Well, if you’ve always fantasised about studying at a traditional UK uni with a castle-like campus, you’re in luck! The UK’s Russell Group unis are actually accepting way more students’ applications than they used to.
According to The Times, 21 out 0f 24 Russell Group unis handed out way more offers in 2024 than they did five years ago.
A lot more Russell Group unis were advertising places in clearing on 2025’s A-Level Results’ Day than usual – indicating unis were extra keen to nab lots of students this year, too.
People at less-known UK unis aren’t too pleased about this. The University and College Union (UCU), staff from the University of Portsmouth, and the vice-chancellor of the University for the Creative Arts want the government to limit how quickly unis can expand.
Professor Graham Galbraith from the University of Portsmouth explained to The Times that if some unis keep getting bigger, “There is a risk of monopoly in the market.” He explained: “If the sector becomes concentrated to a small number of key institutions in cities like London and we lose locally available higher education, is that what we want?
Only three Russell Group unis are dishing out fewer offers than they did five years ago – the University of Nottingham, the University of Oxford and Queen Mary University of London.
So, here are the Russell Group unis that are letting in more students than before, ranked by how quickly they’re growing. The percentage refers to how much the accepted applications rose at each uni from 2019 to 2024, according to The Times’s analysis of UCAS data.
21. Queen’s University Belfast – 2.2 per cent
20. University of Cambridge – 2.7 per cent
Cambridge is already crowded enough in the summer without more uni students, tbh
19. University of Leeds – 11.5 per cent
18. University of Manchester – 11.9 per cent
17. University of Birmingham – 13.3 per cent
16. University of Bristol – 14.4 per cent
15. University of Edinburgh – 16.9 per cent
14. Newcastle University – 17.6 per cent
13. University of Exeter – 17.9 per cent
12. Durham University – 18.1 per cent
11. Cardiff University – 19.4 per cent
10. University of Glasgow – 22.2 per cent
9. University of Warwick – 25.5 per cent
Warwick girlies looking glamorous
8. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – 30.3 per cent
7. University of Liverpool – 39.3 per cent
6. University of Southampton – 36.7 per cent
5. Imperial College London – 37.2 per cent
4. University of York – 37.5 per cent
3. University of Sheffield – 38.8 per cent
2. King’s College London (KCL) – 42.2 per cent
1. University College London (UCL) – 65.3 per cent
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