The accolade is based on student reviews and ratings collected over the past year based on students’ experience at universities around the UK.

York beat nine other British universities to grab top marks while Durham University came second and Plymouth University came third. Other contenders in the category included the University of Glasgow, University of Warwick and Lancaster University.

“What we do well at York is try to give students a very personal approach”

International Officer Phill Gray said it was “very humbling” to be nominated and to win.

“We put a lot of work in to recruiting students and to make sure that when they come they’re supported by everyone at the university,” he said. “To find out they voted for us means a lot.”

International students account for around three thousand of the some 15,000 students enrolled at York. Most originate from North America, East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East.

Gray says that the university stands apart from other institutions for its focus on giving students personal attention.

“What we do well at York is try to give students a very personal approach. When they talk to us we don’t send them a generic response but we try to work with them, and the departments and support staff do the same,” he said.

“With this award I would like to see the university build on that and give our support staff the recognition they deserve; it’s not just us in recruitment it’s everyone in the university all the way to the cleaners and porters.”

The award was presented last night at the WhatUni Student Choice awards in London. Aside from the International award, all other awards were decided by users of Whatuni- Hotcourses’ domestic university and course comparison site.

Swansea University was named University of the Year based on 17,500 independent reviews collected from UK students. In total nine awards were given including for Accommodation and City Life. A full list of winners can be found here.

Hotcourses Abroad sits at the centre of the organisation’s network of international sites for students seeking study options abroad. The sites cover students located in Europe, Asia and Africa and is made up of over a dozen local language sites, including Uniguru for Indian and South Asian students.