How will Facility spend effect your experience at uni?

There’s a lot to think about when choosing a university. Our league tables do much more than show the top UK universities by region or by subject, you can also search by other elements that are important to you. If you want to play sports at uni or think you may need additional support, sorting the tables by Facility spend might be the right way for you. 

Why do we include Facility spend in our league tables? 

Facility spend is defined as the expenditure per student on staff and student facilities. This measures a broader aspect of university life beyond the courses, teaching and their outcomes and rates the non-academic facilities available to students, including sports facilities, libraries, and student support services such as careers, health and counselling services. 

How do we calculate Facility spend?

The data for calculating facility spend comes from Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) statistics from 2019–2022.

Our league table compilers take the university's expenditure on student facilities and divide by the number of full-time equivalent students in the most recent year available, averaging the expenditure over three years to allow for uneven expenditure.

You should bear in mind that this measure mostly includes central university expenditure. Some universities have a collegiate structure, with independent colleges as well as central university services and academic departments – such as Oxford and Cambridge. At these institutions, a significant amount of facilities expenditure may be made by colleges. It won't show in the university’s accounts and cannot be measured for our tables.

Find out more about how we calculate the rankings

How important is the Facility spend measure when choosing a university?

University life is about more than just what you study and who teaches you. A university that provides better facilities and support services to its students is likely to offer a better overall experience. If sports are important to you, or if you face certain challenges for which you may need more support, then it will be useful to see how high the universities you are researching score in this measure.  

Try sorting by Facility spend on one of our tables for yourself