Guardian university Guide promotes most effective Departments

Economists at Royal Holloway, University of London, are reported to have analysed university applications to see how scores given to institution departments by the Guardian on its website affected the number of student applications they received.

According to the study, individual departments moving up a subject-level league table experienced a rise in applications of almost 5%, with the increase most pronounced among overseas applicants.
Evidence also exists that some employers use the league table to decide where to target recruitment.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/universityguide