Rankings of universities in the United Kingdom


Three national rankings of universities in the United Kingdom are published annually – by The Complete University Guide, The Guardian and jointly by The Times and The Sunday Times. Rankings have also been produced in the past by The Daily Telegraph and Financial Times.
The primary aim of the rankings is to inform potential undergraduate applicants about UK universities based on a range of criteria, including entry standards, student satisfaction, staff/student ratio, academic services and facilities expenditure per student, research quality, proportion of Firsts and 2:1s, completion rates and student destinations. All of the league tables also rank universities on their strength in individual subjects.
Each year since 2008, Times Higher Education has compiled a "Table of Tables" to combine the results of the 3 mainstream league tables. In the 2020 table, the top 5 universities were the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of St Andrews, Imperial College London and Loughborough University.

Rankings

The following rankings of British universities are produced annually:

''The Complete University Guide''

The Complete University Guide is compiled by Mayfield University Consultants and was published for the first time in 2007.
The ranking uses ten criteria, with a statistical technique called the Z-transformation applied to the results of each. The ten Z-scores are then weighted 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:
The most recent league table ranked the top 50 British universities as follows:
Rank UniversityRank UniversityRank UniversityRank UniversityRank University
1University of Cambridge=11University of Exeter21University of East Anglia31University of Dundee41Queen Mary, University of London
2University of Oxford=11University of Warwick22Newcastle University32University of Sussex42University of Lincoln
3University of St Andrews13University of Birmingham=23Royal Holloway, University of London33University of Sheffield43University of Stirling
4London School of Economics14University of Leeds=23University of Surrey34Aston University=44University of Essex
5Imperial College London15University of Manchester25King's College London=35Swansea University=44SOAS, University of London
6Durham University=16University of Edinburgh26Cardiff University=35Heriot-Watt University=44University of Leicester
7Lancaster University=16University of Bristol27Harper Adams University37Queen's University Belfast47St George's, University of London
8Loughborough University18University of Glasgow28University of Liverpool38Nottingham Trent University48University for the Creative Arts
9University of Bath19University of Nottingham29University of Aberdeen39University of Strathclyde49University of Kent
10University College London20University of Southampton30University of York40University of Reading50Northumbria University

On an annual basis, The Complete University Guide also produces an individual ranking for British universities across 70 subjects. The Guide includes a summary table ranking universities according to how frequently they appear in the top ten of each subject ranking.
The most recent league table ranked the top 10 British universities as follows:
Rank
UniversityAppearances in
Subject Tables		Top
Places		Times in
Top Ten		Percentage
in Top Ten
1University of Cambridge412741100.0
2University of Oxford37937100.0
3Imperial College London1401392.9
4Durham University3323090.9
5University of St Andrews2442187.5
6London School of Economics1211083.3
7University of Exeter3702670.3
8University of Bath2621869.2
9University College London3702567.6
10Royal Veterinary College30266.7

''The Guardian''

The Guardian 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. A "value-added" factor is included which compares students' degree results with their entry qualifications, described by the newspaper as being "ased upon a sophisticated 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". 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:
The most recent league table ranked the top 50 British universities as follows:
Rank UniversityRank UniversityRank UniversityRank UniversityRank University
1University of Cambridge11University of Leeds21University of Portsmouth31Swansea University41University of Sussex
2University of St Andrews12Nottingham Trent University22University College London32University of Keele42Royal Holloway, University of London
3University of Oxford13University for the Creative Arts23University of Bristol33Oxford Brookes University=43Liverpool Hope University
4Loughborough University14University of Glasgow24University of Southampton34University of Aberdeen=43Huddersfield University
5Durham University15Coventry University25University of Edinburgh35Newcastle University=45University of Stirling
6University of Bath16University of Birmingham=26University of Derby36Aston University=45University of Sheffield
7Imperial College London17University of Lincoln=26University of Surrey37Staffordshire University47Northumbria University
8Lancaster University18University of Nottingham28University of the West of England, Bristol38Cardiff University=48Edge Hill University
9University of Warwick19London School of Economics29University of Dundee39University of the Arts London=48Kingston University
10University of Exeter20University of York30University of East Anglia40University of Manchester50University of Liverpool

''The Times/The Sunday Times''

The Times/The Sunday Times university league table, known as the Good University Guide, is published in both electronic and print format and ranks institutions using the following eight criteria:
Other criteria considered are:
The following universities rank in the top 10 in at least one of the most recent national rankings; the table is ordered according to the Times Higher Education Table of Tables :
UniversityTHE Table of Tables Complete Guardian #a
University of Cambridge111
University of Oxford223
University of St Andrews332
Imperial College London447=
Loughborough University584
Durham University665
Lancaster University777=
University of Bath896
London School of Economics9419
University of Warwick1011=9
University of Exeter1111=10
University College London131022

Notes:
a Number of times the university is ranked within the top 10 of one of the three national rankings.

b The university is ranked within the top 5 of all three national rankings.

c The university is ranked within the top 3 of all three national rankings.

Disparity with global rankings

It has been commented by The Sunday Times that a number of universities which regularly feature in the top ten of British university league tables, such as St Andrews, Durham and LSE, "inhabit surprisingly low ranks in the worldwide tables", whilst other universities such as Manchester, Edinburgh and KCL "that failed to do well in the domestic rankings have shone much brighter on the international stage". The considerable disparity in rankings has been attributed to the different methodology and purpose of global university rankings such as the Academic Ranking of World Universities, QS World University Rankings and Times 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.
When size is taken into account, LSE ranks second in the world out of all small to medium-sized specialist institutions and St Andrews ranks second in the world out of all small to medium-sized fully comprehensive universities using metrics from the QS Intelligence Unit in 2015. 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.
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 offerings, and against small, specialist, mainly non-STEM universities such as LSE.'
Research by the UK's Higher Education Policy Institute in 2016 found that global rankings fundamentally measure research performance, with research-related measures accounting for over 85 percent of the weighting for both the Times Higher Education and QS rankings and 100 percent of the weighting for the ARWU ranking. HEPI also found that ARWU 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".

British universities in global rankings

The following universities rank in the top 100 of at least two global rankings:
UniversityQS World THE World ARWU World CWTS Leiden #a
University of Oxford41711
University of Cambridge73317
Imperial College London9102321
University College London8151518
University of Edinburgh20303152
University of Manchester2755=3355
King's College London3336=5135
London School of Economics4427=151–20043
University of Bristol49877437
University of Warwick6277101–15064
University of Glasgow6799=151–20056
Durham University78133201–30097
University of Birmingham81112101–15093
University of Leeds93155=101–15083
University of Sheffield78117=101-15088

Notes:
a Number of times the university is ranked within the top 100 of one of the four global rankings.

b The university is ranked within the top 25 of all four global rankings.

Criticism

UK university rankings have been subjected to criticism.

Accuracy and neutrality

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 the University of Leeds argues that the final average has little significance and is like trying to "combine apples and oranges". 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 the catch-22 that the government's desire to increase access can have negative effects on league table rankings. Further worries have been expressed regarding marketing strategies and propaganda used to chase tables undermining Universities values.
The Guardian suggests that league tables may affect the nature of undergraduate admissions in an attempt to improve a university's league table position.
Roger Brown, the former Vice-Chancellor of Southampton Solent University, highlights perceived limitations in comparative data between Universities.
Writing in The Guardian, Professor Geoffrey Alderman makes the point that including the percentage of 'good honours' can encourage grade inflation so that league table position can be maintained.
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, the Institute of Education, University of London, 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.

Full-time bias

League Tables, which usually focus on the full-time undergraduate student experience, commonly omit reference to Birkbeck, University of London, and the Open 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 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, according to the Times Higher Education, Birkbeck was placed equal 33rd, and the Open University 43rd, out of 132 institutions. The 2009 student satisfaction survey placed the Open University 3rd and Birkbeck 13th out of 153 universities and higher education institutions. In 2018, Birkbeck announced that it will 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".