The best universities in Britain for a degree in medicine: Our definitive guide for 2026 scores 30 institutions on everything from student life to graduate jobs and salary prospects. Read it only here
Leicester retains its place at the head of our medicine table for a second year – testimony to its high-quality student experience and universal success in securing graduate jobs.
Medicine sees 100% high-skilled employment at the vast majority (22 out of 30) of the universities in the ranking, although this is not wholly surprising given medical degrees generally have one intended outcome.
The similarity in graduate achievements does mean that our medicine ranking is largely determined by students’ ratings from their time at university.
You can create a ranking of all 30 universities in our medicine table by selecting the subject tab in our University Finder and then selecting medicine from within the healthcare, nursing and medicine menu. Or you can view the universities below ranked in the order they finish.
Our subject rankings are based on students’ assessment of their university experience and their subsequent success in the graduate jobs' market. The biggest influence on our subject tables is how effective courses are in helping students to secure high-skilled jobs after graduating. This carries a 40% weighting, with a further 20% awarded based on the extent to which students feel their careers are on track 15 months after leaving university.
The remaining 40% is split between the ratings students themselves give their subjects in the 2025 National Student Survey based on the quality of the teaching they receive, how well supported they feel while studying and their wider student experience.
Leicester scores highly across the board for student satisfaction – registering 93.2% satisfaction for teaching quality (beaten only by Keele, which ranks second overall), 89.2% for student support, the best at any medical school, and 88.5% for student experience (topped only by Imperial College London, which ranks sixth overall).
All four nations of the UK are well represented in the medicine top ten. Cardiff and Queen’s University Belfast are tied in third place, while Dundee and Aberdeen finish in seventh and ninth place, respectively.
Some of the most prestigious medical schools – Edinburgh, Leeds, King’s College London and Glasgow among them – finish close to the bottom of the ranking on account of poor ratings from students for teaching quality, student support and student experience.
Among the newer medical schools, Keele in second place and East Anglia in tenth place are the standout winners. Plymouth (24th=) and Lancashire (30th in bottom place) also make the cut.
But several of the newer medical schools do not feature. This is because this year’s subject rankings use the 2025 National Student Survey, which is completed by final year students only (so in the fifth year of study for medics) and graduate outcomes data from 2021-2022.
This means medical schools which opened last year might not feature for another seven years until the first graduates are captured in graduate outcomes data for 2029-30, which is due to be published in 2032.
Read the list below or click here to launch our interactive University Finder – and personalise the rankings to find the university best suited to you.
1. University of Leicester
Overview
Leicester is one of the best bargains to be had in the annual dash to secure a university place. In exchange for mostly medium-tariff offers, Leicester - our University of the Year last year - offers a high-quality student experience in a bustling multi-cultural city. Students rate the institution highly in the annual National Student Survey, graduates go on to well-paid jobs and teaching is underpinned by a strong (some might say box-office) record in research. This is the university where DNA fingerprinting was pioneered by Professor Alec Jeffreys in 1984; it is also the university that, with others, discovered the remains of Richard III under a Leicester car park in 2013. It takes the requirement for universities to innovate seriously and wants its students to embrace that spirit by being 'Citizens of Change'. The university admitted a record number of students in September 2024, surpassing 5,000 for the first time - a 52% rise on the number admitted in 2019. It is a hugely popular choice for applicants from London, as well as the East and West Midlands. The student intake is multicultural and socially diverse, reflecting the wider city, with white, Asian and black students in almost equal numbers.
2. Keele University
Overview
Set on a parkland campus near Stoke-on-Trent, Keele offers a different university experience. There is a strong accent on sustainability and Keele was named Global Sustainability Institution of the Year at the Green Gown awards in 2021. It is consistently popular and has only twice admitted more students through Ucas than the 2,945 who gained a place in September last year. A multi-faculty institution, Keele has a significant presence in medicine and healthcare, which now accounts for around one third of admissions. A new veterinary medicine school operated with Harper Adams University, and a sports science degree, are among notable recent additions. All courses have a four-year option involving study abroad or a placement. Keele gained an overall gold rating in the latest Teaching Excellence Framework, making it one of just 15 institutions to do so in both 2023 and 2017. The responsive Access & Success bursary scheme invites students to pitch what they need financial support for rather than handing out a set sum. Like many other universities, Keele has experienced job losses in the past year, with humanities and social sciences bearing the brunt. However, no courses have closed, and the university says staff/student ratios remain favourable.
3 (joint). Cardiff University
Overview
Record admissions in September last year, and another bumper crop of applications, stand in stark contrast to the proposed job losses and threat of course closures that have put Cardiff in the news for all the wrong reasons this year. The negative headlines will be viewed as the price to pay for delivering on the university's 2035 strategy document Our Future, Together, which is upfront in declaring: 'Universities are facing an existential moment. The current model is no longer fit for purpose'. In other words, what's happening at Cardiff today will be happening in plenty of other universities tomorrow. Cardiff is the biggest university in Wales and the only one to be a member of the elite Russell Group. It occupies two campuses: Cathays Park in the city centre and the more modern Heath Park a mile away, which is home to healthcare-related courses and the University Hospital of Wales, where the medical school is located. It is one of the more socially inclusive of the Russell Group universities and has a broad-based academic excellence. Improved scores in this year's National Student Survey have helped push the university into our elite top 30. The city is hugely popular with students at its three universities and is one of the UK's hot student destinations. Cardiff will be hoping this features large in applicants' minds while the financial dust settles.
3 (joint). Queen's University Belfast
Overview
Queen's University Belfast enjoys a reputation as the Oxbridge of Northern Ireland. While that may be true academically, the university has a longstanding record of social inclusion - which sees 32% of students recruited from low-income backgrounds. Celebrating its 180th anniversary this year, Queen's is enjoying a moment, with applications close to an all-time high and admissions at a level beaten only during the pandemic. About 10% of the British intake now come from beyond Northern Ireland, and the university enjoys buoyant recruitment from around the world. Hillary Clinton has been chancellor since 2020, a symbol of the international mindset that now pervades the university. While academic excellence spans many subjects including medicine and healthcare, science, humanities and the arts, the university also nurtures the practical application of knowledge. It has ranked first or second in the past two Entrepreneurial Impact Rankings, produced by Octopus Ventures, which judged universities on the patents and spin-out companies they created. Queen's is located in an attractive district to the south of the city centre with the Lanyon Building at its heart. The opening next year of the eco-friendly Passivhaus student accommodation shows university architecture is also moving with the times.
5. University of Oxford
Overview
Oxford features at the top or close to the top of every domestic and international university ranking and attracts the very brightest of applicants. Nearly half of 2024's intake achieved A*A*A* at A-level, although it does not routinely ask for A*s across the board. It places more faith in its admissions procedures - which feature interviews and either subject-specific or general aptitude tests - than some of its rivals, with AAA at A-level being the typical offer. Oxford has taken huge strides to diversify its intake over the past decade. In 2024, 66.2% of new students were educated in state schools (although this was down from a peak of 68.6%), 13.6% came from areas with low rates of participation in higher education (17%), and 14.5% from disadvantaged backgrounds (16%). The proportion of black and mixed-ethnic heritage entrants and those who have received free school meals was up between 2020 and 2024. There are 32 undergraduate colleges spanning the ancient and modern, and traditional and relaxed, and not all subjects are available in each. They offer very different social and educational mixes, too, so it pays to choose carefully. The deadline for application is earlier than other universities, on October 15.
6. Imperial College London
Overview
Our top-ranked university for the third successive year, Imperial saw a record number of applications for places on courses beginning in September 2024. Those applications came from across the world, with 47% of places awarded through Ucas going to international students. The university focuses on science, engineering, mathematics, medicine and business, billing itself as a world-leading university. Imperial's success is rooted in academic excellence and an unparalleled record in graduate destinations where high-quality jobs and high salaries are the norm. It also has a growing reputation for providing an excellent student experience following its significant recent focus on this after a string of poor scores (now largely corrected) in the annual National Student Survey (NSS). Where the Daily Mail led in being the only UK university ranking to place Imperial top, others have followed: global rankings produced by QS for the past two years have put Imperial as the top-ranked UK university for the first time, standing second in the world behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The university's strong social conscience is evidenced by a bursary scheme that is among the most generous in the UK and a contextual admissions scheme - revised for September 2025 admissions - that is expected to increase the proportion of students from under-represented backgrounds.
7 (joint). University of Dundee
Overview
No university has come closer to going bust than Dundee during the ongoing financial crisis in higher education. A cash injection of £22m from the Scottish Funding Council in March 2025 kept the lights on after administrators warned that Dundee could run out of money by the end of June. The source of the problem is a £35m hole in the university's finances. Within weeks of its disclosure in late 2024, Dundee's then principal, Professor Iain Gillespie, resigned. The university is now looking at plans to shed around one in ten jobs, while 'reconfiguring academic units' and scaling back research. So how did this come to pass? An independent inquiry recently deemed it to be the result of failings in financial monitoring, management and governance. Should students still apply? Yes, but with the awareness that the coming months are going to be difficult. Dundee, which we named our Scottish University of the Year only 12 months ago, has forged an outstanding reputation - notably in the likes of medicine, life sciences and art and design - since gaining independence from the University of St Andrews in 1967. For that reputation to survive, the cuts will need to be both judicious and primarily in non-student-facing areas.
7 (joint). University of Exeter
Overview
Record numbers of students applied to Exeter for courses which began in September last year. It is still a hugely popular choice for privately educated students and draws around half of its intake from the most affluent regions of the country. But it also spends upwards of £9m on bursaries, scholarships and hardship support for its increasingly diverse student body, a quarter of whom gain their places with a contextual offer - a proportion the university predicts will rise further still. It was named Higher Education Institution of the Year in 2023 by the National Education Opportunities Network for its work in widening access to university. It is among the ten universities most popular with the leading graduate employers (ahead of both Oxford and Cambridge); the salaries graduates command are among the highest; and few universities can rival Exeter for location. The main Streatham campus is one of the UK's most beautiful and is home to the majority of students. There are smaller sites such as its St Luke's campus, which is home to the medical school, and at Penryn in Cornwall. Exeter is also one of the most solvent universities in the UK right now, registering a surplus of more than £186m in 2023-24.
9. University of Aberdeen
Overview
When you have been around for 530 years, you have a pretty good sense of self - and this certainly applies to the University of Aberdeen, Britain's most northerly university and one of its most ancient and prestigious. Only Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews and Glasgow have been around longer. While this long history is evident in the buildings on the Old Aberdeen campus - home to the original King's College and Marischal College - and linguistically in the likes of the School of Divinity, Aberdeen also prides itself on being at the cutting edge in teaching and research. There are more than 400 undergraduate degree options, with business, medicine, teacher training and education, and mechanical engineering faring particularly well in our subject rankings. The university is split across two main sites - the modern Foresterhill campus is home to life sciences, medicine and education and is jointly owned by NHS Grampian, while arts, social sciences and physical sciences students are based in Old Aberdeen. The city has excellent air and rail connections that make it attractive to both UK and international students.
10. University of East Anglia
Overview
Broadening the student mind and experience is at the heart of what the University of East Anglia (UEA) offers to its students. For many years now, UEA has pushed study-abroad options, and by 2026 the university will have more than 200 global partners. It is also significantly expanding the number of degrees offered with foundation years (to widen access and diversify the student body) and work placement years (to increase graduate employability). A dental school moved a step closer in June with approval from the General Dental Council for UEA to provide undergraduate training. UEA is about to see some major upgrades to its attractive parkland campus come on stream, too - central among them the upgrade to the iconic, Grade II-listed Lasdun Wall. UEA came early to the financial crisis besetting many other universities, and consequently is now coming out the other side. Having cut jobs, courses and budgets, it has emerged leaner and more student-focused. Admissions jumped by 9% in September 2024 and the university will be hoping for a rise in the number of applications, too. UEA has a strong global reputation for everything from creative writing to climate change courses. Its sports facilities are among the best in the UK, while the Sainsbury Centre is home to one of the finest collections of modern art in the country.
11. University of Sheffield
Overview
Sheffield has made a return to the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings after a two-year absence and continues to be the top-ranked university in northern England in our guide. Sheffield was shortlisted for our University of the Year title last year. It has formidable strength in engineering, a highly regarded medical school and excellent provision for healthcare courses which have seen heavy recent investment in facilities. Sheffield students are popular with employers; its graduates are the 12th most-targeted by top employers according to the latest High Fliers report. A Russell Group member, Sheffield recruits widely from across the UK, with around one in six undergraduates recruited globally. The city is a popular choice with a strong student culture and easy access to the Peak District. Applications levelled out for admission in September 2024 after four consecutive rises but with around eight chasing every place, Sheffield can pick the brightest. A generous contextual admissions scheme that knocks as many as three grades off standard entry requirements ensures a broad social mix on campus. More than 8,500 bursary, scholarship and financial hardship awards made in 2023-24 help students keep their heads above water financially.
12. University of Liverpool
Overview
Applications are booming at Liverpool. One of the redbrick universities founded in the late 19th century, the university retains the civic mission that characterised these institutions at their launch. Committed to social diversity, it recruits 89% of its UK students from state schools, and one third of students come from homes where the parents did not go to university. Its city centre campus adjoins that of Liverpool John Moores University, creating a huge university precinct at the heart of the city. Dentistry, veterinary medicine, nursing, architecture and engineering are some of the subjects the university is best known for. Liverpool demonstrates strength across multiple disciplines, but business and law are among the top picks in our subject rankings. Although popular in its home region, Liverpool recruits strongly from across the UK with 1,170 of the record 6,750 UK recruits in September 2024 coming from London and the South East. Liverpool was one of the Russell Group universities that vastly increased its domestic intake of students last year to offset anticipated falls in overseas students. Numbers were up by 23.7% from the level seen just two years before, beating even the pandemic years of inflated university admissions.
13. University of Warwick
Overview
Sixty years after its establishment, Warwick claims to have achieved more than other universities have accomplished in two centuries. It is hard to disagree, with its consistent top-ten domestic ranking and graduates who are in demand - the sixth most sought-after by top graduate recruiters according to the respected High Fliers report. The university takes on the old guard while embracing the new. Work is about to begin on a £700m social science and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) research and teaching development and there are plans for more degree apprenticeships to be introduced, which will add to the 1,300 or so apprentices already on campus. Situated on a largely self-contained parkland campus on the edge of Coventry, the university commands some of the highest application numbers. It has weathered the difficulties in international student recruitment better than most. More than one quarter of its intake via Ucas came from overseas last September, when it was also shortlisted for our University of the Year title. Applications are running close to record levels, with more than seven for every place. Outreach programmes reach 300 secondary schools and sixth-form colleges across the Midlands to keep the application pipeline strong.
14. University of Manchester
Overview
A modest improvement in student scores for teaching excellence and student experience in this year's National Student Survey (NSS) have helped lift Manchester into the top 20 of our overall ranking. For many years, the university ranked almost as high in the QS World University Rankings as it did in domestic equivalents. This apparent anomaly arose from the fact that global rankings do not take account of student satisfaction, as measured by the NSS, in which Manchester has previously performed poorly in all sections. Not that poor performance in the NSS has hindered applications, as Manchester has been for many years the most-applied-to university in the UK. However, seven consecutive years of increases came to a stop in 2024, with a 1% drop, and some 9,985 students were admitted out of 92,500 applications. Higher education on this scale creates what Manchester itself calls a 'mini metropolis' for which it is currently trying to cater with a series of 'cosy campus' upgrades, rolled out in seven locations. This includes the foyer of the main Alan Gilbert Learning Commons and the University Place Entrance Drum. Free facilities being added include hot water for tea, coffee and meals; microwave ovens; hand washing and washing-up facilities; and places for students to study or socialise. And the legendary Manchester social scene is, of course, the university's secret weapon. It's a formidable combination.
15. University of Bristol
Overview
Bristol is our Research University of the Year 2026 in recognition of its outstanding research record and reputation. It earned more than £300m in competitively won research grants and contracts in 2023-24 - nearly £100m more than the previous year. Home to the Isambard-AI supercomputer, Bristol is building a formidable record in artificial intelligence. And the £500m Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus development, due to fully open in 2026, will allow Bristol to drive digital, business and social innovation, as well as aid the city centre's regeneration. More than half the intake comes from London and the South East. Bristol seeks to make a Russell Group university education as affordable as possible, offering a string of bursary awards to support disadvantaged students and encourage applications from under-represented groups. It was one of the first universities to embrace contextual admissions, which take account of applicants' educational and social background; an astonishing 44% of admissions in September 2024 qualified for a contextual offer up to two A-level grades below the standard entry requirements. Applications are booming, rising to a new record for September 2024 entry when more than 63,000 named Bristol as one of their five Ucas choices. Despite rising admissions - up 7.6% last year - competition for places is fierce, with the university's reputation for producing in-demand graduates to the fore.
16. University of Birmingham
Overview
Birmingham recruited an additional 1,500 undergraduates in September 2024 compared to the previous year, expanding its intake across a variety of courses and accepting more students who had missed their offer grades than usual. Although there are some 37,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, size does not make things impersonal here - course leaders on some degree programmes telephoned those who had gained places on results day last summer to welcome them. Two-thirds of UK entrants to this research-intensive Russell Group university come from the West Midlands, London and the South East, and there is a large overseas contingent, too. Many students are drawn to Birmingham's excellent academic reputation across a swathe of subject areas, coupled with its stellar graduate outcomes. It is one of the original redbrick universities, so called because of the materials used in the principal buildings which date from the early 20th century. The university is located in the affluent suburb of Edgbaston, which is a seven-minute train ride from the city centre, but most students live out in the neighbouring (and less salubrious) Selly Oak district. Birmingham is socially inclusive, providing financial support for one in five students each year through a £14m bursary and scholarship programme.
17 (joint). Newcastle University
Overview
The lowest-ranked of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities, Newcastle is nevertheless experiencing record popularity with applicants and near-record admissions. Although it recruits nearly a quarter of its undergraduates from the North East - the English region with the lowest uptake of higher education - Newcastle has strong national appeal; applicants are attracted by both the university's academic standing and the city's reputation for enjoying itself. Its medical school is one of the best and the university aims to further advance its outstanding reputation in medicine and healthcare more generally - its biggest subject discipline. It has recently embarked on developing a £500m health innovation neighbourhood on the site of the former Newcastle General Hospital. This will build on the university's expertise in healthy ageing by creating a living laboratory of intergenerational and later living with interdisciplinary primary healthcare focused on helping residents live longer, healthier lives. A raft of other capital projects and redevelopments on the city centre campus have been completed in the past year which will enhance the student experience. The university will hope these filter through to improved scores in the annual National Student Survey; underperformance here is primarily responsible for Newcastle's disappointing ranking in this guide.
17 (joint). Swansea University
Overview
Swansea University boasts two seafront campuses to tempt students. The Singleton Park campus was joined by the Bay science and innovation campus ten years ago. Swansea challenges Cardiff each year to be the top-ranked university in Wales. It is placed in the UK top 25 for students believing their careers are on track 15 months after graduation. This pedigree attracts applicants from across the country, with half the intake drawn from over the Severn Bridge. The university is organised into three faculties - humanities and social sciences; medicine, health and life science; and science and engineering - and has a broad portfolio of courses that includes a graduate-entry medicine degree. Medical and healthcare students form the largest group on campus, with finance, sport science and social policy among the top performers in our subject rankings. Excellent sports facilities are second only to those at Cardiff Met in Wales. Last September admissions were at their lowest point in the past ten years. However, the university's commitment to making offers to all UK applicants whose predicted grades fall within the offer range for a given course (with the exception of medicine, healthcare and social work) should put the university on the radar.
19. University of Southampton
Overview
An ongoing £600m campus investment plan at Southampton is helping drive a surge in applications, which have never been higher than in the past two years. Even an 8% increase in the number of admissions in September 2024, causing them to reach their highest level since 2015, still left stiff competition with almost eight applications per place. Southampton is one of the 24-strong Russell Group of research-intensive universities which also tend to command the highest entry requirements. A contextual offers scheme that knocks two A-level grades off standard entry requirements helps to widen access. An extensive web of careers support ensures that opportunities for graduates to land high-skilled jobs and earn high salaries - one of the university's strongest performance outcomes - extend to students from all backgrounds, too. Mental health and wellbeing support is also among the best. The university is based on several sites across Southampton, with the main Highfield campus being the mothership and the focus of much of the ongoing developments that include a new STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) teaching building and a clinical skills hub. Engineering is the biggest subject area here and one in which the university enjoys considerable success in our subject rankings. Investment is also being put into its city centre campus site and the outlying Winchester campus, home to the Winchester School of Art.
20 (joint). University College London
Overview
University College London (UCL) is runner-up for our University of the Year award this year after another exceptional performance in our rankings. UCL has an extensive programme of celebrations planned for its bicentenary in 2026. And with good cause. Ranked fifth in the UK in our ranking and ninth in the world in the latest QS World University Rankings, a place at UCL is coveted the world over. International recruits make up the majority of the intake even after the near-30% increase in domestic admissions in 2024, which saw more than 1,000 additional UK undergraduates admitted. Now with two London campuses - the original Bloomsbury base in the heart of London's West End and the new UCL East in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park - it is not hard to see why a record near-80,000 applications were received last year, double the number in 2015. A key part of UCL's 2022-27 strategic plan will see the largest ever expansion of extra-curricular experiences. Academic excellence spans the arts, sciences, engineering, medicine and social sciences. Despite stiff competition for places, almost one in three students gained a place in 2024 via a contextual offer, generally pitched at one or two A-level grades below standard entry requirements. And £13m of financial support goes some way towards offsetting the exorbitant costs of studying in the capital.
20 (joint). University of Cambridge
Overview
Cambridge remains one of the most-prized destinations in global higher education. It goes without saying that you need to be clever to get in - 57% of the intake in September 2024 gained A*A*A* at A-level. However, you need more than just good predicted grades to prove you will flourish here. A shake-up of admissions - achieved without any decline in academic standards - has made the whole business of getting a place fairer. The proportion of the intake who are privately educated has dropped sharply (now accounting for 29% of UK students), while one in seven come from the 40% of postcodes considered to be the most deprived. The university has set its sights on 'serving the UK as a whole', in the words of vice-chancellor Prof Deborah Prentice. Her comments allude to the fact that 50.7% of admissions come from London and the South East, while 2.4% are from the North East. The university's outreach work is trying to fix this by generating more applications from the regions. The 29 undergraduate colleges differ sharply, so do visit them before applying. Open days happen early, in the summer term of Year 12. The application deadline - October 15 - is also early.
22. City St George's, University of London
Overview
The former City, University of London and St George's, University of London came together officially on August 1, 2024, but this is the first time they have appeared as a merged entity in our ranking. The new institution, City St George's, University of London, is now one of the largest suppliers of healthcare workers in the capital. It is the first of many predicted mergers likely to take place across UK higher education in the coming years. It has created one of the big hitters within the University of London, with strength spanning medicine and healthcare (within both institutions), and business and the professions (at City). It was recognised by the two awards we gave the newly merged institution a year ago - University of the Year for Graduate Jobs and runner-up in our University of the Year title. Applications and admissions at the two predecessor institutions were already on the rise, up 9% and 16% respectively on the previous year for courses beginning in September 2024, so there is every chance of creating an academic powerhouse. Almost four in every five UK entrants were recruited from the capital and almost two-thirds of the intake were of Asian or black heritage.
23. University of Nottingham
Overview
A near-5,000 drop in applications via Ucas for admission in September 2024, coupled with a near-1,300 increase in students admitted, made the task of winning a place at one of the UK's top universities considerably easier last year. The drop in applications is unlikely to be maintained for long such is the strength of Nottingham's offer to applicants. A member of the Russell Group of highly selective, research-intensive universities, Nottingham has formidable strength in engineering and a strong presence across all academic disciplines. It is the third most-targeted university for leading graduate employers, according to High Fliers research, and its graduates command among the highest salaries in their first jobs. The proactive careers and employability service gets to work with pre-entry summer school participants, offering them careers activities, as well as fostering extensive alumni networks. Nottingham occupies several sites just off the city centre, with the 300-acre University Park campus the heart of the operation. Academic, residential and social facilities are easily absorbed within the spacious grounds. Its sports facilities have been the subject of a recent investment that has seen tangible results on university pitches across the country. Nottingham was the top UK university for team sports in 2024-25.
24 (joint). Queen Mary University of London
Overview
Of all the elite Russell Group universities, Queen Mary both walks the walk and talks the talk when it comes to social inclusion, creating a diverse student body while demanding high entry grades. About three-quarters of the intake are drawn from ethnic minorities and more than 40% are the first in their close family to go to university. One in five gain a place with a contextual offer that reduces the standard ask by between one and three A-level grades. Already-wide eligibility criteria was broadened further this year to include students with a disability and those on free school meals. A popular Ucas choice, applications are at a record high. Most students are based on an attractive canal-side campus in Mile End that has seen heavy recent investment, with further outposts in Whitechapel, West Smithfield and Lincoln's Inn Fields. More than 90% of students are recruited from within the capital or the home counties and East Anglia. Courses for which the university is best known span business, social sciences, engineering, law, medicine and healthcare more broadly. Unusually for a Russell Group university there are around 700 degree apprentice learners enrolled, and it has plans to expand further with medicine, tech and legal options. Ofsted recently rated Queen Mary's apprenticeship provision as outstanding.
24 (joint). University of Plymouth
Overview
Plymouth is making a difference to the healthcare needs of the city and region it calls home while benefiting its students at the same time. The opening of the £5m Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise in September will offer appointments to local patients who do not have a regular NHS dentist. A year from now the university will open its Centre for Eyecare Excellence (CEE), also offering services to the public. In both instances, the facilities will provide outstanding spaces for students to work under supervision with professionals, typical of the university's approach to higher education which sees real-world, hands-on experience embedded across all courses. The university punches above its weight for both the proportion of graduates in high-skilled jobs and the salaries they earn. Both CEE and the new dental clinic also demonstrate Plymouth's commitment to serving the South West, from where it recruits more than half of its undergraduates. Admissions were down 10% in 2024 on the year before, leading to a £22m budget shortfall this year, which the university is seeking to plug while protecting student-facing services. Befitting an attractive coastal university, there are centres of excellence in marine and maritime subjects including microplastic pollution.
26. University of Glasgow
Overview
The next stage of Glasgow's £1bn campus redevelopment is under way as it seeks to create facilities to keep it ahead of the pack before its 600th anniversary in 2051. Only Oxford, Cambridge and St Andrews have been around longer, and Glasgow's global reputation for excellence means it recruits internationally, with overseas students making up around one in five of the record undergraduate intake in September 2024. The main Gilmorehill campus is in Glasgow's West End; a 14-acre site next door is where all the new buildings are going up. A further campus at Garscube, four miles away, is home to outdoor sports facilities, veterinary medicine students and the catered Wolfson Hall student accommodation. Further afield in Dumfries, the university teaches social and environmental sustainability, as well as its primary education with teaching qualification. Four in five of the domestic intake are recruited from Scotland, although a sizeable minority make the long trip from London and South-East England - some of them taking advantage of generous bursary support that more than offsets the extra year of study required for Scottish degrees for students from low-income households.
27 (joint). King's College London
Overview
King's is one of UK higher education's citadels. Its academic standing and location at the heart of London gives it an international appeal that saw more than a third of the undergraduate intake recruited from overseas in 2024. It has one of the most socially inclusive and diverse student bodies of all Russell Group universities. Nearly 40% of the intake are the first in their immediate family to go to university and more than half are of Asian or black heritage. More than three-quarters of the domestic intake are recruited from London and the South East. A huge contingent of students is studying medicine, dentistry and healthcare courses across three teaching hospitals - Guy's, St Thomas' and King's College Hospital (KCH). The imminent opening of the Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People at KCH is the latest medical bauble, bringing together researchers and clinicians to address the crisis in youngsters' mental health. Elsewhere, King's is famed for its social science, law, history, science and engineering provision. Applications are near a record high and domestic admissions in 2024 jumped by just under 1,000, more than offsetting the small drop in international admissions, to a level only beaten during the pandemic.
27 (joint). University of Leeds
Overview
Leeds is a powerhouse of the British higher-education system and a popular destination. There were more than 68,000 applications for a place in September 2024, when the university boosted its undergraduate intake by 680 (to 8,480), in part to offset an anticipated fall in the number of overseas postgraduates. The university's appeal is not hard to fathom. A member of the elite Russell Group, its graduates are well-paid and in demand with employers. It occupies an attractive city centre campus in a student-centric northern city that knows how to enjoy itself. After a run of poor scores in the annual National Student Survey, the 2025 results showed signs of recovery and helped Leeds to a top 20 finish in our overall institutional ranking for the first time. The university is taking steps to better engage its students by consulting them on which campus upgrades to action first. A strong social conscience is evidenced by the fact that about one in five students gains a place with a contextual offer in recognition of educational, economic or social disadvantage. Diversity is extended further by five foundation-year programmes, which give access to full degree courses with very un-Russell Group A-level grade requirements, starting as low as CDD.
29. University of Edinburgh
Overview
Nowhere is the disconnect between the findings of the annual National Student Survey (NSS) and the popularity of a university as stark as it is at the University of Edinburgh. Ranked by its own students in the bottom ten of all three of the NSS-derived performance measures in our league table - covering teaching excellence, student experience and student support (with the latter seeing the worst ranking of all universities) - Edinburgh is nevertheless the third most-applied-to university in the country. It makes a welcome return to the top 20 of our ranking this year, better reflecting its global reputation. Indeed, such is the university's standing that well over one-third of undergraduates come from abroad to join some 40,000 undergraduates and postgraduates based on university sites scattered throughout the Scottish capital. Founded in 1583, the university has a long history of academic excellence and is currently a world leader in artificial intelligence (AI) and data science. It is home to the UK's national supercomputer, Archer2, and has developed six new hubs in different areas of data-centric technologies and AI, bringing together academics and industry to drive further innovation. The Scottish capital provides a beguiling backdrop to the mostly four-year courses (the norm in Scotland) and the university offers some of the cheapest student accommodation in the UK, particularly for those willing to share an ensuite room.
30. University of Lancashire
Overview
A change of name, a change in the style of learning and the addition of the most modern veterinary medicine facilities in the country: it's a busy time at the University of Lancashire. The dropping of 'Central' from the former University of Central Lancashire has been approved by the Office for Students - and September 1 saw its official unveiling. This time next year, the university will be preparing to launch its first subjects - business, psychology and sport - to be taught by sequential modules instead of students studying two or more modules in parallel, which is standard practice. Other universities have made this change, notably De Montfort. The aim is to help students learn more effectively - particularly those juggling family, work and other responsibilities. The change will be rolled out gradually over the coming academic years. The newly opened School of Veterinary Medicine building contains the UK's only vet school immersive room, which can be transformed into an operating theatre, pharmacy or diagnostic facility via an interactive simulation suite. Lancashire is also one of the most socially inclusive and progressive universities in the UK. It's based in Preston but has outposts in Burnley and Westlakes in Cumbria and a satellite campus in Cyprus.