The Australian National University (ANU) rates lowest in terms of student satisfaction but has the highest qualified staff amongst Canberra universities, according to the latest Good Universities Guide.

The guide assigned a two out of five rating to student satisfaction with teaching quality, with the ANU ranked behind both the University of Canberra (UC) and the Australian Catholic University.

However the ANU came out top for the highest-qualified staff, receiving a five-star rating for the number of staff with masters degrees and doctorates.

The results for Canberra's highest world-ranked university were otherwise strong, with ANU alumni reporting the highest starting salary amongst Canberra graduates, along with high ratings for overall satisfaction.

ANU deputy vice-chancellor Marnie Hughes-Warrington conceded more work needed to be done.

"Am I personally satisfied? No I'm not we've got a lot of work to do but actually we have improved quite remarkably in the last couple of years," she told 666 ABC Canberra.

Ms Hughes-Warrington said the university experience had changed and students were finding the traditional lecture less appealing.

"Students are preferring tutorials and seminars over lectures, so it's a really interesting time to be working in universities at the moment and the great thing is students are speaking up pretty loudly and letting us know how we can improve." she said.

"We are really trying to encourage people to think about really maximising the teaching where there's interaction with students, but that's a big shift."

UC did well in the graduate employment stakes, with a four-star rating overall, however students gave it only a two-star overall satisfaction rating.

Both ANU and UC were given a one-star rating for social equity, which measures the number of enrolled students from a low socio-economic background.