Reputation

Universities in the UK have an outstanding global reputation for the quality of the teaching, learning and research which is undertaken by some of the leading universities in the world.

The Russell Group of universities, sometimes referred to as the UK's Ivy League, comprises 20 institutions which attract a large percentage of the research funding available and consequently produce much of the UK's ground-breaking academic research.

The Russell Group comprises the following universities and colleges: Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Imperial College London, King's College London, Leeds, Liverpool, London School of Economics (LSE), Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Queen's Belfast, Sheffield, Southampton, UCL, Warwick.

There is also much excellence to be found outside of the Russell Group with many other institutions attracting the top research ratings in specialised fields.

World University Rankings

UK universities have featured prominently in the annual World University Rankings since they were first compiled in 2004. Published by the Times Higher Education Supplement in the UK and compiled by QS, the Rankings are based on academic citations and peer review (nearly 4,000 academics worldwide participate) and are therefore more inclusive than other university tables available.

In the most recent Rankings, 3 UK institutions featured in the Top 10 – Cambridge (2nd), Oxford (3rd), and Imperial College London (9th). 29 UK institutions featured in the Top 200 World Universities, and over a third of Europe's Top 50 Universities are UK institutions.