DURHAM University has retained its title as the top university in the North-East by a national newspaper and its long-established annual guide.

Despite a small fall in its national ranking overall, Durham University continues its perfect record for heading the region’s rankings throughout the entire 26-year history of The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide.

Sunderland and Teesside universities are among four in the North-East to make gains in the national rankings this year.

A Durham University spokesperson said: “Durham University continues to be ranked as a top ten UK university, and our students benefit from a world-class education and student experience which benefits them when they graduate.”

Durham University is ranked in the top four nationally for high completion rates and the proportion of students achieving firsts and 2:1s.

It continues to excel in all aspects of education and was the highest ranked of six universities upgraded to a gold award in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) this year.

Its courses for geography and environmental science and music are ranked top in the UK in the new Good University Guide subject tables while it is among the top 20 UK universities for graduate prospects (although second in the North-East to Newcastle) with just under 85 per cent of students advancing to professional jobs or graduate-level further study.

Durham is investing £1bn into bolstering its digital and physical resources over the next ten years and seeks to grow from 15,000 students to 21,500 by 2027.

In September next year Durham’s Centre for Teaching and Learning is due to open, offering a range of learning environments and technologies allowing students to share courses in real time with others from institutions around the world.

Meanwhile Teesside moved up seven places in the league table while the University of Sunderland’s students rated the quality of teaching in the top 40 nationally. Also improving on last year’s rankings was Northumbria University which moved up five places to rank 61, partly due to increased spending on facilities, moving it to top in the region for student experience.

And out of the Russell Group’s 24 research-led universities, Newcastle has one of the highest proportion of students recruited from the most deprived areas of the United Kingdom.

The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019 will be published this weekend in The Sunday Times.

For full details visit thesundaytimes.co.uk/gooduniversityguide from Sunday.