Three nationalrankings of universities in the United Kingdom are published annually by theComplete University Guide andThe Guardian, as well as a collaborative list byThe Times andThe Sunday Times. Rankings have also been produced in the past byThe Daily Telegraph and theFinancial Times.
British universities rank highly inglobal university rankings with eight featuring in the top 100 of all three major global rankings as of 2024:QS,Times Higher Education, andARWU. The national rankings differ from global rankings with a focus on the quality ofundergraduate education, as opposed toresearch prominence and facultycitations.
The primary aim of domestic rankings is to inform prospective undergraduate applicants about universities based on a range of criteria, including: entry standards, student satisfaction, staff–student ratio, expenditure per student, research quality,degree classifications, completion rates, and graduate outcomes. All of the league tables also rank universities in individual subjects.
As of 2025, the top-five ranked universities in the United Kingdom areOxford,Cambridge,London School of Economics (LSE),St Andrews, andDurham, withImperial College London,Bath andWarwick also appearing in the top ten of all three rankings.
From 2008 to 2022, the three main national rankings—Complete,Guardian, andTimes—were averaged each year to form an overall league table by theTimes Higher Education Table of Tables; in its final edition, the top-five universities wereOxford,Cambridge,LSE,St Andrews, andImperial.[1]
| Pos | University | Average | Complete | Guardian | Times[a] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oxford Oxford | 2.3 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 2= | Cambridge Cambridge | 2.7 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 2= | St Andrews St Andrews | 2.7 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| 2= | LSE LSE | 2.7 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| 5 | Durham Durham | 4.3 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| 6 | Imperial Imperial | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| 7 | Bath Bath | 7.7 | 8 | 8 | 7 |
| 8 | Warwick Warwick | 8 | 9 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | Loughborough Loughborough | 10 | 7 | 11 | – |
| 10 | UCLUCL | 10.7 | 13 | 10 | 9 |
| 11 | Lancaster Lancaster | 13 | 10 | 14 | – |
| 12 | Bristol Bristol | 13.3 | 15 | 15 | 10 |
| 13 | Exeter Exeter | 14 | 11 | 17 | – |
| 14 | Sheffield Sheffield | 15 | 16 | 16 | – |
| 15 | Southampton Southampton | 18 | 17 | 20 | – |
| 16 | Edinburgh Edinburgh | 18.7 | 18 | 13 | – |
| 17 | Birmingham Birmingham | 19.3 | 14 | 28 | – |
| 18 | King's King's | 19.7 | 19 | 21 | – |
| 19 | Liverpool Liverpool | 20.7 | 23 | 21 | – |
| 20 | Strathclyde Strathclyde | 22.7 | 38 | 19 | – |
| 21 | York York | 23.3 | 12 | 38 | – |
| 22 | Aberdeen Aberdeen | 23.7 | 30 | 18 | – |
| 23 | SurreySurrey | 24.3 | 19 | 23 | – |
| 24 | Leeds Leeds | 25 | 21 | 28 | – |
| 25 | Glasgow Glasgow | 25.7 | 31 | 24 | – |
| Sources:[2][3][4] | |||||
| Pos | University | Average | Complete | Guardian | Times[a] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | Essex Essex | 28.3 | 29 | 12 | — |
| 27 | Cardiff Cardiff | 29.0 | 22 | 37 | — |
| 28 | Dundee Dundee | 29.3 | 39 | 26 | — |
| 29= | Queen's Belfast Queen's Belfast | 30.0 | 24 | 45 | — |
| 29= | Manchester Manchester | 30.0 | 28 | 35 | — |
| 31= | Heriot-Watt Heriot-Watt | 31.7 | 25 | 31 | — |
| 31= | Arts LondonArts London | 31.7 | 33 | 9 | — |
| 33 | Leicester Leicester | 33.7 | 33 | 40 | — |
| 34 | Nottingham Nottingham | 35.7 | 26 | 51 | — |
| 35 | Swansea Swansea | 36.3 | 40 | 32 | — |
| 36 | Nottingham Trent Nottingham Trent | 39.0 | 46 | 25 | — |
| 37 | Manchester Met Manchester Met | 40.3 | 50 | 33 | — |
| 38 | Portsmouth Portsmouth | 43.0 | 42 | 35 | — |
| 39 | Northumbria Northumbria | 43.7 | 37 | 47 | — |
| 40 | Aston Aston | 44.3 | 44 | 48 | — |
| 41 | Reading Reading | 44.7 | 36 | 65 | — |
| 42 | Sussex Sussex | 46.7 | 43 | 52 | — |
| 43 | East Anglia East Anglia | 47.0 | 26 | 75 | — |
| 44 | Chichester Chichester | 47.3 | 60 | 28 | — |
| 45= | Royal Holloway Royal Holloway[b] | 48.7 | 35 | 79 | — |
| 45= | Newcastle Newcastle | 48.7 | 31 | 81 | — |
| 47 | Queen Mary Queen Mary[b] | 49.3 | 41 | 72 | — |
| 48 | Aberystwyth Aberystwyth | 49.7 | 45 | 62 | — |
| 49 | Keele Keele | 51.3 | 68 | 43 | — |
| 50 | Ulster Ulster | 51.7 | 54 | 52 | — |
| 51 | West of England West of England | 52.7 | 62 | 39 | — |
| 52 | Edge Hill Edge Hill | 55.3 | 57 | 46 | — |
| 53 | Oxford Brookes | 57.7 | 48 | 56 | — |
| 54 | West London | 58.3 | 70 | 41 | — |
| 55 | Bangor Bangor | 58.7 | 55 | 62 | — |
| 56 | Liverpool John Moores Liverpool John Moores | 59.7 | 76 | 42 | — |
| 57 | Lincoln Lincoln | 60.0 | 52 | 64 | — |
| 58 | Kent Kent | 61.7 | 49 | 80 | — |
| 59 | City St George's City St George's[b] | 62.3 | 53 | 86 | — |
| 60 | Harper Adams Harper Adams | 63.0 | 47 | — | — |
| 61 | Arts Bournemouth | 64.7 | 61 | 60 | — |
| 62 | Hertfordshire Hertfordshire | 66.0 | 82 | 49 | — |
| 63 | South Wales South Wales | 67.3 | 77 | 43 | — |
| 64 | Abertay Abertay | 68.7 | 94 | 50 | — |
| 65 | Coventry Coventry | 69.0 | 59 | 70 | — |
| 66 | Stirling Stirling | 69.7 | 51 | 103 | — |
| 67 | SunderlandSunderland | 71.7 | 83 | 27 | — |
| 68 | Plymouth Plymouth | 72.3 | 75 | 84 | — |
| 69= | Cardiff Met Cardiff Met | 74.7 | 66 | 87 | — |
| 69= | Gloucestershire Gloucestershire | 74.7 | 72 | 68 | — |
| 71= | Goldsmiths Goldsmiths[b] | 75.0 | 71 | 67 | — |
| 71= | Glasgow Caledonian Glasgow Caledonian | 75.0 | 85 | 104 | — |
| 73 | Norwich Arts | 76.0 | 58 | 66 | — |
| 74 | Robert Gordon Robert Gordon | 76.3 | 87 | 92 | — |
| 75= | Bath Spa | 76.7 | 92 | 61 | — |
| 75= | St Mary's St Mary's | 76.7 | 69 | 93 | — |
| 75= | TeessideTeesside | 76.7 | 90 | 56 | — |
| 78 | Falmouth Falmouth | 77.3 | 62 | 83 | — |
| 79 | Derby Derby | 77.7 | 79 | 58 | — |
| 80 | Salford Salford | 78.7 | 79 | 85 | — |
| 81 | Kingston Kingston | 79.3 | 89 | 55 | — |
| 82 | Hull Hull | 80.0 | 81 | 99 | — |
| 83= | Solent Solent | 80.3 | 107 | 58 | — |
| 83= | Edinburgh Napier Edinburgh Napier | 80.3 | 96 | 94 | — |
| 85 | Suffolk | 80.7 | 55 | 90 | — |
| 86= | SOAS SOAS[b] | 84.3 | 62 | 116 | — |
| 86= | Chester Chester | 84.3 | 74 | 70 | — |
| 88 | Plymouth Marjon Plymouth Marjon | 85.0 | 100 | — | — |
| 89 | Liverpool Hope Liverpool Hope | 85.7 | 90 | 77 | — |
| 90= | Leeds BeckettLeeds Beckett | 87.3 | 78 | 101 | — |
| 90= | Bradford Bradford | 87.3 | 107 | 69 | — |
| 90= | Huddersfield Huddersfield | 87.3 | 65 | 95 | — |
| 93= | Bournemouth Bournemouth | 87.7 | 72 | 112 | — |
| 93= | Staffordshire Staffordshire | 87.7 | 94 | 82 | — |
| 95 | Sheffield Hallam Sheffield Hallam | 89.0 | 84 | 88 | — |
| 96 | East London East London | 91.0 | 126 | 33 | — |
| 97 | Queen Margaret Queen Margaret | 92.0 | 114 | 96 | — |
| 98 | Central Lancashire Central Lancashire | 92.3 | 86 | 98 | — |
| 99 | Greater Manchester Greater Manchester | 94.0 | 102 | 54 | — |
| 100 | Trinity Saint David | 94.3 | 111 | 73 | — |
| 101= | Canterbury Christ Church Canterbury Christ Church | 95.7 | 99 | 107 | — |
| 101= | Leeds Trinity Leeds Trinity | 95.7 | 122 | 75 | — |
| 103= | Lincoln Bishop Lincoln Bishop | 96.0 | 118 | — | — |
| 103= | Brighton | 96.0 | 88 | 110 | — |
| 105 | Buckinghamshire New Buckinghamshire New | 97.0 | 97 | 74 | — |
| 106 | London South Bank London South Bank | 99.3 | 110 | 77 | — |
| 107 | Brunel Brunel[b] | 100.3 | 67 | 117 | — |
| 108 | Hartpury Hartpury | 101.0 | — | — | — |
| 109 | Worcester Worcester | 101.7 | 93 | 114 | — |
| 110 | Leeds Arts | 103.0 | 103 | — | — |
| 111 | Winchester Winchester | 103.3 | 98 | 106 | — |
| 112 | Greenwich Greenwich | 108.3 | 106 | 119 | — |
| 113 | Northampton Northampton | 109.0 | 119 | 90 | — |
| 114 | Birmingham City Birmingham City | 109.7 | 103 | 113 | — |
| 115 | York St John York St John | 110.7 | 105 | 115 | — |
| 116 | Wolverhampton Wolverhampton | 112.7 | 109 | 108 | — |
| 117= | Birmingham Newman Birmingham Newman | 113.0 | 124 | 108 | — |
| 117= | Creative Arts Creative Arts | 113.0 | 112 | 100 | — |
| 119 | London Met London Met | 113.7 | 128 | 89 | — |
| 120 | Cumbria Cumbria | 114.0 | 117 | 96 | — |
| 121 | Anglia Ruskin Anglia Ruskin | 115.0 | 120 | 102 | — |
| 122 | De Montfort De Montfort | 115.3 | 120 | 118 | — |
| 123 | Middlesex Middlesex | 116.7 | 113 | 121 | — |
| 124 | Bedfordshire | 117.3 | 130 | 104 | — |
| 125 | Roehampton | 119.7 | 115 | 120 | — |
| 126= | Westminster Westminster | 120.0 | 123 | 122 | — |
| 126= | West of Scotland West of Scotland | 120.0 | 127 | 123 | — |
| 128 | Wrexham Wrexham | 120.7 | 129 | 111 | — |
| 129 | Buckingham Buckingham | 122.0 | 116 | — | — |
| 130 | RAU RAU | 127.5 | 125 | — | — |
| Source: | |||||
There are three main domestic league tables in the United Kingdom: theComplete University Guide (CUG),The Guardian, andThe Times/The Sunday Times.
TheComplete University Guide is compiled by Mayfield University Consultants and was published for the first time in 2007.[8]
The ranking uses ten criteria, with a statistical technique called theZ-score applied to the results of each.[9] The effect of this is to ensure that the weighting given to each criterion is not distorted by the choice of scale used to score that criterion. The ten Z-scores are then weighted (as given below) and summed to give a total score for each university. These total scores are then transformed to a scale where the top score is set at 1,000, with the remainder being a proportion of the top score. The ten criteria are:[10]
The Guardian's ranking uses nine different criteria, each weighted between 5 and 15 per cent. Unlike other annual rankings of British universities, the criteria do not include a measure of research output.[11] A "value-added" factor is included which compares students' degree results with their entry qualifications, described by the newspaper as being "[b]ased upon asophisticated indexing methodology that tracks students from enrolment to graduation, qualifications upon entry are compared with the award that a student receives at the end of their studies".[12] Tables are drawn up for subjects, with the overall ranking being based on an average across the subjects rather than on institutional level statistics. The nine criteria are:[13]
The Times/The Sunday Times university league table, known as the Good University Guide,[14] is published in both electronic and print format. Since 1999, the guide also recognises one university annually asUniversity of the Year. It ranks institutions using the following eight criteria:[15]
Other criteria considered are:
It has been commented byThe Sunday Times that a number of universities which regularly feature in the top ten of British university league tables, such asSt Andrews,Durham andLSE (in the case of LSE 3rd to 4th nationally whilst only 101–150th in theARWU Rankings / 56th in theQS Rankings / 37th in theTHE Rankings), "inhabit surprisingly low ranks in the worldwide tables", whilst other universities such asManchester,Edinburgh andKCL "that failed to do well in the domestic rankings have shone much brighter on the international stage".[16] The considerable disparity in rankings has been attributed to the different methodology and purpose ofglobal university rankings such as theAcademic Ranking of World Universities,QS World University Rankings, andTimes Higher Education World University Rankings. International university rankings primarily use criteria such as academic and employer surveys, the number of citations per faculty, the proportion of international staff and students and faculty and alumni prize winners.[17][18][19] When size is taken into account, LSE ranks second in the world out of all small to medium-sized specialist institutions (afterENS Paris) and St Andrews ranks second in the world out of all small to medium-sized fully comprehensive universities (afterBrown University) using metrics from theQS Intelligence Unit in 2015.[20] The national rankings, on the other hand, give most weighting to the undergraduate student experience, taking account of teaching quality and learning resources, together with the quality of a university's intake, employment prospects, research quality and drop-out rates.[12][21]
The disparity between national and international league tables has caused some institutions to offer public explanations for the difference.LSE for example states on its website that 'we remain concerned that all of the global rankings – by some way the most important for us, given our highly international orientation – suffer from inbuilt biases in favour of large multi-faculty universities with full STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) offerings, and against small, specialist, mainly non-STEM universities such as LSE.'[22]
Research by the UK's Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) in 2016 found that global rankings fundamentally measure research performance, with research-related measures accounting for over 85 percent of the weighting for both theTimes Higher Education andQS rankings and 100 percent of the weighting for theARWU ranking. HEPI also found thatARWU made no correction for the size of an institution. There were also concerns about the data quality and the reliability of reputation surveys. National rankings, while said to be "of varying validity", have more robust data and are "more highly regarded than international rankings".[23]
The following universities rank in the top 100 in at least two global rankings:
| University | ARWU 2025 (Global)[24] | QS 2026 (Global)[25] | THE 2026 (Global)[26] | #a |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Cambridge | 4 | 6 | 3= | 3b |
| University of Oxford | 6 | 4 | 1 | 3b |
| University College London | 14 | 9 | 22 | 3b |
| Imperial College London | 26 | 2 | 8 | 3b |
| University of Edinburgh | 37 | 34 | 29 | 3c |
| University of Manchester | 46 | 35 | 56 | 3 |
| King's College London | 61 | 31 | 38 | 3 |
| University of Bristol | 98 | 51 | 80= | 3 |
| University of Glasgow | 101–150 | 79 | 84 | 2 |
| London School of Economics | 151–200 | 56 | 52 | 2 |
| University of Birmingham | 151–200 | 76 | 98= | 2 |
Notes:
a Number of times the university is ranked within the top 100 of one of the three global rankings.
b The university is ranked within the top 25 of all three global rankings.
c The university is ranked within the top 50 of all three global rankings.
There has been criticism of attempts to combine different rankings on for example research quality, quality of teaching, drop out rates and student satisfaction.Sir Alan Wilson, former Vice-Chancellor of theUniversity of Leeds, argues that the final average has little significance and is like trying to "combine apples and oranges".[27] He also criticised the varying weights given to different factors, the need for universities to "chase" the rankings, the often fluctuating nature of a university's ranking, and thecatch-22 that the government's desire to increase access can have negative effects on league table rankings.[27] Further worries have been expressed regarding marketing strategies and propaganda used to chase tables, thus undermining universities' values.[28]
The Guardian suggests that league tables may affect the nature of undergraduate admissions in an attempt to improve a university's league table position.[29]
Roger Brown, the former Vice-Chancellor ofSouthampton Solent University, highlights perceived limitations in comparative data between Universities.[30]
Writing inThe Guardian, Professor Geoffrey Alderman makes the point that including the percentage of 'good honours' can encouragegrade inflation so that league table position can be maintained.[31]
The rankings are also criticised for not giving a full picture of higher education in the United Kingdom. There are institutions which focus on research and enjoy a prestigious reputation but are not shown in the table for various reasons. For example, theInstitute of Education, University of London (now part of UCL), was not usually listed in the undergraduate rankings despite the fact that it offered an undergraduate BEd and was generally recognised as one of the best institutions offering teacher training and Education studies (for example, being given joint first place, alongsideOxford University, in the 2008 Research Assessment 'Education' subject rankings, according to both Times Higher Education and The Guardian).[32][33]
The INORMS Research Evaluation Group have developed an initiative called More Than Our Rank[34] which allows universities to describe in a narrative format their activities, achievements and ambitions not captured by any university ranking.
League tables, which usually focus on thefull-time undergraduate student experience, commonly omit reference toBirkbeck, University of London, and theOpen University, both of which specialise in teaching part-time students. These universities, however, often make a strong showing in specialist league tables looking at research, teaching quality, and student satisfaction. In the 2008Research Assessment Exercise, according to theTimes Higher Education,Birkbeck was placed equal 33rd, and theOpen University 43rd, out of 132 institutions.[35] The 2009 student satisfaction survey placed theOpen University 3rd andBirkbeck 13th out of 153 universities and higher education institutions (1st and 6th, respectively, among multi-faculty universities).[36] In 2018, Birkbeck announced that it would withdraw from UK university rankings because their methodologies unfairly penalise it, since "despite having highly-rated teaching and research, other factors caused by its unique teaching model and unrelated to its performance push it significantly down the ratings".[37]
