University of Ulster agrees to change billboard ads in which it describes itself as world leading

The billboards, in locations near to the university such as Ballymena Road Coleraine, read: 'You are only 10 minutes away from a world-leading university'.

The Advertising Standards Association (ASA) was contacted about the wording, reportedly by an academic, on the basis that the University of Ulster (UU) is well down the global rankings, and that such a description was misleading and a breach of advertising rules.

The US News has UU in 814th place in its global ranking, while the Times Higher Education World University ranking puts it in the 600-801 bracket. The latter list is topped by Oxford University, then Harvard University in America, then Cambridge. It places Queen's University Belfast far ahead of UU, on joint 198th place.

Of rankings of UK-only universities, The Times places UU as 40th best.

The ASA is reported in the Belfast Telegraph, which first reported the story, to have said: "We spoke with Ulster University and they provided assurance that they would remove the ad.

"As such, as we consider the matter closed."

A spokeswoman for the university was reported to have said: "The 'world-leading' reference in this ad was based on a number of factors and rankings, and particularly the REF 2021 rating, where that independent expert reviewer specifically defines that 97% of Ulster University's research environment is world leading or internationally excellent."

The spokeswoman also said the university was found to be in the top 250 young universities in the world in The Times Young University Rankings 2023, which lists the world's best universities that are 50 years old or younger.

BBC News NI said that its understanding is that the ASA takes matters on a a case-by-case basis and could take other matters rather than ranking into account if given evidence for the university's "world-leading" claim.