Loughborough University has been named the Sunday Times University of the Year in The Sunday Times University Guide 2008, published with the newspaper tomorrow.

The university saw off competition from Imperial College London to win the title after being shortlisted three times – more than any other university.

Major investment in facilities has given Loughborough a world-class reputation in sport, and 48 athletes who competed at the Beijing Olympics for Team GB hailed from the Midlands-based university. They reached 19 finals and broke 15 national and two European records between them.

Loughborough also came joint second this month with Cambridge in the fourth annual National Student Survey, with an 84.3 per cent overall satisfaction rating, according to Sunday Times analysis of the results.

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Reviewing the answers given by all students to the 22-question NSS, Loughborough was beaten only by the private University of Buckingham.

The results of teaching quality assessments conducted since 1996 put Loughborough second only to Cambridge among multi-faculty institutions. Last year, it won its sixth Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education, awards made in recognition of research excellence. This most recent award was for work in vehicle safety and driver tiredness and its contribution to reducing the number of deaths on the roads.

Aston University climbed to its highest ever overall ranking coming 29th in the league table and was shortlisted for the University of the Year title.

But Warwick University remained firmly at the top of the regional rankings for the Midlands and maintained its position as seventh in the overall table.

The Sunday Times University Guide has ranked Warwick as the top university in the Midlands since it was first published eleven years ago. Warwick has never finished outside the national top ten, putting it well on course to be among the world’s top 50 institutions by 2015.

Harper Adams University College students remain among the most satisfied in the UK with an overall ranking of 51st this year. Its overall satisfaction score of 84.1 per cent in the National Student Survey is beaten only by the private University of Buckingham, Cambridge, and Loughborough. Harper Adams remains the top institution for getting students into work with virtually full employment for its students upon graduation.

Last year, just 0.9 per cent remained unemployed six months after leaving.

The Sunday Times University Guide contains full profiles of all universities and the leading colleges of higher education. The league table is drawn up from criteria including student satisfaction, teaching and research quality, ratings from head teachers’ and academic peer review, entrance qualifications held by new students, degree results achieved, student/staff ratios, graduate unemployment levels and university dropout rates.

Full details and overall positions available with tomorrow’s Sunday Times and later tonight at www.timesonline.co.uk/universityguide

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