The University for the Creative Arts (UCA) has been named as one of the best-performing universities across all three of the UK’s major league tables, after entering this year’s Times Higher Education (THE) Table of Tables for the first time.

Ranked joint 29th, UCA - which has a campus in Epsom) is the only specialist creative arts university to be featured in the table, which combines the results of the three main UK university league tables: The Complete University Guide, The Guardian, and the combined Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide.

Professor Bashir Makhoul, vice chancellor, said: “I am incredibly proud that UCA has been recognised for the exceptional educational experience and creative opportunities it offers to students.

“To be the only specialist creative arts university named in the table and to have performed consistently well across the UK league tables highlights the fantastic support that students receive from exceptional members of staff who have tremendous links to the creative industries and research in their fields.”

The annual Table of Tables has been running since 2008 and offers a snapshot into how universities are perceived by national newspapers.

In May this year, UCA gained an impressive 18 places to be ranked 21st in the Guardian University Guide, while in April, the university rose five places in the Complete University Guide to 54th nationally.

Both league tables ranked UCA as the UK’s top specialist university for the creative industries.

Professor Makhoul added: “With the UK’s creative industries currently worth £84 million per year, the necessity for exceptional, specialist creative education has never seemed more important.

“We pride ourselves on nurturing highly-skilled and versatile professionals, who are able to continue to support, develop and grow the thriving creative industries, and we are taking this to the next level with the recent launch of our Business School for the Creative Industries, the first of its kind in the UK.”

UCA is the second largest provider of creative arts education in Europe, with campuses in Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham and Rochester, as well as teaching bases at Maidstone Television Studios, the Royal School of Needlework and the Open College of the Arts – UCA’s provider of distance learning.

This academic year (2017/18), UCA is celebrating 150 years of providing creative education across Kent and Surrey.