DMU builds on 'meteoric' rise in The Sunday Times league tables

De Montfort University’s record on graduate employability has seen it put in another strong performance in the Sunday Times Good University Guide league tables.

DMU enjoyed a meteoric rise up the tables last year, which saw it leap 32 places from 86^th to 54^th position, to be the most improved university in Britain.

Alastair McCall, editor of The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2016, praised DMU for not only maintaining a strong position but rising a further place to 53^rd this year.

It is the highest position DMU has achieved in the influential publication.

The tables, which are published in The Sunday Times this weekend, will show DMU is now the second highest-placed modern university in the UK, putting it above institutions such as Nottingham Trent, Sheffield Hallam and Birmingham City.

This latest achievement comes on the back of success in the annual Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DHLE) survey which puts DMU in the top 25 UK universities with the best employment rates.

The Guide describes DMU as holding on to “spectacular gains” and Mr McCall said: “DMU’s progress in the last two years in our table now places it second among modern multi-faculty universities in the United Kingdom.

“The work that the university has done on increasing the employability of its graduates has under-pinned the dramatic rise.

“After last year’s meteoric 32 place rise, to maintain that position – and improve it by a further place – is no mean achievement.”

The guide has ranked every university in the UK according to criteria such as student satisfaction, research quality, entry standards, student-to-staff ratio, spend on facilities and graduate prospects.

Much of DMU’s success in the last academic year has been down to not only high quality teaching, learning and research, but the continued success of several ground-breaking initiatives designed to offer students a superb experience and make them better prepared than ever before to enter the world of work.

These have included employability schemes such as Frontrunners and DMU Graduate Champions, as well as #DMUglobal, which sends hundreds of students overseas as part of their studies. It also includes the ongoing DMU Square Mile project, which offers student volunteers the opportunity to use their skills to make a difference in the community – and on their CV.

DMU’s £136 million campus transformation project is also progressing at pace and the impressive new £61 million Art and Design Centre, which will create a new home for the internationally-renowned Schools of Arts, Design and Architecture, is due to open during the current academic year.

Professor Dominic Shellard, Vice-Chancellor of DMU, said:  “I would like to congratulate everyone who has played a role in our success. This is an important acknowledgement of the effort and ambition of each member of staff at the university.

“To sustain momentum and to rise a further place is an outstanding accomplishment. Everyone at DMU will savour the news and we will now look forward to implementing the aspirations set out in our new strategic framework. The framework will establish the vision that our staff, students and wider community have for the university and will be launched next month.”