ARTS University Bournemouth is the highest climbing university in the South West, it has been revealed.

It ranked 49th in The Complete University Guide league tables 2019, which have been published today, after moving up 12 places from last year.

AUB was ranked the fourth best university overall in the South West.

The University of Bath remains the South West’s top university, at 11th place nationally, followed by Exeter and Bristol.

Bournemouth University dropped nine places from 57th last year to 66th this year.

In separate listings covering 70 subjects, Bournemouth University appears in the top ten for two of the 30 subjects it teaches.

Six of the universities in the region have dropped one or more places.

The South West is the strongest region in the UK for degree completion, with a mean score of 88.8 per cent compared to the national average of 85.4 per cent.

Dr Bernard Kingston, Chairman of TheCompleteUniversityGuide.co.uk, said: “The proportion of good honours has steadily but inexorably increased at almost all universities.

“Either students are working harder, or they are being better taught, or something else is happening. But it is one of the criteria over which universities have a significant degree of control.”

Bournemouth University slipped from 57th to 66th place in the national league table.

A statement said: “The Complete University Guide league table is just one measure of a university’s success, and we remain proud of our top 150 standing within the Times Higher Education Young University table, as well as our TEF Silver award.”

The league tables can be found in full at TheCompleteUniversityGuide.co.uk.