A new ranking system for universities has been introduced with a more student-centred approached. The previous system gave greater weight to research, but now issues such as teaching, the student experience and graduate employment are deemed more important.
The Universities of Oxford, Portsmouth, Kent and Surrey all achieved 'Gold', the highest category for the quality of their teaching and learning.
Four universities in the Meridian region are celebrating being awarded prestigious 'gold' ratings in the government’s first assessment of teaching excellence in higher education.
The Universities of Oxford, Portsmouth, Kent and Surrey all achieved the highest category for the quality of their teaching and learning.
In contrast the University of Southampton - which is a Russell Group university and has traditionally performed well in university league tables - has been given a bronze, putting it in the bottom quarter:
It's a double blow for the city of Southampton because its second university - Southampton Solent - which prides itself on its vocational teaching and the employability of its students - was also given a bronze.
A total of 295 universities and colleges took part in the TEF.
59 providers were rated gold, 116 silver and 56 bronze. The performance of universities including student drop out rates, student satisfaction and whether or not students were in graduate level jobs six months after finishing their courses were analysed.
Universities were benchmarked so their outcomes were only compared with similar universities.
The Vice Chancellor of Portsmouth Professor Graham Galbraith said he was delighted with the gold rating - and that judging universities by their teaching was long overdue:
Here are the full results for Universities in the Meridian region.
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