Not all Russell Group unis are born equal. Wildly different amounts of students apply to the UK’s different universities. Some super famous Russell Group unis are way less popular among students, and receive much fewer applicants, than you might guess.
UCAS has just released data from the 2025 application cycle, so you can see precisely how many students fancied going to each UK uni. The most popular Russell Group uni is still the University of Manchester. Funnily enough, it’s also the druggiest. A whopping 93,195 students fancied going to Manchester Uni in 2025 – that’s 6,095 more than the year before. University College London (UCL) and King’s College London (KCL) aren’t far behind. King’s was already a very popular uni to apply for. But in 2025, more students than ever aspired to go there. 6,540 more people applied than the year before.
The absolute least popular Russell Group uni is Queen’s University Belfast. Only 18,265 bothered to apply. The University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge always received far fewer applications than you might expect. This is because undergrads can’t apply to both. As the application process is extra complicated and time-consuming, lots of schools won’t support sixth-formers with Oxbridge applications unless they genuinely think that pupil has a shot.
So, here are the least popular Russell Group unis, based on how few applicants they attracted in 2025:
24. University of Manchester – 93,195 applicants
23. University College London (UCL) – 77,535 applicants
22. King’s College London (KCL) – 70,970 applicants
KCL girlies
21. University of Edinburgh – 66,340 applicants
20. University of Leeds – 64,535 applicants
19. University of Bristol – 62,830 applicants
18. University of Birmingham – 61,160 applicants
17. University of Nottingham – 54,205 applicants
16. University of Exeter – 48,110 applicants
15. University of Liverpool – 46,895 applicants
14. University of Warwick – 45,475 applicants
13. University of Sheffield – 44,650 applicants
Sheffield students living their best lives
12. Cardiff University – 43,480 applicants
11. Queen Mary University of London – 41,780 applicants
10. University of Southampton – 41,370 applicants
9. Durham University – 36,675 applicants
8. Newcastle University – 35,605 applicants
7. University of Glasgow – 33,075 applicants
Are these all the applicants Glasgow got last year?
6. University of York – 31,615 applicants
5. Imperial College London – 30,020 applicants
4. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – 27,115 applicants
3. University of Oxford – 24,400 applicants
2. University of Cambridge – 23,100 applicants
1. Queen’s University Belfast – 18,265 applicants
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