THE UNIVERSITY of Manchester has returned to a top 30 spot in the annual QS World University Rankings for the first time since 2011.
The University of Manchester now boasts 25 Nobel prize winners, including Ernest Rutherford, Arthur Harden and graphene professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov.
The university has climbed three places from 33 in 2013 to 30 in 2014, having dropped a place last year from 32 in 2012. 2011 was the last year the university was awarded a top 30 spot, reaching number 29 in the world.
The universities highest placing came in 2009, peaking at number 26.
The University of Manchester was scored a perfect 100 for employer reputation and 99.4 for academic reputation.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology remained top of the global university league, whilst English institutions claimed four of the top six spots.
In total there were sixteen British universities in the world top 100, six of which placed in the top 20. The results place Manchester as the eighth best university in Britain:
University of Cambridge (=2), Imperial College London (=2), University of Oxford (=5), University College London (=5), King's College London (16), University of Edinburgh (=17), University of Bristol (29), University of Manchester (30), University of Glasgow (=55), University of Warwick (61), University of Birmingham (64), University of Sheffield (69), London School of Economics and Political Science (71), University of Nottingham (77), University of St Andrews (88), Durham University (92).
The results were the UK's best ever position in the QS World University Rankings, which measure research quality, graduate employment, staff-to-student ratios, teaching standards and the number of international students.
University of Manchester's planned National Graphene Institute
Following 100 years of cooperation, Manchester's UMIST and Victoria universities combined in 2004 to form the UK's largest single-site university.
Discounting the Open University and the University of London, The University of Manchester has the largest student population in the UK with nearly 40,000 students.
The University of Manchester now boasts 25 Nobel prize winners, including Ernest Rutherford, Arthur Harden and graphene professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov.
The QS assessment of the University of Manchester, however, is not agreed across-the-board.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2013-2014 placed Manchester at only number 58 in the world, behind Edinburgh (39), King's College (38), London School of Economics and Political Science (32), University College London (21), Imperial College London (10), Cambridge (7) and Oxford (2).
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