Performance Indicators - Measuring our Success Here are some of the measures by which the University has been compared with its peers in the past year.

Queen’s Anniversary Prize Professor Sir Alfred Cuschieri and his team, including Associate Director of the Surgical Skills Unit, Dr Peta Dunkley, were recognised for their world class achievements in minimal access surgery. Dundee was one of only two Scottish universities among the 21 institutions receiving these prestigious biennial awards for excellence in higher and further education. League tables Scottish Universities have long felt that unofficial league tables produced by newspapers failed to compare like with like across the UK. In particular, as the teaching quality grading of ‘highly satisfactory’ (this University has 11 such gradings) does not exist in the rest of the UK, these gradings have been downgraded to merely ‘satisfactory’ in UK tables to the detriment of Scottish institutions. Using official information from the Higher Education Statistics Agency the effect of this anomaly has been quantified resulting in a more favourable outcome for Scottish Universities. This survey places Dundee at a very respectable 24th (out of 97) in terms of teaching, research, graduate employment, and spending on student facilities. Top of the alternative university ratings At the other end of the spate of league tables comes the Alternative University Ratings based on the responses of over 7000 students to their own institutions. Dundee emerged as the overall UK winner thanks to the facilities and quality of service provided by the Students’ Union. Dundee was also judged to have the best Freshers’ Week and website, the most attractive female students and second most attractive male students. Some may dismiss these findings as a bit of harmless fun but they do record a high level of customer satisfaction and serve to confirm our view that Dundee provides not only a first class education but also a first class educational experience thanks to our long-standing commitment to investing in the infra-structure of University life. Graduate Employment In the Higher Education Statistics Agency’s annual survey of graduate unemployment the University confirmed its regularly high rating by coming tenth in the UK institutions and third in Scotland with only 3.3% of graduates still looking for work six months after gaining their degrees.

Research income The University ranked third in Scotland (behind only Edinburgh and Glasgow) and 16th in the UK for research earnings in the 1999 edition of the respected publication, Noble’s Higher Education Financial Yearbook. Last year research earnings at the University totalled nearly £25 million (25% of the total income for that year). For a relatively small University to rank so highly on such an important measure as research earnings is a tremendous testimony to the quality of our staff and the calibre of their work. The University’s funding from the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) included £10 million for research the fourth largest amount among the 20 institutions within the Council’s auspices and one that reflects the volume and quality of research projects throughout the University. ‘Only second?’ The Faculty of Duncan of Jordanstone was rated second in the UK in The Guardian’s guide to the best places to study art and design. When the newspaper rang with the good news the reply, from an institution that has produced among others, sculptor David Mach, photographer Albert Watson, artist Calum Colvin, top fashion designer David Rees, and 1999 Turner Prize nominee Louise Wilson, was ‘Only second?’. Spirit of Scotland awards When Professor Will MacLean won the top award in the arts category of the prestigious Scotland on Sunday Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award for his painting and sculpture on the Highland Clearances and the fishing industry, the trophy he received was specially commissioned from his colleague, Alistair Ross. Scots of the Year Two Professors were among ten Scots of the Year selected by BBC Radio Scotland. Professor Sir Alfred Cuschieri and Professor Sir David Lane were honoured for their special contributions to minimal access (‘keyhole’) surgery and cancer research.

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