In the last few years there have been several attempts to move beyond the ranking of universities by research output and impact. Octopus Ventures, a venture capital investment group, has produced a ranking of British universities according to their ability to produce research-based innovation. The Entrepreneurial Impact Ranking analyses the spinout companies created by UK universities. Data is derived from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and uses information about total funding, total spinouts, total disclosures, total patents and total sales from spinouts, per university.

Universities that do well in conventional research rankings such as Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London can be found at the top of the ranking while the bottom includes places such as the University of Bolton and the University of Bedfordshire that have little standing in national and global rankings.

However, a number of universities that are not known for research quality perform well. The University of Ulster, the University of South Wales and Strathclyde University are all included in the top twenty and the first place is held by Queen’s University Belfast.

The top ten universities are:

1. Queen’s University Belfast
2. University of Cambridge
3. Cardiff University
4. Queen Mary University of London
5. University of Leeds
6. University of Dundee
7. University of Nottingham
8. King’s College London
9. University of Oxford
10. Imperial College London.

Source:
octopus ventures: Research to Riches