Scottish universities, including Glasgow, Edinburgh and St Andrews, have performed well in a new league table of higher education institutions, published today.

According to The Times Good University Guide, the most progress in the last year has been made by Glasgow University, which has jumped from 31st to 20th in the table.

The best Scottish university is still rated as St Andrews, which once again lies fifth in the UK behind Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College and the London School of Economics. Edinburgh University was ranked 18th in the UK, although the institution has slipped five places since last year. Strathclyde University was ranked 35th after a jump of nine places.

Among the generation of new universities, Robert Gordon, in Aberdeen, is the best-placed at 54th in the guide, which ranks the UK's 113 universities according to eight criteria, including student satisfaction, research quality and degree results.

Dr Brian Lang, principal of St Andrews, said: "It is a mark of the quality and competitiveness of Scottish teaching and research that we have three institutions established in the UK top 20, despite the increased spending power of English universities.

"It is a position we must fight hard to maintain."

Sir Muir Russell, principal of Glasgow University, said: "The quality of our teaching and research, allied to our provision of one of the best student experiences in the UK, makes us an attractive destination for students from across the UK and the world.

"Over the past several years, the Glasgow University has gone through a period of substantial change which has allowed us to compete nationally and internationally with the best universities in the world."

He added: "We will continue to invest in our areas of world-class excellence and we will build on our contribution to the economic, social and cultural wealth of Scotland."

Meanwhile, in a separate development, lecturers' leaders have written to Scotland's First Minister and the Lord Advocate to protest over proposed changes to terms and conditions of staff at Stirling University.

UCU Scotland made the unprecedented appeal to Alex Salmond and Elish Angiolini amid concerns the plans will undermine the rights of academic staff in relation to redundancies, dismissals and rights of appeal.

On Monday, the ruling court of Stirling University will consider a proposal to change the institution's statutes to make the issue of terms and conditions a matter for the university, rather than the Privy Council.

However, in order to complete the switch, the university must first seek approval from the Scottish Universities Committee of the Privy Council, on which Scotland is represented by the First Minister and the Lord Advocate.

David Bleiman, UCU's Scottish official, said: "We are engaged in constructive discussions with a consortium of Scottish universities to seek a consensus about necessary changes to academic staff procedures, but Stirling is about to make a headlong dash for the Privy Council to seek approval of their unilateral proposals.

"Scottish Government has already made clear that the deregulation of the protection of academic staff is no part of their agenda for university governance."