St Andrews University has been named best in the UK, beating Oxford and Cambridge.
The ancient educational institution, founded more than 600 years ago, is the third-oldest in the English-speaking world.
It was named the best in Britain in 2021 by the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, the first time that honour had gone to anywhere but Oxford or Cambridge.
Now St Andrews has been ranked top of the Guardian's list, moving ahead of the Oxbridge pair.
Seven of its academic subjects also ranked top in the UK - Art History, Chemistry, Economics, English, History, International Relations and Neuroscience. Sixteen of the 22 subjects taught at St Andrews ranked in the top five.
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Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Sally Mapstone said: “I hope that St Andrews’ terrific students and all of my hard-working colleagues will feel the recognition of this very significant achievement. They entirely deserve it.
“The amalgam of our strengths in the key areas which The Guardian measures has set us narrowly ahead of some of the very best universities in the world. For a small Scottish university to shake the established order repeatedly is a great tribute to everyone who works and studies here.
“What a fantastic way to begin a new academic year, and at a time when the world we serve has rarely been in greater need of the transformational powers of the highest quality of independent research and teaching.”
The Guide ranks universities by the strength of student satisfaction, expenditure per student, student/staff ratio, career prospects, entry tariff, value-added and continuation.
The Guardian Guide is one of three national league tables, publishing annually alongside the Complete University Guide and the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide.
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