TEACHING
QUALITY
Leeds Beckett University
111
th
NATIONAL
RANK
RANK
61.2%
FIRSTS
2:1s
2:1s
79.5%
COMPLETION
RATE
RATE
Key Stats
n/a
102nd=
STUDENT
EXPERIENCE
EXPERIENCE
94th=
RESEARCH
QUALITY
QUALITY
107th
GRADUATE
PROSPECTS
PROSPECTS
Contact details
ADDRESS
City Campus, Leeds, LS1 3HE View on map >
Telephone
Email
Website
Open days
October 4 and 5; November 22
University Profile
Leeds Beckett University comes into being tomorrow, consigning the Leeds Metropolitan name that it has “outgrown” to the annals of history.
The name change was opposed by students but approved by the Privy Council; the proposal to ditch the previous title backed by a report to the university board that said there was evidence to suggest the name Metropolitan "indicated a lower-quality product".
Given that the highest ranked university with Metropolitan in its title in our new league table is 89th (Manchester) with the lowest ranked bottom of the entire table (London), the evidence appears to bear out this assertion.
But Leeds Beckett – which takes its new name from its Beckett Park campus, where a number of predecessor colleges were also based – will need more than a change of name to recover from its lowest-ever ranking in our table of 111 this year, down eight places from the previous year.
Student satisfaction – while improved in recent years – currently lags well behind both other universities in the same city, ranking in the bottom 20 nationally, while Leeds
The undergraduate intake has fluctuated since the introduction of higher fees. The university took an additional 1,100 undergraduates in 2013, in spite of a big fall in applications, but had seen enrolments drop by a quarter in the previous year.
The university has achieved Customer Service Excellence accreditation for the entire university, one of only two in the country to do so. It also holds the Gold Investors in People standard, and is the only university to achieve both of these independent standards. Students are included on the committees that design and manage courses.
Little more thanhalf of all undergraduates are taking conventional full-time degrees, such is the popularity of sandwich and part-time courses. It is intended that all Leeds Met students should leave the university with three graduate attributes; to be enterprising, digitally literate and have a global outlook.
All undergraduate courses have been redesigned with these qualities in mind and all include at least two weeks work-related learning a year.The universityhas a longstanding reputation for widening participation in higher education: 94% of undergraduates are state-educated and more than a third come from working-class homes.
A quarter of the students come from the Yorkshire and Humberside region, and around one in five is 21 or over on entry. The university runs a wide range of summer schools, which benefit more than 24,000 young people per year.
A Regional University Network of further education colleges, which stretches from Belfast to Glasgow, enables students to take Leeds Met courses locally. However, the university’s projected drop-out rate of more than 18% is about 50% higher than the national average for its courses and entry qualifications.
There are two bases in Leeds: the City campus, in the heart of the city centre, and the Headingley (Beckett Park) campus, three miles away in 100 acres of park and woodland. The latter boasts outstanding sports facilities, including a new sports arena and multi-use sports pitches, which opened in 2012.
The sports centre offers a variety of options for performance and participation sport, alongside the £2m Carnegie Regional Tennis Centre and teaching accommodation for education, informatics, law and business. Over 7,000 students take part in some form of sporting activity, and there is a range of sports scholarships.
The Athletic Union hosts 32 clubs and university teams – especially those for women – are among the most successful in national competition. An annual pass for both the Headingley and City Campus facilities cost £125 in 2014.
In the first developments of their kind, a new stand was built at the Headingley rugby ground, with classrooms, coaching facilities and social space for use by the university and the two professional clubs, and a new pavilion at the adjacent Test and County Cricket ground has similar multi-use facilities.
The City Campus has seen a £100m transformation over the past six years, with the opening of the award winning Rose Bowl and Broadcasting Place. The futuristic lecture theatre complex next to Leeds Civic Hall now houses the business school, while Broadcasting Place is home to the Faculty of Arts and Society.
The former BBC building next door has reopened as Old Broadcasting House and hosts the Enterprise Office, which helps identify opportunities to generate commercial income and support bids for funding and contracts.
A growing emphasis on educational technology is enhanced by 24-hour libraries, which have achieved the Customer Service Excellence standard for ten years in a row. They contain more than 800 computers and over 2,000 study spaces.
Relatively few academics were entered for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, but nearly a third of their work was judged to be world-leading or internationally excellent. Communication, cultural and media studies, sport, and library and information management produced the best results.
Leeds Met’s reputation is mainly for applied research: three interdisciplinary research institutes focus on health, sport and sustainability, and there are ten centres in more specialist fields such as retail excellence, active lifestyles and diversity and equity.
The university is benefiting from the city’s growing reputation for nightlife, but it is making its own contribution with a famously lively entertainments scene. With more than 4,000 bed spaces, those who accept places before Clearing are guaranteed university accommodation.
The name change was opposed by students but approved by the Privy Council; the proposal to ditch the previous title backed by a report to the university board that said there was evidence to suggest the name Metropolitan "indicated a lower-quality product".
Given that the highest ranked university with Metropolitan in its title in our new league table is 89th (Manchester) with the lowest ranked bottom of the entire table (London), the evidence appears to bear out this assertion.
But Leeds Beckett – which takes its new name from its Beckett Park campus, where a number of predecessor colleges were also based – will need more than a change of name to recover from its lowest-ever ranking in our table of 111 this year, down eight places from the previous year.
Student satisfaction – while improved in recent years – currently lags well behind both other universities in the same city, ranking in the bottom 20 nationally, while Leeds
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Beckett’s proportion of graduates in professional jobs or graduate-level study six months after leaving, which stands at 55.6% is also far adrift of Leeds Trinity (65.8%) and the University of Leeds (74.8%).The undergraduate intake has fluctuated since the introduction of higher fees. The university took an additional 1,100 undergraduates in 2013, in spite of a big fall in applications, but had seen enrolments drop by a quarter in the previous year.
Little more thanhalf of all undergraduates are taking conventional full-time degrees, such is the popularity of sandwich and part-time courses. It is intended that all Leeds Met students should leave the university with three graduate attributes; to be enterprising, digitally literate and have a global outlook.
All undergraduate courses have been redesigned with these qualities in mind and all include at least two weeks work-related learning a year.The universityhas a longstanding reputation for widening participation in higher education: 94% of undergraduates are state-educated and more than a third come from working-class homes.
A quarter of the students come from the Yorkshire and Humberside region, and around one in five is 21 or over on entry. The university runs a wide range of summer schools, which benefit more than 24,000 young people per year.
A Regional University Network of further education colleges, which stretches from Belfast to Glasgow, enables students to take Leeds Met courses locally. However, the university’s projected drop-out rate of more than 18% is about 50% higher than the national average for its courses and entry qualifications.
There are two bases in Leeds: the City campus, in the heart of the city centre, and the Headingley (Beckett Park) campus, three miles away in 100 acres of park and woodland. The latter boasts outstanding sports facilities, including a new sports arena and multi-use sports pitches, which opened in 2012.
The sports centre offers a variety of options for performance and participation sport, alongside the £2m Carnegie Regional Tennis Centre and teaching accommodation for education, informatics, law and business. Over 7,000 students take part in some form of sporting activity, and there is a range of sports scholarships.
The Athletic Union hosts 32 clubs and university teams – especially those for women – are among the most successful in national competition. An annual pass for both the Headingley and City Campus facilities cost £125 in 2014.
In the first developments of their kind, a new stand was built at the Headingley rugby ground, with classrooms, coaching facilities and social space for use by the university and the two professional clubs, and a new pavilion at the adjacent Test and County Cricket ground has similar multi-use facilities.
The City Campus has seen a £100m transformation over the past six years, with the opening of the award winning Rose Bowl and Broadcasting Place. The futuristic lecture theatre complex next to Leeds Civic Hall now houses the business school, while Broadcasting Place is home to the Faculty of Arts and Society.
The former BBC building next door has reopened as Old Broadcasting House and hosts the Enterprise Office, which helps identify opportunities to generate commercial income and support bids for funding and contracts.
A growing emphasis on educational technology is enhanced by 24-hour libraries, which have achieved the Customer Service Excellence standard for ten years in a row. They contain more than 800 computers and over 2,000 study spaces.
Relatively few academics were entered for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, but nearly a third of their work was judged to be world-leading or internationally excellent. Communication, cultural and media studies, sport, and library and information management produced the best results.
Leeds Met’s reputation is mainly for applied research: three interdisciplinary research institutes focus on health, sport and sustainability, and there are ten centres in more specialist fields such as retail excellence, active lifestyles and diversity and equity.
The university is benefiting from the city’s growing reputation for nightlife, but it is making its own contribution with a famously lively entertainments scene. With more than 4,000 bed spaces, those who accept places before Clearing are guaranteed university accommodation.
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Detailed Statistics
PERFORMANCE
PERFORMANCE
CATEGORY
SCORE
RANK
Ranking
-
111 (103)
Student experience
78.9
102nd=
Research quality
2
94th=
Ucas entry points
280
109th=
Graduate prospects
55.6
107th
Firsts and 2:1s
61.2
89th=
Completion rate
79.5
108th
Student-staff ratio
19.9:1
91st=
Services/facilities spend (£)
1,188
103rd
VITAL STATISTICS
Undergraduates
(Full-time)
17,800
Undergraduates
(Part-time)
4,360
Postgraduates
(Full-time)
1,325
Postgraduates
(Part-time)
2,325
Applications/places
31,765/7,345
Applications/places ratio
4.3:1
STUDENT CITIES
Jay Malpass-Clarke, students’ union president
Two campuses, one in the heart of the city and the other surrounded by nature.
There is so much going on, you may find you’re half-an-hour late for a lecture.
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Cost of living
Nightlife
Transport
Culture
ACCOMMODATION
FEES
UK/EU fees
£9,000
Fees (placement year)
Free
Fees (international)
£9,500
Finance website
Graduate salaries
£17,991
BURSARIES/SCHOLARSHIPS
>
Support to be in form of high achiever scholarships, associated schools and colleges bursaries and enhanced student hardship fund. Details not available in August 2014.
SPORT
Sports points/rank
2394, 9th
Sport website
Student satisfaction
98.7%
89.3%
85.7%
85.5%
85.2%
84.7%
83.0%
82.7%
81.8%
81.2%
80.2%
80.0%
79.4%
79.0%
78.7%
78.5%
77.3%
73.9%
72.7%
68.7%