard work of everyone within the Aston family.

โ€œThe Staff Student Ratio is an area where the University has made significant investment over the last two years, which has seen our ranking on this factor climb by 30 places.

โ€œThe transformational nature of the Aston experience has also had a substantial impact, with a ranking of 28th for our completion rates and a ranking of 20th for our high proportion of students achieving 1st and 2:1 degree classifications.

โ€œWe are also proud to be ranked 28th in the UK in the Social Inclusion section of this league table.โ€

A number of subject areas across the University are in the Top 30 in the UK in the Times/ Sunday Times Good University Guide. For example, at the Aston Business School, Economics ranked 22nd out of 78 this is an increase of two places since last year. Aston was ranked 15th for subjects allied to medicine out of 80.

Areas recognized for improvement, with action plans already in place, include some parts of the student experience and aspects of teaching quality โ€“ reflecting the areas highlighted in the 2019 National Student Survey. Considerable work on student communications and on responding to our studentsโ€™ feedback is also underway.

Times Higher Education

Aston University has also been ranked by the Times Higher Education and has been scored on various criteria. The global rankings and the criteria provided by THE is given below.

Year2015201620172018201920202021
Rank351-400401-500351-400351-400351-400501-600401-500

QS Graduate Employability Ranking

Aston University has also been in the QS graduate employability ranking. Itโ€™s ranking over the few years is tabulated below.

Year2017201820192020
Rank101-150181-190191-200201-250

The various criteria used under the employability category and its rankings have been tabulated below.

CriteriaScoreRank
Employer Reputation39.6179
Partnership with employer53.2167
Employer student connect56.7156

Aston University National Ranking

The Guardian

The Guardian has a category of measure called โ€˜ career after 6 monthsโ€™. This category analyses the percentage of students who can find graduate-level jobs.

The geographical location of Aston makes it leverage its advantages in terms of employability and various other graduate prospects. Birmingham is a commercial and financial center. This has made Aston hold good relationships with local, national, and international employers. It has been an institute leading in graduate employment for over 25 years now.

QS Top Universities

QS has ranked the city in terms of certain aspects. This data will be helpful for students to choose to study in Birmingham.

QS Best Student Cities Ranking49th
Desirability Rank53rd
Employer Activity Rank72nd
Affordability Rank100th
Student View Rank42nd

Talking about employability, the Longitudinal Education outcomes(LEO) survey has revealed information about the median salary of graduates from Aston five years after graduation.

Their survey takes into account first-degree-graduates working and paying income tax in the United Kingdom.

Graduates From Various CoursesMedian Earnings In 5 Years
General – Employed Graduates33,200
Aston Business School38,700
Aston Universityโ€™s Allied Health Courses42,000
Aston Universityโ€™s Language and Area Studies31,000
Aston Universityโ€™s Building, Architecture, and Planning38,100

Graduates from the Astonโ€™s Allied Health Courses are ranked the 2nd in the country in terms of median earnings after 5 years. In general, the graduates from the University are ranked 15th in the country for the same.

These attributes have made the Universityโ€™s national ranking (The Guardian) go up from 43 in 2019 to 36 in 2020.

Aston University has got 30th (overall) rank for 2021. Aston has also been featured in the under 50 categories (48th rank) by Sunday Times Good University Guide for 2021.

Subject-wise ranking for Aston University

Aston Universityโ€™s under 50 rankings in various aspects are given below.

SourceCategoryRank
Complete University GuideGood Honours Degree31
Complete University GuideDegree completion36
THEYoung University Ranking 201677
THEEuropean Teaching Ranking 201976-100
GuardianCareer prospects31
GuardianContinuation11
Sunday Times Good University GuideGraduate Prospects30
THEInternational outlook75th world/ 24th UK

Complete University Guide

All of the sources referred here have given immense importance to student satisfaction- in terms of experience, courses, etc. Below is a table spilling some information about the same.

CourseStudent Satisfaction RankCourseStudent Experience Rank
General engineering6Subjects allied to Medicine5
Building and Town and country planning8French9
Chemical engineering12Social policy12
Electrical engineering14Building studies12
Health professions15General engineering12
Pharmacy and Pharmacology17Chemical engineering14
English17chemistry16
Social Policy and Administration18Iberian studies21
Business, Management, and Marketing23Biological sciences27
Chemistry27Law29
Law28Aeronautical and Manufacturing engineering30

National Student Survey

The National Student Survey (NSS) conducted in 2020 revealed that 83.7% of students were satisfied with the University, its courses, and its facilities. The highest course performance data is given below for your reference.

DegreePerformance Percentage (NSS)
LLB Law with Management95.5
BSc Biological sciences94.7
BSc English Language94.1
BSc Business Computing93.3
BSc Human Resource Management93.3
BSc Chemistry92.9
BSc Biomedical Sciences92
BSc Psychology and Sociology91.7

Aston University has produced amazing results in global subject-wise rankings as well. The details are tabulated below.

SourceSubjectGlobal PositionYear
QSBusiness and Management studiesTop 1002020
QSAccounting and FinanceTop 2002020
THEBusiness and EconomicsTop 1252020
THEPsychologyTop 1752020
THESocial SciencesTop 3002020
Eduniversal MastersBusiness intelligence and Strategy13th rank2019
Eduniversal MastersEntrepreneurship33rd rank2019
Eduniversal MastersFinancial markets37th rank2019
Eduniversal MastersSupply chain and logistics44th rank2019

Aston University has also got the Golden Award from Teaching Excellence Framework(TEF). It is a government measure that assesses the quality of teaching and student satisfaction. The University was awarded for producing students for their consistently outstanding performance. QS gave the University a 5-star rating in 2018 based on teaching, inclusiveness, innovation, employability, and internationalism.

Aston University provides students with a multicultural community to grow and feel inclusive. The university is one of the two in Birmingham to be internationally ranked. The University provides top-notch teaching facilities and has an amazing network that helps to employ its students globally.


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