THE University of Worcester has dropped five places in the latest edition of The Guardian's University Guide.

It is now ranked 108th overall out of 119 establishments – down from 103rd place last year.

The university was handed a total score of 45.5 compared to top ranked Cambridge's 100.

A University of Worcester spokeswoman said some of the data that went into the tables did not "allow for an accurate reflection of the reflection".

She said: "There is much debate among universities about the various league tables and their methodologies.

"The criteria used by the compilers does not allow for an accurate reflection of the real situation.

"For example, the University of Worcester appears in these tables to spend relatively little per student, despite opening a large number of new buildings, including the award-winning Hive and University of Worcester Arena, and increasing employment to over 1,000 members of staff.

"The university is consistently rated as one of the greenest in the country and spends comparatively little on energy due to our green investments and practices, but this actually loses the university points in the ‘league tables’.

"The same applies to The Hive, which is brilliantly successful and efficient, but its efficiency actually counts against the university in the league tables.

"The university has a number of students studying at partner institutions, including in Hereford and Halesowen locally.

"The students are counted in the university’s figures but because the university doesn’t directly employ the staff teaching them, this means the university scores less on spend and in the staff-student ratio.

"We are disappointed that our league table position does not reflect the reality of the university’s success, which has seen it achieve excellent reports from Ofsted, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education."