The 2025 Academic Ranking of World Universities is here, which reveals precisely how brainy everyone’s lecturers really are. Loads of UK unis were ranked in the top 1,000 this year. Slay. Here’s a look at how academic all the UK unis actually are in 2025.
Unsurprisingly, Oxbridge are the most academic unis in the UK. The University of Cambridge is apparently the fourth most academic uni in the world, behind only Harvard University, Stanford University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The University of Oxford wasn’t far behind, in sixth place.
The UK’s Russell Group unis are supposed to be extra academic and focused on research. But some of the Russell Group unis ranked way lower than you might think. Durham University is one of the best known UK unis, but it didn’t make it into the top 200. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) came third in this year’s Complete University Guide, and fourth in the Daily Mail’s new league tables. But LSE is apparently only the joint 13th most academic uni in the UK.
ShanghaiRanking came up with their annual league tables by analysing how many research papers each uni churns out, how often their studies are cited, and how many staff or alumni have one Nobel Prizes. They investigate 2,500 unis from across the world, and publish the top 1,000. So all the UK unis that made it onto this list still did pretty well overall. The unis beyond the top 100 don’t get specific positions, but are grouped into bands. You still with me?
So, here are the most academic UK unis, according to The 2025 Academic Ranking of World Universities:
=59. Open University, University of Lancashire (formerly known as the University of Central Lancashire, or UCLan), University of Portsmouth
In the 901st-100th group
=50. Birkbeck, University of London, Cranfield University, University of Hertfordshire, University of Hull, Loughborough University, Nottingham Trent University, Royal Holloway, University of London, Royal Veterinary College, Ulster University
In the 801st-900th group
=42. City St George’s, University of London, University of Greenwich, Heriot-Watt University, Northumbria University, University of Plymouth, University of Stirling, University of Strathclyde, Swansea University
In the 701st-800th group
Maybe the professors at Greenwich Uni were too busy admiring the buildings to do much research?
=39. Brunel University of London, Liverpool John Moores University, Manchester Metropolitan University
In the 601st-700th group
38. Bangor University
In the 501st-600th group
=33. University of Bath, University of Essex, University of Kent, University of Reading, University of Surrey
In the 401st-500th group
=27. Lancaster University, Queen’s University Belfast, University of Dundee, University of East Anglia, University of Leicester, University of St Andrews
In the 301st-400th group
=19. University of Aberdeen, Cardiff University, Durham University, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Newcastle University, Queen Mary University of London, University of Sussex, University of York
In the 201st-300th group
=13. University of Birmingham, University of Exeter, University of Leeds, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University of Sheffield, University of Southampton
In the 151st-200th group
=9. University of Glasgow, University of Liverpool, University of Nottingham, University of Warwick
In the 101st-150th group
Glasgow defo has some nice spots to study in
8. University of Bristol
98th in the world, scored 26.4
7. King’s College London (KCL)
61st in the world, scored 31.7
6. University of Manchester
46th in the world, scored 33.6
5. University of Edinburgh
37th in the world, scored 35.7
4. Imperial College London
26th in the world, scored 40.4
3. University College London (UCL)
14th in the world, scored 48.5
2. University of Oxford
6th in the world, scored 61.0
1. University of Cambridge
4th in the world, scored 68.6
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