The university’s performance in other areas improved, however, moving it up nine places in our overall academic league table to 33=. Graduate prospects, which are weighted more heavily this year, were the biggest factor. The proportion of students in highly skilled jobs or further study 15 months after graduation was up almost six percentage points, placing Newcastle in the top 25 on this measure.

There has been no shortage of investment by Newcastle. The £4.6 million Farrell Centre marks the transformation of a 19th-century department store into a unique facility focusing on city life. It aims to be a new type of public institution — part research hub, part civic space, part gallery and museum — running exhibitions, public talks and debates, and organising workshops for schools and community groups.

The redevelopment of the Stephenson Building for engineering — due for completion in 2024 — is costing £110 million. As well as a variety of student spaces, the complex will include facilities for research hubs in digital manufacturing, biomedical engineering and sustainable propulsion. 

In 2020 the university opened the £350 million Newcastle Helix (formerly Science Central), an urban regeneration project with the city council and Legal & General Capital. Its Catalyst building houses two national innovation centres for ageing and data as well as the National Institute for Health Research Innovation Observatory. The Helix also hosts the Frederick Douglass Centre, named after the American anti-slavery campaigner, with a 750-seat auditorium and 200-seat lecture theatre for the university’s school of computing and business school.

Britain’s ageing population will be the focus of a new £500 million campus for research into dementia and frailty. The old General Hospital site, close to the city centre, will also offer housing for the elderly.

Newcastle’s improvements in the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) compared with the previous assessment in 2014 promise a 20 per cent increase in research funding. Ranking 26= in our analysis of research quality, a slight fall year-on-year against sector-wide success, Newcastle achieved the top category (world-leading) in 42 per cent of its submission to REF 2021, up from 31 per cent in 2014. The academic team involved in the assessment was 54 per cent larger. English language and literature produced the best results, with almost 80 per cent of the submission placed in the top category.

Newcastle also has a gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework. In our analysis of course completion rates it has an excellent record, finishing 13th. The university’s dropout rate is below the level expected in light of the background of its students and the courses offered.  

Like many Russell Group universities, however, Newcastle does less well in our social inclusion index (107th). About one third of its undergraduates are drawn from selective schools, mainly in the independent sector, leaving it outside the top 100 on this measure. Only one in 12 are drawn from areas with the lowest participation rates in higher education, despite its location in the northeast of England, which has the country’s lowest take-up of higher education overall. In 2021 almost a third of applicants qualified for a contextual offer, typically two grades below the norm for their course, as a result of educational disadvantage. 

The university is working with the Newcastle United Foundation on outreach, education and research programmes across the region, focusing on work placement and volunteering opportunities, and improving employability for a wider range of students. Students from low-income families and those with dependent children receive extra support, and 27.5 per cent of students with household incomes under £35,000 qualified for financial assistance in 2021. Newcastle has been designated a University of Sanctuary for its support for refugees, pledging up to £1 million for scholarships and support for academics and researchers in Ukraine and other war-torn regions.

About £30 million has been spent in recent years on new and refurbished sports facilities, including a Sport and Fitness Centre at the heart of the campus. The outdoor pitches are a little further away, as is the Newburn Water Sports Centre. But the university’s 63 sports clubs offer a broad range of opportunities for competition and there are 45 exercise and wellbeing classes every week.

The 4,500 residential places owned or endorsed by the university are enough to accommodate all full-time first-year undergraduates who want to live in. Places are allocated via a computer-generated number to ensure fairness. Private rents in Newcastle are relatively cheap and the nightlife on easy reach of the city centre campus has acquired legendary status.