The Yorker speaks to Suzy Dodd and Luke Sandford, who are running together for the role of Campaigns Officers.
The Yorker interviews the Racial Equality Officers candidates.
The Yorker speaks to Stephen Kenny, who is running unopposed for 21 Plus Officer.
YUSU announced stricter measures for anyone found guilty of mass emailing yesterday, after more candidates were given campaign bans as a result of election rule 12 being breached.
York has fallen behind the universities of Exeter and Bristol in the guide, which were ranked 13th and 10th respectively last year. Local rival York St. John has risen 11 places in the rankings, and now stands in 80th place.
In spite of York’s lower ranking, the guide is still positive about the university, noting that it “has built a reputation in less than half a century that places it among the top 30 universities in Europe”. The Times describes the Heslington East development as “an audacious move for a highly selective university”.
The guide also notes that applications were up 16% in 2009, after two years of declining numbers, and that York’s dropout rate of only four percent is among the lowest in the country.
The guide praises the university’s fantastic research record, pointing out that York was among the top ten institutions in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), and that the RAE judged more than 60 per cent of the work submitted to be world-leading or internationally excellent.
The highest ranked departments in the Good University Guide were biological sciences, nursing, psychology and social work, all of which were ranked fourth. Chemistry and English were just below them, ranked fifth, and there were also top ten rankings for archaeology, computer science, history, linguistics and music. The Hull-York Medical School ranked 11th.
York’s lowest ranking in the guide occurred in 2008, when the Times placed the university in 16th place. Its highest position was 6th, in 1997, though it has been ranked 7th three times, most recently in 2005.
But again it's the same problems as ever: compare us with Warwick in 6th.
We are better for satisfaction and research. We have the same drop-out rate and student:staff ratio.
HOWEVER
We spent less on facilities. We had lower entry standards. We didn't give out enough 2:1s or 1sts and we don't have enough graduates entering work.
The same every year; obviously the university takes it seriously but they could do more. However the real problem is simply that the league table is stupidly designed - we have better research, teaching and student satisfaction but are 5 places lower because we take students with lower starting grades? Surely that's a GOOD thing! If we're doing as well as the others but have worse students, how the hell is that going to mark us DOWN?!
I don't really take the tables seriously. The problem is that many people do and we have to find a way of addressing this; whether by persuading departments to increase their number of good degrees, improving the careers support or spending more money. I'm surprised, though, that we're low on that considering the scale of Hes East development etc...
Anyway, at least we beat 2008. Roll on 5th place for 2011...
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