Open University is the best university in the country – according to its students. The National Student Survey, launched on a new website today, asked 170,000 of last term's finalists how they rated their tutors, library resources and courses. The results turn traditional tables on their heads.
The top end of the table compiled by EducationGuardian.co.uk from the results is dominated by Open University, then a handful of specialist colleges.
But way ahead of University College London, Manchester and Sheffield - the bastions of the Russell Group of elite universities - are Loughborough, Leicester and Hull.
The statistics have some caveats. Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick all refused to take part, and Scotland is not covered. And although the website provides some information about courses at the University of East London, South Bank University and Luton University, the return wasn't more than 50% of all their students, meaning they don't appear in our rankings either.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England, which oversaw the survey along with the National Union of Students, nevertheless insists that the individual course information will help students when they are deciding which university to go to.
The University of the Arts is the least popular with its students – but then arts students, all in all, seem to be a dissatisfied. In a separate table, which rates how satisfied students are subject by subject, art and design languish at the bottom.
TQI, the website containing all this information, is designed to give fee-paying students even more details about the courses they may be considering.
Bill Rammell, the higher education minister, today said that courses students don't like will have to improve or close. Welcome to the brave new world of the higher education market.
It's a busy day for universities. Performance indicators for the sector are also out today, and they name and shame the universities with the worst drop-out rates, lowest state schools pupil intake and best research ratings.
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