For the last five years, Oxford Brookes has been named best new university, but this year was awarded the title of ‘leading modern university’. The accolade is shared with University of the Arts, London. Both Universities came joint 54th out of the 119 institutions included (last year Brookes was 53rd), but Brookes shines in the areas of graduate employment and student satisfaction.

The Guide’s authors say: “ Oxford Brookes offer the most diverse range of combined honours courses in the UK, and this has helped it to be consistently the top-performing modern university in our league table. Oxford Brookes already enjoys a formidable reputation for undergraduate teaching. No other modern university can match the 24 subjects rated excellent. Its research record is also among the best in the sector.”

Graham Upton, Oxford Brookes’ Vice Chancellor, said: “I am delighted that we have topped the league table of modern universities for the sixth year running. This is a reflection of the excellence of our teaching and our research record, and now that we have consolidated our position on this list, we must look forward to becoming one of the very best universities in the country.”

The Sunday Times assesses universities in a number of categories, including teaching excellence, student satisfaction, research quality, A/AS-level points, graduate unemployment, staff-student ratio, and proportion of firsts/2:1s achieved. This year the formula has been adapted to give student satisfaction a more prominent role, and the views of academics as well as head teachers have been included as part of a peer review process. Oxford Brookes’ peer review ranking was 42nd, with the university’s tourism department ranked 3rd overall.

The full guide, including detailed results on individual measures can be found online at www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8403,00.html