Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2026 is out. You can see how well (or how badly) the UK unis compare to institutions across the world.
The good news is that 31 UK unis rank among the top 250 universities in the world. Yay for them. The bad news is that quite a few of the UK’s most popular unis actually rank much lower in the world than you might expect.
Oxbridge are still considered the best unis in the UK. What a shock. The University of Oxford actually came first out of every university in the world, for the tenth year in a row. Cambridge crawled back up to third place. This is an improvement from last year, when Princeton University and Harvard University beat it.
Durham University, the University of St Andrews and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) ranked really highly in the various UK university league tables this year. All three beat Oxbridge in The Times Good University Guide. LSE also ranked third in the Complete University Guide. St Andrews has become way more popular among UK uni students in recent years – well, if it’s good enough for Wills and Kate, it’s good enough for them. The Guardian placed St Andrews as the second best uni in the country. However, these three UK unis actually rank very mediocrely in Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2026. LSE only came 52nd in the world this year – that’s its lowest ever ranking.
Well, at least St Andrews is near the beach?
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings are based on slightly different factors to the UK uni league tables. Times Higher Education doesn’t bother with how happy the students are at each uni. A lot of the data comes from what lecturers from around the world think of that uni. Unis get scored on what the teaching is like, how much research goes on, how useful that research actually is, how much money the uni makes from industry, and how many International staff and students there are. This explains why so many of the best UK unis in The Times Higher Education World University Rankings are Russell Group unis. Members of the Russell Group have a big focus on research, and the added prestige attracts more international students.
Here are the top UK unis right now, according to The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026. Unis beyond the top 200 are organised into bands, by the way.
University of Aberdeen, Cardiff University, University of Reading, University of Surrey, University of Sussex
=27th in the UK, =201st-250th in the world
Queen’s University Belfast
26th in the UK, =198th in the world
University of Leicester
25th in the UK, =192nd in the world
Lancaster University
24th in the UK, =184th in the world
Durham University
The colleges still look cool, though
23rd in the UK, 175th in the world
University of Exeter
22nd in the UK, =170th in the world
University of St Andrews
21st in the UK, =162nd in the world
University of York
20th in the UK, =154th in the world
University of Nottingham
19th in the UK, =145th in the world
Newcastle University
18th in the UK, 144th in the world
University of Liverpool
A rare image of the sun shining in Liverpool
17th in the UK, 143rd in the world
Queen Mary University of London
16th in the UK, =134th in the world
University of Southampton
15th in the UK, 129th in the world
University of Warwick
14th in the UK, =122nd in the world
University of Leeds
13th in the UK, 118th in the world
University of Sheffield
12th in the UK, =108th in the world
University of Birmingham
11th in the UK, =98th in the world
University of Glasgow
10th in the UK, =84th in the world
University of Bristol
9th in the UK, =80th in the world
University of Manchester
Somebody at Manchester Uni must be researching and not partying?
8th in the UK, 56th in the world
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
7th in the UK, 52nd in the world
King’s College London (KCL)
6th in the UK, 38th in the world
University of Edinburgh
5th in the UK, 29th in the world
University College London (UCL)
4th in the UK, 22nd in the world
Imperial College London
3rd in the UK, 8th in the world
University of Cambridge
2nd in the UK, =3rd in the world
University of Oxford
1st in the UK, 1st in the world
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