Surrey Computing leaps to 8th position in Times League Tables
Thursday 16 August 2007
The University of Surrey's Department of Computing celebrates another strong league table performance, moving to 8th position in the 2008 Times Good University Guide. In the 2006 edition Computing achieved 10th place, and this leap of 2 places re-affirms the strength of the subject at Surrey.
The Times scores universities for their league table subjects based on the three criteria of Research Quality, Entry Standards and Graduate Prospects.
Strategic appointments, allied to hard work, infrastructural investments, and some significant wins, have seen a rising profile of national and international recognition for the Department.
Highlights include the investment of £250,000 for high performance computing systems, the Department's e-Voting system winning a Best System Design award, and recent grants from EPSRC and the DTI relating to Digital Security and Computational Finance.
The score for Graduate Prospects reflects the strong employability of the Department's graduates, many of whom secure positions in top companies including IBM, Lloyds TSB, LogicaCMG, Oracle, Reuters, 3M and the Royal Bank of Scotland, and this further reflects on the quality of teaching and industrial relevance in the Department.
The placement year on offer to Surrey students contributes to their employability, giving Surrey the lowest average unemployment rate amongst UK universities based on the past ten years. 30-40% tend to return for full employment to their placement employers.
Factors such as these have seen applications for Computing degrees at Surrey increase this year by over 60%, largely helped by the highly successful growth of Surrey’s Computer Science degree, and in spite of the overall drop in Computing degree applications nationally.
Head of the Department of Computing at the University of Surrey, Professor Steve Schneider comments:
"This is highly encouraging and sets a standard for the new academic year. We are looking forward to future challenges and successes, and in particular to our forthcoming intake of future employable graduates".