The guide, which covers 116 UK universities, shows that Swansea has improved consistently - rising from 60^th place in 2011 to 49^th in 2013 - resulting in Swansea standing proud as the second highest ranked Welsh University in the guides league table.

The Complete University Guide (www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk) is based on nine measures compiled from reliable and comprehensive information on which university applicants can base one of the most important choices of their lives. Data for the rankings have been derived from official sources and have been meticulously checked with the Universities themselves to create an independent and authoritative league table designed to match applicants’ needs.

The guide points out that the impact of the economic downturn on graduate employment prospects continues to be reflected in many of the changes in relative position in the table with major falls for some universities, while others have had some success in bucking the trend.

Welcoming the new figures Pro Vice Chancellor Hilary Lappin-Scott said:

“ We are pleased with our improvement in the Complete University Guide.  We have been working hard across a number of areas to improve our performance and are happy that we are beginning to see these pay off. In particular improvements in the employment prospects of our graduates has been a key contributing factor. We have also seen improvements in the standards 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 look forward to further improvements in the coming years.”