In the 2012 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) table recently published, Swansea University has been ranked equal 34-38 out of all 170 UK Higher Education Institutions.

ARWU have been presenting the world top 500 universities rankings annually since 2003 based on a set of objective indicators and third-party data. ARWU has been recognized as the best known and most influential global ranking of Universities (from the Chronicle of Higher Education)

Swansea University has also been ranked as one of the top 25 universities in the UK again in the 2012 Times Higher Education survey and the University leapt 11 places in The Complete University Guide 2013.

Professor Alan Speight, Pro-Vice Chancellor for student experience, said:

“Swansea is a great place to study, and students who come here become part of an ambitious, research-led institution with top quality teaching. Swansea is also a vibrant student city, with a thriving cultural and sporting scene, with city and countryside nearby and a beachfront location.

“We have seen a rise in the quality of students on entry and an increase in those going on to excel at their studies and receive excellent results on completing their course. We have also seen an increase in the employability of our graduates.

“This improvement in league table position is also a measure of our performance and the excellence of the experience which we provide to our students, of which we are all very proud here at Swansea.”

• Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU): ARWU uses six objective indicators to rank world universities, including the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, number of Highly Cited Researchers, number of articles published in journals of Nature and Science, number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index - Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, and per capita performance. More than 1200 universities are actually ranked by ARWU every year and the best 500 are published. For more information on the Academic Ranking of World Universities for the United Kingdom go to:  http://www.shanghairanking.com/Country2012Main.jsp?param=United%20Kingdom
  
  
• The ARWU’s annual global university rankings are released by The Center for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.CWCU is dedicated to the theoretical and policy study of World-Class Universities with a more than 25-year history. CWCU initiated the "International Conference on World-Class Universities" in 2005 and organizes the conference every second year, which attracts hundreds of participants, including university presidents, government officials, top scholars and policy researchers, from more than 40 countries. CWCU endeavours to build databases of major research universities in the world and a clearinghouse of literature on World-Class Universities, and provides consultations for governments and universities.