Obviously, the whole point of going to university is so you can brag about it (and drink silly amounts of Jägerbombs in unnaturally moist nightclubs). But some UK unis are way less impressive than others. The QS World University Rankings are here, and include juicy info about which unis in the UK have the best reputations. So, here are the 20 UK unis with the worst reputations. Because you know you want to know.
The University of Wolverhampton is officially the UK uni with the worst reputation. Sorry, Wolverhampton students. The University of Northampton isn’t far behind it.
To figure this out, Top Universities surveys thousands of uni staff each year, and asks them which institutions they think are the best in the world. Top Universities uses this data to assign each uni an “academic reputation score” out of 100. For context, the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford both scored a perfect 100. All the unis on this list got less than 10. Ouch.
So, here are the 20 UK unis which officially have the most worse reputation in 2025 (according to the QS World University Rankings 2026):
=19. University of Lincoln – scored 8.0
=19. Bournemouth University – scored 8.0
18. Edinburgh Napier University – scored 7.9
17. Middlesex University – scored 7.5
16. Glasgow Caledonian University – scored 7.2
A vibey pic of Glasgow Caledonian University
(Credit: Knwwsss)
15. Canterbury Christ Church University – scored 6.8
14. University of Lancashire (previously known as the University of Central Lancashire, or UCLan) – scored 6.5
13. De Montfort University – scored 6.4
12. University of Greenwich – scored 6.2
11. London Metropolitan University – scored 5.9
10. University of Hertfordshire – scored 5.8
9. University of Derby – scored 5.4
8. Leeds Beckett University – scored 5.1
What a banging building this is at Leeds Beckett
(Credit: Mtaylor848)
7. London South Bank University – scored 4.9
6. Queen Margaret University – scored 4.3
=4. Robert Gordon University – scored 4.0
=4. Harper Adams University – scored 4.0
3. University of East London – scored 3.9
2. University of Northampton – scored 3.4
1. University of Wolverhampton – scored 3.1
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