RGU Secures its Place in University Champions League

Any new manager would be thrilled to take over a league-winning team which is playing at the top of its game. That’s as true of academia as it is of football.

As the new Principal of Robert Gordon University (RGU), I am naturally delighted to be taking the helm just as we have been named Scottish University of the Year 2021 by the Times and Sunday Times.  This prestigious award acknowledges our outstanding record for teaching quality, student satisfaction, graduate employability and industry engagement – all strengths which I salute and am committed to developing further.

Coming so soon after both The Guardian and the Complete University Guide ranked us as Scotland’s top modern university, it’s fair to say that RGU has completed a notable treble this year.  Our trophy cabinet also contains our second place among all Scottish universities in the National Student Survey.

It’s the dedication and incredible hard work of our staff across the university that have secured these trophies.  I’m privileged to be joining such a strong team who have created a robust platform on which we can build further to realise our ambitions for the university, its students and the region.

Of course, given these accolades and RGU’s reputation for excellence, eyebrows were raised by headlines which implied that the university had dropped the ball. A recent league table and subsequent press coverage seemed to suggest, at first glance, that we were the lowest-ranked university in Scotland.

This caused some confusion, until a closer look revealed that this particular league table was comparing universities all over the world, weighted very heavily towards research, and didn’t even include many Scottish universities! 

At RGU we are proud of our research prowess and achievements, but we readily admit that we concentrate our excellence in selected specialist areas rather than across the board, even if it means that not all league tables will properly reflect that.   

Instead our focus and ambition is to excel as an inclusive and student-centric university, in which the whole learning experience is designed around students’ specific needs.  Our work-based curriculum is driven by the demands of modern industry.  Innovation, collaboration and employer engagement are the key to our unrivalled track record in graduate employability.

The best teams are rooted in their communities and RGU’s latest successes demonstrate our commitment to delivering the best outcomes for our students and stakeholders alike, regionally, nationally and internationally. It is that ethos that makes RGU a winner, now and in the future.