University of Portsmouth given five-star award for excellence

The accolade, which was awarded by QS Stars, means the University of Portsmouth is one of just 13 universities in the UK to be awarded the maximum number of stars.

Education leaders hope that the award will help raise the university’s global profile to achieve their target of establishing the university as “one of the top 100 young universities” in the world.

Pro vice-chancellor, Chris Chang, said: ‘These rankings will help us to grow our global reputation, reflecting our focus on excellence in all our activities, including the quality of our global education, cultural diversity in our community and the shared aspirations and strengths of our students and staff.

‘It will also allow us to attract international talent through the recruitment of students and staff who want to be part of our success.’

The independent body assess universities on criteria including quality of teaching, employability, internationalisation, inclusiveness and facilities.

The QS Stars university rating system was launched in 2009 as a way to assess global institutions more broadly than is possible through traditional rankings. It assesses each university’s provision against a set standard rather than against other establishments.

This year the university was ranked number one in the UK for boosting graduate salaries according to The Economist and is currently ranked 21st in the Guardian’s 2020 university league table.