簡介：Social policy is the best bet for a degree place in the arts and social sciences, with barely three applications to the place and generally low entry grades. Even at such highly selective institutions as Bristol, Edinburgh and the London School of Economics (LSE), average entry points do not reach 450 in the new table. Three more universities have joined the table this year, reflecting a 14 per cent increase in applications in 2011. But this success was not repeated with the advent of higher fees: applications were down by 17 per cent in March 2012. Although two thirds of entrants come with A levels or their equivalent, some courses cater very largely for mature students – the group most reluctant to pay fees of up to ￡9,000 a year. The London School of Economics (LSE) has retained its accustomed position at the head of the social policy ranking, with the best performance in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, when 80 per cent of its submission in the wider category of social work and policy and administration was rated world-leading or internationally excellent. City has come straight into the table in second place, with a 100 per cent employment record that is extremely rare in social policy. Elsewhere, only the LSE saw over three quarters of leavers go straight into graduate-level jobs or further study, and the success rate was below 40 per cent at six universities. Social policy is among the bottom five subjects for employment, although it does a little better in the earnings table. Satisfaction levels are better, although six universities failed to satisfy at least 70 per cent of their final-year undergraduates in the 2011 National Student Survey. Aston produced the best score. Edinburgh, with the highest entry standards, remains the leader in Scotland, despite dropping three places to fifth, while Cardiff is still well ahead of Swansea in Wales. A third of the 39 universities in the table are post-1992, but only three of them, compared with four last year, make the top 20. Nottingham Trent is by far the highest-placed, after a nine-place rise, while Lincoln and London South Bank are the other two.以下是2013年Times社會政策排名。