Loughborough named world’s best sporting university
Loughborough has been named the best sporting university in the world in the global QS higher education league table.
It is the first time the annual QS World University Rankings by Subject, released today (Wednesday 8 March), have included a list of the world’s best places to study sports-related subjects. Loughborough has ranked joint-first with the University of Sydney, Australia.
The new sport ranking is based on surveying academic staff that declare a speciality in the subject, and employers who seek to employ graduates that specialize in the discipline. It is also based on research output and impact, with both citations and paper output measured over a five-year period.
Professor Mark Lewis, Dean of Loughborough’s School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences said: “It is fantastic to see our University’s expertise in this area recognised on a global stage. To be named ‘best in the world’ is testament to the high quality research we undertake and the high calibre of graduates we produce.”
Ben Sowter, Head of Research at QS, added: “Loughborough, of course, has an outstanding reputation as a producer of elite sportspeople – but this year’s inaugural ranking demonstrates that prospective sporting students will receive an education as noteworthy for its theoretical focus as for its practical.”
Loughborough has also been ranked in the global top-50 for other subjects, including 36th in the world for Art and Design, 39th for Communication and Media Studies and 47th for Architecture/Built environment.
The full QS World University Rankings by Subject 2017 tables can be found here.
Notes for editors
Press release reference number: PR 17/35
About the QS University Rankings
QS Quacquarelli Symonds have been compiling university rankings since 2004, when they published their inaugural QS World University Rankings. Since then, QS’s rankings have grown to be the world’s most popular source of comparative data about university performance. Their Subject rankings tables were visited over 30 million times in 2016, and their overall rankings tables over 54 million times.
The project has expanded to include: 5 regional rankings, the QS Best Student Cities ranking, rankings by Subject Area, the QS Higher Education System Strength Ranking, and, most recently, the QS Graduate Employability Ranking. QS’s research is featured by media outlets across the world, with over 46,000 media clippings related to QS published in 2016.
About Loughborough University
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Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines.
It has been awarded five stars in the independent QS Stars university rating scheme, putting it among the best universities in the world, and was named the best in the country for its student experience in the 2016 THE Student Experience Survey. Loughborough was ranked 4th in the Guardian University League Table 2017 and 7th in The UK Complete University Guide 2017 and was also named Sports University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017, and University of the Year in the What Uni Student Choice Awards 2015.
Loughborough is consistently ranked in the top twenty of UK universities in the Times Higher Education’s ‘table of tables’ and is in the top 10 in England for research intensity. In recognition of its contribution to the sector, Loughborough has been awarded seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes.
In September 2015 the University opened an additional academic campus in London’s new innovation quarter. Loughborough University London, based on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, offers postgraduate and executive-level education, as well as research and enterprise opportunities.