The Complete University Guide for 2026 is out, and includes lots of new data on what students really feel about their unis.
In the Complete University Guide, all the unis are assigned a score for how satisfied students are with their teaching. This was based on data from the most recent National Student Survey (NSS). The results are super revealing.
You’d expect students at the UK’s super prestigious Russell Group unis to be really happy with their teaching. Like, isn’t the whole point of Russell Group unis that the lecturers are extra brainy and do lots of important research? But the Russell Group unis don’t score that well for student satisfaction. Not a single Russell Group unis made it into the top 20 unis where students are most satisfied with their teaching. The Russell Group unis’ scored ranged from mediocre to downright dreadful.
The University of Edinburgh actually has the 128th worst student satisfaction score out of all 130 UK unis on the Complete University Guide for 2026. Only the students at SOAS University of London and the Royal Agricultural University hate their lecturers more.
Oxbridge actually scored pretty well for student satisfaction. The University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford both got a decent score of 3.17 out of 4.
So, here are the Russell Group unis ranked by how satisfied the students are with their teaching, from best to worst:
=23. University of Warwick – scored 3.17
=23. University of Sheffield – scored 3.17
=21. University of Cambridge – scored 3.14
=21. University of Oxford – scored 3.14
=19. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – scored 3.13
=19. Durham University – scored 3.13
Well, these Durham students look happy enough
=17. University of Liverpool – scored 3.12
=17. Imperial College London – scored 3.12
16. Queen’s University Belfast – 3.09
15. University of Southampton – scored 3.06
=13. University of Nottingham – scored 3.05
=13. University of Exeter – scored 3.05
=10. University College London (UCL) – scored 3.04
=10. University of York – scored 3.04
=10. Newcastle University – scored 3.04
=8. University of Birmingham – scored 3.04
Who needs good lecturers when you have blue VKs?
=8. Cardiff University – scored 3.04
=6. University of Bristol – scored 3.01
=6. Queen Mary University of London – scored 3.01
5. University of Glasgow – scored 2.99
4. University of Leeds – scored 2.97
3. King’s College London (KCL) – scored 2.96
2. University of Manchester – scored 2.95
1. University of Edinburgh – scored 2.91
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