ONE of York’s universities has risen into the “top ten” academic rankings across the UK, a new survey claims.

The University of York was placed ninth out of 113 institutions across the country in The Times newspaper’s Good University Guide.

The new ranking is an improvement of two places on last year’s place of 11th, and one place ahead of new top-ten entry, Lancaster.

The university credited the improvement to hard work by staff, and excellent science and social departments.

“Our position reflects the hard work of our staff in pursuit of the highest standards in both teaching and research and further underlines York’s reputation as one of the leading universities in the UK and the world,” said a spokesman.

“Health sciences was ranked the top department in the country for nursing; social policy and social work was in the top three in the country for social work; while archaeology, biology, chemistry and history of art were in the top five in their subject areas.”

York St John University slipped one place in this year’s table, ranking joint 81st with Birmingham City University.

Professor Stuart Billingham, pro vice-chancellor at York St John University, questioned the value of the study, but said he was delighted with student satisfaction figures showing 76 per cent of final-year undergraduates were happy with the university.

“The university has for several years expressed its concern about the way league tables like this are constructed, whether they are favourable or not. We do question their value to potential students assessing whether a university is right for them,” he said.

“We have a rise in home and international applications this year of more than 30 per cent, which is the largest of any university in Yorkshire, and we are delighted that so many potential students clearly feel that we offer what they want.”

Across the region, both York universities were rated ahead of Leeds Metropolitan University, which was ranked at 99th, while Leeds University was ranked 26th.