Top Economics Universities

Recently The Times published its University league table. The Times uses a deeply flawed method to rank universities that fails to weight factors properly. In fact one major error is to give more ranking points to universities that give more 1st class degrees - in other words the ones with low standards get more points!

The way academics rate each others departments is on the quality of their research. 2008 was the year university departments were assessed (by the Research Assessment Exercise or RAE) on the quality of their research and so by definition had the strongest academic staff.

Note that the quality of teaching is not noticeably different across universities. The other major consideration for you as students is the quality of the people you study with. So combine entry requirements and research quality to decide which university is best.

Top 10 Universities for Economics

The Times

1 Oxford

2 Cambridge

3 London School of Economics

4 University College London

5 Warwick

6 Exeter

7 Durham

8 St Andrews

9 Nottingham

10 Birmingham

RAE - Real Top 10
1 London School of Economics
2. University College London
=3. Warwick
=3. Essex
=3. Oxford
=6. Bristol
=6. Nottingham
=6. Queen Mary
=9. Southampton
=9. Royal Holloway
=9. Manchester

The moral of the story? Most people are years (often decades) behind on what universities are actually doing in a subject and just go on name. Who would have picked Royal Holloway?