The Guardian has published the methodology behind its 2027 University Guide, which assesses universities across 66 subjects using eight performance measures. The guide aims to indicate the likelihood of a positive all-round experience for future students by examining past student outcomes, resources, staff contact, entry standards, and career prospects.
For the 2027 edition, there are updates to how certain metrics are calculated. The continuation metric now combines data from the 2021/22 and 2023/24 intakes, skipping the 2022/23 intake. This metric also now includes students who began their studies with a foundation year.
Changes have also been made to student-staff ratios and expenditure per student, with a new process for allocating postgraduate research student FTEs to cost centres. Additionally, a revised approach to discounts for students recorded on both a placement and a year abroad has been implemented.
The guide has formalised steps introduced in the 2026 edition to remove activity associated with franchised provision. This intervention applies to departments with over 400 franchised full-time first-degree students, where this represents more than 25% of the department's activity. Under these conditions, franchised activity is excluded from all output metrics.