Royal Agricultural University scoops a Silver in the national 2025 Whatuni Student Choice Awards (WUSCAs) Small or Specialist category

2 June 2025

Student feedback helps the oldest agricultural college in the English-speaking world secure a prestigious Silver award in its 180th year

Staff and students at the Royal Agricultural University - which is marking its 180th anniversary this year – are celebrating after positive feedback from students helped the institution to scoop a coveted Silver award in this year’s Whatuni Student Choice Awards (WUSCAs).

The University – originally founded as the Royal Agricultural College in 1845, the first agricultural college in the English-speaking world - came second in the Small or Specialist category of the national awards which are judged solely on the direct experiences and opinions of students.

Professor Peter McCaffery, RAU Vice-Chancellor, said: “The Whatuni Student Choice Awards (WUSCAs) is the largest exclusively student-voted awards body in the UK. We were delighted to be awarded Silver in the small and specialist university category in this year’s national competition.

“This remarkable achievement reflects the experience and perspectives of our students and is a powerful endorsement of a Royal Agricultural University education and our commitment to delivering excellence in all that we do. We endeavour to ensure that all our students and staff can flourish to the very best of their ability.”

Announced at a special ceremony in London last month, the annual awards recognise excellence in the UK's higher education student experience and are the UK’s most student-centric higher education sector awards.

This year’s student review collection cycle shows that student satisfaction levels have increased across all 12 of the WUSCA categories. Student satisfaction with how higher education institutions support their career prospects has increased the most, rising from an average of 4.18 in 2024 to 4.28 in 2025.

Through the Whatuni website, students also rated several other areas of support that universities and colleges provide, outside of the categories that form the annual awards. Of these: support for the provision of work placements and internships saw the largest increases in student satisfaction.

Simon Emmett, UK CEO of IDP Education (which is behind the Whatuni platform), said: “The increased performance in student satisfaction reflected in this year’s awards, and by the ongoing stream of Whatuni student reviews, demonstrates just how much the UK higher education sector is constantly improving and striving for excellence.

“We know that capturing the views and measurements of students (and these awards) – based entirely on their real-life experiences - is helping to drive positive changes for the sector and to highlight best practice. The WUSCAs are about celebrating universities and colleges that are truly placing student ‘at the heart of the system’.”