Ninety-one per cent of Lancaster University students are satisfied with their course - seven per cent higher than the national average of 84 per cent - according to the results of the 2017 National Student Survey.

According to Times Higher Education, this means that Lancaster is ranked fourth in the UK for student satisfaction, when FE colleges and small or specialist providers are excluded.

It follows closely on the heels of a Gold Award in the Teaching Excellence Framework, which measures teaching quality alongside employment outcomes and programme completion.

Professor Mark E. Smith, vice-chancellor of Lancaster University, said: "Staff at Lancaster University put a huge amount of effort into providing a high-quality learning experience for our students. They do this in partnership with our students and I would like to congratulate everyone on another very strong result for Lancaster.

"We take the NSS very seriously because it gives us important feedback about how to further improve the quality of our teaching. Although we are regularly among the top 10 for overall satisfaction that doesn't mean that we are complacent or cannot do better."

More than 300,000 final year students at more than 500 universities and colleges took part in the annual survey, which records in detail how students feel about their learning experience.

They are asked questions about the quality of their teaching, learning opportunities, assessment and feedback, academic support, the organisation and management of their course, the quality of learning resources, whether they feel part of a learning community, whether they are listened to and the strength of the student union.