Catholic universities top student satisfaction survey

Catholic universities have featured in the top 20 ranking for overall student satisfaction this year, writes Megan Cornwell.

Liverpool Hope University and Heythrop College are ranked seventh and eleventh respectively in the National Student Survey, which annually asks final year students at every publicly funded higher education institution in the United Kingdom to rate their experience of university life.

At Liverpool Hope University 92 per cent of registered students said they were satisfied with their course, the fourth highest score which it shared with three other universities. Heythrop College in London also scored highly, 91 per cent, the fifth highest score shared by eight other universities. Both results mark an increase in satisfaction levels from 2015.

Professor Gerald Pillay, vice chancellor and rector of Liverpool Hope, said: “The student experience is at the heart of all we do, and we are delighted that these results show just how much our students benefit from that.” He attributed the university’s success in part to “educating the whole person” and to small classes.

Responding to the results, outgoing Heythrop College principal, Fr Michael Holman SJ, said: “This is a real tribute to the work of our staff and students at such a challenging time.” He was referring to the recent news of the failed attempt to merge the college with Roehampton University, after the earlier announcement that it would be forced to close in 2018 in its present form as a college of the University of London.

Other universities with Catholic roots: St Mary’s, Twickenham; Newman University, Birming­ham; Leeds Trinity University; and the University of Roe­hampton in south-west London, all registered lower student satisfaction since 2015, although all received scores in the eighties.

Overall top universities were the University of Buckingham and the University of Law.