TWO of the region's new universities have some of the best teaching in the country, according to a survey.

Sunderland and Northumbria Universities broke into the top 30 of The Guardian University Guide for their teaching expertise, which saw Cambridge University ranked first.

Northumbria was top for its teaching in nursing and fourth in the country for modern languages while Sunderland did particularly well in six science subjects.

The table for medical schools suggests that Tyneside student Laura Spence - who left for Harvard in the US when she was rejected by Oxford last year - may have done better to study locally, as Newcastle University beat Oxford.

The results echo the findings of The Times University Guide, which was published earlier this month and rates Newcastle University's medical school as the best in the country.

The Guardian guide, which is which is published on-line today, focuses on teaching but examines several areas.

These include drop-out rates and how good it is at attracting students from poor areas with traditionally low participation rates.

It put Sunderland University in 26th place overall and Northumbria University in 30th.

Sunderland was the highest placed former polytechnic while Newcastle, in 19th place, was the highest ranked North-East university. Durham University came in 30th place while Teesside was 60th.

Sunderland's vice-chancellor, Professor Peter Fidler, said the table was the first to highlight the link between the university's teaching and research skills and its work to support students from backgrounds with little or no history of higher education.