Aberdeen and Dundee ahead

The Times Good University Guide 2009, aimed at this year's school-leavers, was published on 18 June 2008.  Its top twenty UK law schools included Aberdeen (6), Dundee (9), Edinburgh (15), Strathclyde (16) and Glasgow (19th equal with Warwick).

It is good work for all the established five LLB schools to get into the top twenty; the main differentiator amongst them appears to be "Graduate Prospects", i.e. entry into employment with the degree.  Aberdeen is at 94%, Dundee 88%, Edinburgh 87%, Strathclyde 81% and Glasgow 82%.  Entrance standards appear to be highest at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Strathclyde (in that order), which is an interesting inversion of the employability statistic.

It has to be admitted, though, that apart from Dundee (up from 13th) all have fallen back on their showing last year, when Aberdeen was 2nd equal, Edinburgh 7th, Strathclyde 10th, and Glasgow 17th. 

The new LLB schools also slipped slightly except for Stirling, up to 70th from 71st.  The other figures are Robert Gordon's (from 35th to 36th), Napier (from 47th equal to 51st), and Glasgow Caledonian (from 56th to 60th).  Abertay wasn't in last year's list but is 86 in the 2009 edition.  So an interesting question may be why the vast majority of Scottish law schools have fallen back in the last year – just the way the Times does its league tables, or something more significant?

The Independent's assessment, published earlier this year, produced a similar outcome to that of the Times, save that Strathclyde was 10th and Edinburgh 11th in its table.  The Guardian, as ever, was different: Edinburgh top (8th in the UK), followed by Aberdeen (13), Strathclyde (14), Glasgow (15), Napier (24), Robert Gordon's (31), Dundee (32) and Glasgow Caledonian (48) (no others listed). 

 Good luck to those trying to decide where to apply.  For those still intererested in duck density as the best measure of university quality (see previously Nos 470, 582), Aberdeen is top of the Scots there too, albeit trailing far behind the UK's leaders, York, Leeds, Nottingham and East Anglia.