Rankings and League Tables
ECS-Electronics and Computer Science is at the forefront of education, research, and enterprise in Computer Science, Electronics, and Electrical Engineering.
Research Ranking
In the UK the quality of a university department’s research activities is regularly assessed and the findings published. This is done through the ‘Research Assessment Exercise’ (RAE), a very large-scale initiative, backed by the UK government, and held every seven years or so. The RAE thoroughly examines all university research against a number of criteria, mostly focused on the international excellence and influence of the research.
ECS is internationally renowned for its research and has achieved outstanding results in the RAEs. In previous RAEs, ECS received the top ratings of 5* for its research across the board – in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Electronics. Indeed, in 2003, ECS was awarded a special ‘Best 5*’ rating, reflecting the fact that it had achieved the 5* rating in both 1996 and 2001.
In the most recent RAE (2008) ECS achieved exceptional success. Computer Science at ECS was ranked joint second in the UK for the quality of its research, with 85 per cent of its research work receiving either the top 4* rating (defined as ‘world leading’) or the 3* rating (‘internationally excellent’).
In Electronics and Electrical Engineering (in which ECS was assessed jointly with the University's Optoelectronics Research Centre), ECS (and the ORC) came second in the ‘medals’ tables, with 42 researchers rated as achieving research of either world-leading or internationally excellent quality (4* or 3*).
Overall ECS submitted 106 staff to this Research Assessment Exercise, and 97.5 per cent of their research work was deemed to be of international standard.
National Student Survey
All universities in the UK are assessed by the Higher Education Statistics Authority with results published on the Unistats web site. The National Student Survey (NSS) takes place annually and seeks the opinion of final-year undergraduate students on the quality of their courses. In the 2010 NSS ECS achieved a rating of 92% satisfaction for Computer Science (fourth among English universities); and 86% for Electronics and Electrical Engineering (in the top 20 in England).
Official figures on employability for ECS students (2010) show that 95% of ECS graduates in Electronics and Electrical Engineering were in graduate jobs within six months of graduation (1st equal in the UK with Surrey University); and 95 % of Computer Science were also in graduate-level jobs (ECS was fourth equal in the UK for graduate employability in Computer Science.
University league tables
In 2011 ECS is ranked 1st in the UK in The Guardian league table for Electronics and Electrical Engineering, and third in the UK in The Times league table. It is ranked 5th in the UK for Computer Science in The Guardian league table, and 8th in The Times league table.
Citations
ISIHighlyCited.com identified Professor Nick Jennings and Professor Shen Chen of ECS among the world most highly cited researchers in the 2010 listing for engineering and computer science. Professor Jennings was listed in both engineering and computer science for his work in artificial intelligence. Professor Chen was listed in engineering for his publications in wireless communications.