The University of Reading is the best place to get a business degree in the UK, according to the 2026 edition of the Daily Mail University Guide. Students are based at the world–renowned Henley Business School which is home to more than 7,000 students from 100 countries and offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate business courses. Business is one of 78 subject rankings in our new guide that can be explored using our University Finder. Our exclusive ranking is based on five performance measures which focus on student life at university and then their success in the jobs market afterwards. Three measures of student satisfaction cover teaching excellence, student support and student experience and account for 40% of the overall subject score, with the balance split between how many graduates land high–skilled jobs within 15 months of leaving university (also a 40% weighting) and whether graduates feel at that point that their career is on track (20%). Reading’s triumph – for a second successive year – is built on stellar scores for graduate employment with 93.7% of students landing high–skilled jobs within 15 months of graduating, a far higher proportion than the 76.2% who achieve this across Reading University as a whole. More than 90% of Reading business graduates feel their careers are on track. All the top three universities for business see more than 90% of graduates gain high–skilled jobs soon after graduating, Derby (with 94% of graduates in high–skilled jobs) and Durham (90.7%), which are tied in second place, joining Reading. City St George’s, University of London is the only other university to register a 90%+ score for high–skilled graduate employment. In tenth place overall for business, 93.3% of graduates are in top–flight jobs. The business schools which provide the best university experience are Aberdeen (4th overall for business), Salford (11th=), Southampton Solent (26th) and Buckinghamshire New (33rd), which all record 90%+ scores for each of teaching excellence, student support and student experience. Their overall rankings for business are lower, however, as their success in the employment market is significantly down on that of Reading, Durham, Derby and City St George’s. Business school success in our rankings spans a broad range of universities with three Russell Group universities – Durham (2nd=), Nottingham (5th) and Exeter (7th) – joined by three modern universities – Derby (2nd=), Northumbria (8th) and Oxford Brookes (9th) – in the business top ten. Use our University Finder to explore those options. You can personalise the university rankings by adjusting the weightings in our table to find the university best suited to you. And don't forget our rankings of 78 of the most popular subjects, based on the key factors that will shape your time at university. 1. University of Reading Reading's pitch to be the go–to destination for the environmentally conscious steps up a gear this year with the introduction of £6,000–a–year global sustainability leaders scholarships. These are open to UK and international applicants in any subject who achieve at least AAA at A–level (or AAB if they qualify for a contextual offer). Reading wants to develop the global sustainability leaders of the future by offering students leadership and development opportunities during study. Reading is already one of the top universities for meteorology and climate change studies and sits fourth in the People & Planet rankings for its environmental and ethical performance. Approaching its centenary in 2026, Reading is in a good place with record numbers of applications and admissions. It is a popular choice locally, with about 60% of UK students hailing from London and the South East. The main 320–acre Whiteknights campus offers a sense of calm in this busy commuter town, but the university's estate also encompasses 2,000 acres of farmland and the smaller London Road and Greenlands campuses, the latter home to Henley Business School. By some distance, business and management is Reading's largest subject area, with an excellent reputation for agriculture and animal sciences, too. 2 (joint). Durham University A sharp expansion in student numbers should make Durham a more attainable prospect for a wider cross–section of students. The number of undergraduates recruited in September 2024 leapt by 20% and further expansion is planned for September 2025. The university's new access and participation plan commits the university to diversifying its intake, too. Some of the traditional perceptions of the university remain true, however. Since Oxford and Cambridge moved to recruit more students from state schools, Durham has been the most popular destination for private–school pupils, who now account for 37% of the intake. More than a third of undergraduates come from London and the South East. They travel for a distinctive university experience, centred on the 16 undergraduate colleges, which are social rather than academic groupings (unlike Oxbridge). The so–called Hill colleges are spread out to the south of the city centre, while the Bailey colleges are located in largely historic premises in the centre, with Durham Castle (home to University College) the jewel in the crown. There is all–round academic strength spanning the arts, sciences and social sciences. The university prides itself on its wider student experience in which 85% of students participate, be that in university and college sport, volunteering, theatre, music or student media. 2 (joint). University of Derby Derby makes a strong teaching offer to its students. An overall gold award in the latest Teaching Excellence Framework is complemented by heavy investment in new facilities and the development of cutting–edge courses. Careers support is integrated into the curriculum, which includes working on real–world projects to enhance employability and equip students for the working world. Partnerships with local employers which are also international giants – Rolls–Royce, Toyota and Alstom among them – provide opportunities for work experience as well as placements, internships and, ultimately, graduate jobs. Most recently, the university has developed a new two–year degree in international business and artificial intelligence in partnership with Rolls–Royce to meet an immediate industry need. Derby is one of the largest providers of degree apprenticeships in the country, with around 2,000 apprentice learners enrolled here. A mid–sized university of around 20,000 students, Derby recruits more than three–quarters of its students from the East and West Midlands. The intake is socially diverse, too; Derby was named University of the Year in the 2020 Social Mobility Awards. The university is based on four sites in Derby and headquartered at Kedleston Road, with a healthcare outpost in Chesterfield. 4. University of Aberdeen When you have been around for 530 years, you have a pretty good sense of self – and this certainly applies to the University of Aberdeen, Britain's most northerly university and one of its most ancient and prestigious. Only Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews and Glasgow have been around longer. While this long history is evident in the buildings on the Old Aberdeen campus – home to the original King's College and Marischal College – and linguistically in the likes of the School of Divinity, Aberdeen also prides itself on being at the cutting edge in teaching and research. There are more than 400 undergraduate degree options, with business, medicine, teacher training and education, and mechanical engineering faring particularly well in our subject rankings. The university is split across two main sites – the modern Foresterhill campus is home to life sciences, medicine and education and is jointly owned by NHS Grampian, while arts, social sciences and physical sciences students are based in Old Aberdeen. The city has excellent air and rail connections that make it attractive to both UK and international students. 5. University of Nottingham A near–5,000 drop in applications via Ucas for admission in September 2024, coupled with a near–1,300 increase in students admitted, made the task of winning a place at one of the UK's top universities considerably easier last year. The drop in applications is unlikely to be maintained for long such is the strength of Nottingham's offer to applicants. A member of the Russell Group of highly selective, research–intensive universities, Nottingham has formidable strength in engineering and a strong presence across all academic disciplines. It is the third most–targeted university for leading graduate employers, according to High Fliers research, and its graduates command among the highest salaries in their first jobs. The proactive careers and employability service gets to work with pre–entry summer school participants, offering them careers activities, as well as fostering extensive alumni networks. Nottingham occupies several sites just off the city centre, with the 300–acre University Park campus the heart of the operation. Academic, residential and social facilities are easily absorbed within the spacious grounds. Its sports facilities have been the subject of a recent investment that has seen tangible results on university pitches across the country. Nottingham was the top UK university for team sports in 2024–25. 6. Loughborough University If you are good at sport and aim to play at a high level at university, Loughborough has to be on your shortlist. If you want access to the best facilities on this side of the Atlantic and to rub shoulders with athletes who have represented their country or will go on to, then it ought to be at the top of that shortlist. At last summer's Olympics and Paralympics in Paris, Loughborough–based competitors or those with a close connection to the university scooped 11 gold, ten silver and 14 bronze medals. Had it been a country, it would have finished 16th in the medal table ahead of the likes of Brazil. And its student athletes have won the British Universities and College Sport (Bucs) men's and women's titles for 44 consecutive years. Facilities are so good that sports including athletics have their national headquarters onsite. Loughborough is strong academically, too. It has an outstanding reputation in art, design and engineering and performs well in our subject rankings across the board. Academic life is centred on the 523–acre campus where 6,000 students live. The university ranks in the top ten nationally for the proportion of graduates who land high–skilled jobs. So, there are brains to go with the brawn. 7. University of Exeter Record numbers of students applied to Exeter for courses which began in September last year. It is still a hugely popular choice for privately educated students and draws around half of its intake from the most affluent regions of the country. But it also spends upwards of £9million on bursaries, scholarships and hardship support for its increasingly diverse student body, a quarter of whom gain their places with a contextual offer – a proportion the university predicts will rise further still. It was named Higher Education Institution of the Year in 2023 by the National Education Opportunities Network for its work in widening access to university. It is among the ten universities most popular with the leading graduate employers (ahead of both Oxford and Cambridge); the salaries graduates command are among the highest; and few universities can rival Exeter for location. The main Streatham campus is one of the UK's most beautiful and is home to the majority of students. There are smaller sites such as its St Luke's campus, which is home to the medical school, and at Penryn in Cornwall. Exeter is also one of the most solvent universities in the UK right now, registering a surplus of more than £186million in 2023–24. 8. Northumbria University Northumbria University has lift off! The North East Space Skills and Technology Centre (NESST) will open next year, the product of a £50million investment to bring together industry and academia to work on internationally significant space research and technological developments. This new institution is a sign of Northumbria's steadily acquired research clout and a modern university that is taking on the old guard. There will be spin–offs for undergraduates, too, with new courses and the presence of world–leading academic expertise. These are good times for Northumbria, named our Research University and Modern University of the Year two years ago. Applications and admissions were up by a healthy amount for courses starting in 2024, when 56% of the intake was drawn from the North East and 17% from Yorkshire and Humberside. Northumbria is a key player in the regional economy, getting more graduates into skilled jobs in the region than any other university, including local Russell Group rivals Newcastle and Durham. It's a good destination for budding entrepreneurs as well. It also ranked fourth in the UK in 2023–24 for graduate start–ups based on their estimated turnover – the 16th successive year where Northumbria has been placed in the top ten. 9. Oxford Brookes University Students enrolling at Oxford Brookes University (OBU) in September will be joining a newly united university. The transfer of the library and all teacher training activity from Harcourt Hill over the summer, on top of the closure last year of the Wheatley campus, means that (apart from a nursing campus in Swindon) all teaching has now been consolidated at Headington Hill. There has been much development to cope with the influx of students. A new teaching site opened last year, a workshop building opens for the start of the 2025–26 academic year, and the Clive Booth student village has seen the addition of three new accommodation blocks in the past 21 months. Oxford Brookes has one of the best graduate employment records of any modern university, with around three–quarters landing highly skilled jobs, although applications through Ucas have been declining and hit a ten–year low in 2024. OBU was the first UK university to introduce the internationally recognised Grade Point Average (GPA) system alongside the standard UK degree classifications. The maximum score of 4.0 is based on all three years of studying, and not just on assessments in year two and three, as is the norm in the UK. 10. City St George's, University of London The former City, University of London and St George's, University of London came together officially on August 1, 2024, but this is the first time they have appeared as a merged entity in our ranking. The new institution, City St George's, University of London, is now one of the largest suppliers of healthcare workers in the capital. It is the first of many predicted mergers likely to take place across UK higher education in the coming years. It has created one of the big hitters within the University of London, with strength spanning medicine and healthcare (within both institutions), and business and the professions (at City). It was recognised by the two awards we gave the newly merged institution a year ago – University of the Year for Graduate Jobs and runner–up in our University of the Year title. Applications and admissions at the two predecessor institutions were already on the rise, up 9% and 16% respectively on the previous year for courses beginning in September 2024, so there is every chance of creating an academic powerhouse. Almost four in every five UK entrants were recruited from the capital and almost two–thirds of the intake were of Asian or black heritage. 11 (joint). Teesside University Our Modern University of the Year, which has climbed 13 places in our national ranking to sit 45th=, Teesside continues to build its profile nationally and academically. Another jobs–driven flagship development opened this year and the university is laying the groundwork for a planned medical school, too. The campus in central Middlesbrough, dotted with landmark buildings, is testimony to the university's vision, creating something transformational in one of the country's most unglamorous towns. Teesside is among the most socially diverse universities in the country, recruiting more than 80% of its students from the North East – the English region with the lowest uptake of higher education. This makes its free iPads 4 All policy all the more impactful. Students appreciate the help they receive from academics and the university more widely, ranking Teesside in the UK top ten in this year's National Student Survey for student support. Shortlisted for our UK University of the Year title in 2023, Teesside has found favour in academic assessments, too. It achieved a rare triple gold in the latest Teaching Excellence Framework – for student experience, student outcomes and overall rating. And in January, Ofsted rated the university's extensive graduate apprenticeship provision (comprising around 40 programmes) as outstanding in every category, praising both the quality of teaching and the strength of the partnerships with industry that support apprenticeship delivery. There's a satellite campus in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London offering a limited range of business, computing, cybersecurity and computer games programmes. 11 (joint). University of Salford Salford is hugely popular with students in Greater Manchester and the immediate surrounding region from which it draws three–quarters of its intake. The university is in the throes of a major upgrade – the most ambitious in its history – under a campus connectivity plan which will deliver new teaching, research and public spaces. A health and wellbeing building, due to open in time for the 2026 student intake, is at the heart of the revamp. A socially diverse population is supported by the university's approach to financial support, which is universal rather than being targeted at the few. All students get a £150 annual credit to spend at an online learning resources store to help cut the costs of studying. Salford is one of three universities that effectively share a huge student quarter just off Manchester city centre. The university works closely with industry, building expertise in robotics, automation systems, and digital and smart living. It has a strong presence in nursing and healthcare and has also gained a good name in media and television courses, benefiting from its proximity to MediaCity, which has one of the biggest concentrations of studios outside London. 13. University of Warwick Sixty years after its establishment, Warwick claims to have achieved more than other universities have accomplished in two centuries. It is hard to disagree, with its consistent top–ten domestic ranking and graduates who are in demand – the sixth most sought–after by top graduate recruiters according to the respected High Fliers report. The university takes on the old guard while embracing the new. Work is about to begin on a £700million social science and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) research and teaching development and there are plans for more degree apprenticeships to be introduced, which will add to the 1,300 or so apprentices already on campus. Situated on a largely self–contained parkland campus on the edge of Coventry, the university commands some of the highest application numbers. It has weathered the difficulties in international student recruitment better than most. More than one quarter of its intake via Ucas came from overseas last September, when it was also shortlisted for our University of the Year title. Applications are running close to record levels, with more than seven for every place. Outreach programmes reach 300 secondary schools and sixth–form colleges across the Midlands to keep the application pipeline strong. 14. University of Edinburgh Nowhere is the disconnect between the findings of the annual National Student Survey (NSS) and the popularity of a university as stark as it is at the University of Edinburgh. Ranked by its own students in the bottom ten of all three of the NSS–derived performance measures in our league table – covering teaching excellence, student experience and student support (with the latter seeing the worst ranking of all universities) – Edinburgh is nevertheless the third most–applied–to university in the country. It makes a welcome return to the top 20 of our ranking this year, better reflecting its global reputation. Indeed, such is the university's standing that well over one–third of undergraduates come from abroad to join some 40,000 undergraduates and postgraduates based on university sites scattered throughout the Scottish capital. Founded in 1583, the university has a long history of academic excellence and is currently a world leader in artificial intelligence (AI) and data science. It is home to the UK's national supercomputer, Archer2, and has developed six new hubs in different areas of data–centric technologies and AI, bringing together academics and industry to drive further innovation. The Scottish capital provides a beguiling backdrop to the mostly four–year courses (the norm in Scotland) and the university offers some of the cheapest student accommodation in the UK, particularly for those willing to share an ensuite room. 15 (joint). University of Leeds Leeds is a powerhouse of the British higher–education system and a popular destination. There were more than 68,000 applications for a place in September 2024, when the university boosted its undergraduate intake by 680 (to 8,480), in part to offset an anticipated fall in the number of overseas postgraduates. The university's appeal is not hard to fathom. A member of the elite Russell Group, its graduates are well–paid and in demand with employers. It occupies an attractive city centre campus in a student–centric northern city that knows how to enjoy itself. After a run of poor scores in the annual National Student Survey, the 2025 results showed signs of recovery and helped Leeds to a top 20 finish in our overall institutional ranking for the first time. The university is taking steps to better engage its students by consulting them on which campus upgrades to action first. A strong social conscience is evidenced by the fact that about one in five students gains a place with a contextual offer in recognition of educational, economic or social disadvantage. Diversity is extended further by five foundation–year programmes, which give access to full degree courses with very un–Russell Group A–level grade requirements, starting as low as CDD. 15 (joint). University of Sussex Sussex has developed several 15–credit modules that can be taken across a variety of degrees, all designed to increase knowledge and understanding of key sustainability issues and practices. Five Climate Leaders scholarships are offered every year, worth £5,000 per year of study, for students wanting to boost community engagement around climate change. And the next generation of climate–change activists can apply to Sussex's new BA in climate justice, sustainability and development, which is recruiting its first students in the new admissions cycle. The university is practising what it preaches, committing to giving more than 42% of the land on its Sir Basil Spence–designed campus, which borders the South Downs, over to nature by 2027. One of the 1960s generation of universities, Sussex has plenty of the distinctive architecture for which the period was renowned, but there are also 2,000 new student rooms under development to help keep the university fresh and modern. A beefed–up student support model recently won recognition from the UK Advising and Tutoring Association. The university's Brighton location is a hit with students, putting them at the heart of one of the country's most fashionable seaside resorts yet less than an hour from the capital. 17. University of Strathclyde Strathclyde, which wins our UK University of the Year award, is a model 21st–century university. It is among the UK's leading engineering and technological universities, turning out thousands of high–quality graduates each year in areas of national shortage, and has a strong social conscience. It was our Scottish University of the Year in 2023 and all the qualities that earned the university recognition then still apply today. It was established as a 'place of useful learning' more than 225 years ago and its course portfolio keeps that founding aspiration alive. The university's success is evident in the outstanding graduate employment prospects enjoyed by its students. Strathclyde's social commitment can be seen in the large numbers of students drawn from non–traditional backgrounds; it has the biggest proportion of students from the most deprived 20% of Scottish postcodes of any high–tariff, research–intensive Scottish university. Admissions in September 2024 were close to an all–time high. While the domestic intake is predominantly Scottish (95% or more), there is good financial support for so–called Rest of UK (RUK) students, as well as for those recruited from areas of deprivation and schools with low rates of progression to higher education in Scotland. Across all four faculties – engineering, humanities and social sciences, science and its Business School – industry and business routinely have input on course structure and programme delivery, with many of those companies offering placements to students. 18. Edge Hill University Edge Hill (EHU) is our University of the Year for Student Experience. Outstanding results for student experience in this year's National Student Survey showed that students have woken up to the outstanding quality of the academic, social, sporting and residential environment to be found on their self–contained campus on the fringes of Liverpool. Heavy investment over the past decade has seen EHU transformed from an institution best known for teacher training into one of the most modern and vibrant universities in the UK with a diverse portfolio of courses. That it still appeals largely to a local audience in the North West is the rest of the country's loss and the North West's gain. Edge Hill is one of just 12 modern universities (those created since 1992) to have its own undergraduate medical school. It also has £50million of newly opened academic, social and residential developments, and sets out one of the most joined–up approaches to making university accessible – and easy to succeed at – for all. The campus is leafy and green and has excellent sports and cultural facilities. It sits on the edge of Ormskirk, a small Lancashire town, and is a 36–minute train ride from Liverpool and its cultural, sporting and nighttime distractions. With highly competitive offers for places, Edge Hill is a bargain – providing high–quality education and outcomes for medium–tariff grades. 19. University of Surrey Surrey is a university on the rise, admitting a record number of undergraduates last September as applications climbed above 30,000 for the first time since 2019. The attraction is not hard to explain, with Surrey outgunning many Russell Group universities in the graduate employment stakes. Average starting salaries of £30,000 and more than four in every five students believing their careers to be on track 15 months after leaving speaks volumes. Healthcare, education and finance are the top three industry destinations for Surrey graduates. The university recruits three–quarters of its intake from London and the South East, with students heading to its two modern campuses in Guildford. With both a new medical school and a veterinary school having opened in the past decade, Surrey now has all the academic baubles it needs to sustain a high ranking and a good number of applications – with international enrolments holding up even as others universities struggle. The intake is notably diverse and about a third come from homes where parents did not attend university. While bursary and scholarship provision is smaller than most, Surrey defies the property economics of South–East England by offering some of the cheapest student rooms at any university, with prices starting at just £85 a week. 20. Aston University Enrolments at Aston – our University of the Year for Student Success last year – surged by more than 16% in September 2024. The intake rose above 4,000 for the first time and was 44% higher than just six years before. With more than 23,000 applications for the third successive year, word is getting out about this institution that positions itself to be 'the leading university for students aspiring to success in business'. Aston was one of a small number of universities to secure triple gold in the last Teaching Excellence Framework covering student experience, graduate outcomes and an overall rating. Business, computing, engineering and healthcare subjects dominate the course portfolio. More than 70% of last September's intake came from the West Midlands and the student population is reflective of the local area, with more than eight in ten students being of ethnic minority heritage – the highest proportion at any UK university. Aston takes pride in its diversity and embraces degree apprenticeships, too, with around 1,300 apprentices currently enrolled and following 11 pathways. The university sits in the top 20 nationally for the proportion of graduates who land high–skilled jobs and just outside the top 30 for graduate salaries. 21. University of Chester Chester rolls out its Future Skills Curriculum in time for the new academic year, promising students that it will deliver a mix of 'experience, knowledge and confidence'. At its core will be skills that employers have told the university they need. No more than two modules will be taught simultaneously and traditional examinations are being replaced by 'authentic assessment' – continuous assessment integrated into courses, designed to replicate how students will be required to recall knowledge in a working environment. Chester is the latest institution to ditch the more traditional university experience as it fights to keep enrolments buoyant – both applications and admissions are down by about a third from the peak around ten years ago – and to make it a go–to destination for those seeking a graduate–level job. The university is based largely in the attractive city of Chester, with outposts in Birkenhead and Warrington and its land–based centre Reaseheath, near Nantwich. It admitted its first medical students in 2024 for a four–year graduate–entry degree, adding to its already significant presence in health–related courses. Teacher training is also big, reflecting Chester's origins as the UK's first teacher training college at its founding in 1839. 22. University of Glasgow The next stage of Glasgow's £1billion campus redevelopment is under way as it seeks to create facilities to keep it ahead of the pack before its 600th anniversary in 2051. Only Oxford, Cambridge and St Andrews have been around longer, and Glasgow's global reputation for excellence means it recruits internationally, with overseas students making up around one in five of the record undergraduate intake in September 2024. The main Gilmorehill campus is in Glasgow's West End; a 14–acre site next door is where all the new buildings are going up. A further campus at Garscube, four miles away, is home to outdoor sports facilities, veterinary medicine students and the catered Wolfson Hall student accommodation. Further afield in Dumfries, the university teaches social and environmental sustainability, as well as its primary education with teaching qualification. Four in five of the domestic intake are recruited from Scotland, although a sizeable minority make the long trip from London and South–East England – some of them taking advantage of generous bursary support that more than offsets the extra year of study required for Scottish degrees for students from low–income households. 23. University of Liverpool Applications are booming at Liverpool. One of the redbrick universities founded in the late 19th century, the university retains the civic mission that characterised these institutions at their launch. Committed to social diversity, it recruits 89% of its UK students from state schools, and one third of students come from homes where the parents did not go to university. Its city centre campus adjoins that of Liverpool John Moores University, creating a huge university precinct at the heart of the city. Dentistry, veterinary medicine, nursing, architecture and engineering are some of the subjects the university is best known for. Liverpool demonstrates strength across multiple disciplines, but business and law are among the top picks in our subject rankings. Although popular in its home region, Liverpool recruits strongly from across the UK with 1,170 of the record 6,750 UK recruits in September 2024 coming from London and the South East. Liverpool was one of the Russell Group universities that vastly increased its domestic intake of students last year to offset anticipated falls in overseas students. Numbers were up by 23.7% from the level seen just two years before, beating even the pandemic years of inflated university admissions. 24 (joint). Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is our Sports University of the Year. It has ranked among the top ten institutions in inter–university competition for the past four years. No modern university has a comparable record. It also encourages students of all abilities to make sport part of their life through innovations such as the NTU Moves app. There is a large audience for these efforts as NTU has recruited more than 10,000 undergraduates in each of the past six years, making it the most prolific source of graduates in the UK. Its portfolio of largely vocational degrees delivered in a popular student city is a winning combination. Financial support targets the many not the few, with the main £750 NTU bursary reaching around 9,000 students every year. NTU was the first university to sign the Social Mobility Pledge and about four in every ten students come from homes where parents did not go to university. It is in the midst of a £250million campus investment programme running until the end of the decade, with the new design and digital arts building opening last year. There are several campuses – City is home to six academic schools; Clifton houses engineering, healthcare and sport students; and Brackenhurst is a 500–acre countryside site for animal, rural and environmental sciences and NTU's veterinary nursing centre. There are further sites in London and Mansfield. 24 (joint). University of Manchester A modest improvement in student scores for teaching excellence and student experience in this year's National Student Survey (NSS) have helped lift Manchester into the top 20 of our overall ranking. For many years, the university ranked almost as high in the QS World University Rankings as it did in domestic equivalents. This apparent anomaly arose from the fact that global rankings do not take account of student satisfaction, as measured by the NSS, in which Manchester has previously performed poorly in all sections. Not that poor performance in the NSS has hindered applications, as Manchester has been for many years the most–applied–to university in the UK. However, seven consecutive years of increases came to a stop in 2024, with a 1% drop, and some 9,985 students were admitted out of 92,500 applications. Higher education on this scale creates what Manchester itself calls a 'mini metropolis' for which it is currently trying to cater with a series of 'cosy campus' upgrades, rolled out in seven locations. This includes the foyer of the main Alan Gilbert Learning Commons and the University Place Entrance Drum. Free facilities being added include hot water for tea, coffee and meals; microwave ovens; hand washing and washing–up facilities; and places for students to study or socialise. And the legendary Manchester social scene is, of course, the university's secret weapon. It's a formidable combination. 26. Southampton Solent University If you want a life on the ocean waves, to play a part in managing it, or to design the craft that sail on it, Southampton Solent is the place to come. The Warsash Maritime School offers more than 150 accredited deck, engineering, interior, maritime and offshore safety training courses. This is on top of more than 19 undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, foundation degrees and diploma courses. Facilities are second to none and include bridge simulators and a unique ship handling centre, which features an 11–ship scaled model fleet used for training masters and pilots. Applications across the university have been falling, however – down by a third since the pandemic – and admissions hit a new low in September 2024. A rebrand in the past year has restored Southampton to the front of the university's name and better tied the institution in with the port city that makes its academic offer so distinctive. It secured a triple gold in the most recent Teaching Excellence Framework, covering an overall rating, student experience and student outcomes. New biomedical sciences and computer laboratories have opened in the past year, too. A compact portfolio of courses also covers everything from fashion and film to business and nursing. 27. Ulster University Ulster is enjoying a boom in applications in the wake of it being named the Times Higher Education University of the Year for 2024, a few weeks after it was shortlisted for the Daily Mail University of the Year title. Its success is an acknowledgment of the institution's transformation over the past decade, with it consolidating excellence in areas of existing strength while securing a foothold in new disciplines. Nothing demonstrates this better than the development of the university's Belfast campus in the Cathedral Quarter, which has helped to regenerate a key part of the city and now hosts facilities such as the £75million Studio Ulster, Northern Ireland's largest virtual–production studio. Belfast is one of the three campuses that make up the truly regional university. There are further outposts in Coleraine and Derry–Londonderry, as well as the university's sports village in Jordanstown, seven miles outside Belfast. Ulster is committed to social inclusion on campus, with about 40% of students drawn from homes where parents did not attend university. It serves a predominantly Northern Irish student population, who make up 99% of the British intake. However, the university continues to recruit strongly from overseas despite the uncertainties caused by government policy on student visas. 28. University of Birmingham Birmingham recruited an additional 1,500 undergraduates in September 2024 compared to the previous year, expanding its intake across a variety of courses and accepting more students who had missed their offer grades than usual. Although there are some 37,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, size does not make things impersonal here – course leaders on some degree programmes telephoned those who had gained places on results day last summer to welcome them. Two–thirds of UK entrants to this research–intensive Russell Group university come from the West Midlands, London and the South East, and there is a large overseas contingent, too. Many students are drawn to Birmingham's excellent academic reputation across a swathe of subject areas, coupled with its stellar graduate outcomes. It is one of the original redbrick universities, so called because of the materials used in the principal buildings which date from the early 20th century. The university is located in the affluent suburb of Edgbaston, which is a seven–minute train ride from the city centre, but most students live out in the neighbouring (and less salubrious) Selly Oak district. Birmingham is socially inclusive, providing financial support for one in five students each year through a £14million bursary and scholarship programme. 29. University of Southampton An ongoing £600million campus investment plan at Southampton is helping drive a surge in applications, which have never been higher than in the past two years. Even an 8% increase in the number of admissions in September 2024, causing them to reach their highest level since 2015, still left stiff competition with almost eight applications per place. Southampton is one of the 24–strong Russell Group of research–intensive universities which also tend to command the highest entry requirements. A contextual offers scheme that knocks two A–level grades off standard entry requirements helps to widen access. An extensive web of careers support ensures that opportunities for graduates to land high–skilled jobs and earn high salaries – one of the university's strongest performance outcomes – extend to students from all backgrounds, too. Mental health and wellbeing support is also among the best. The university is based on several sites across Southampton, with the main Highfield campus being the mothership and the focus of much of the ongoing developments that include a new STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) teaching building and a clinical skills hub. Engineering is the biggest subject area here and one in which the university enjoys considerable success in our subject rankings. Investment is also being put into its city centre campus site and the outlying Winchester campus, home to the Winchester School of Art. 30 (joint). Birmingham City University Birmingham City University (BCU) has a footprint almost as large as the city from which it recruits the majority of its students. There are several campuses. The City Centre campus is home to cutting–edge arts buildings, such as the £57million Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and uber–modern science infrastructure such as the £70million STEAMhouse, which provides learning space for computing and digital technology students and an incubator where businesses can collaborate with students. Edgbaston's City South campus, meanwhile, is home to the health professions, nursing and midwifery, life sciences and social work courses. The School of Jewellery – Europe's largest – sits at the heart of the city's world–renowned Jewellery Quarter, and the Alexander Stadium that hosted the 2022 Commonwealth Games is now BCU's specialist space for sport and exercise science courses. Thanks to the university's strongly vocational course portfolio and well–regarded work placements, BCU graduates do well in the graduate employment market – 70% land a high–skilled job within 15 months of graduating. The university is also a key provider of degree apprenticeships, with 19 existing pathways and further programmes in the offing for civil engineers, construction quantity surveyors, architectural assistants, laboratory scientists and cybersecurity technical professionals. 30 (joint). University of Hertfordshire The planned opening of the new medical school in September 2026 will be a big moment for the University of Hertfordshire, making it the latest modern university to acquire one of the key status symbols of the old guard. If you are a UK student, you can't apply right now; the first intake will be made up of 70 international students. However, the plan is to open the school to UK applicants in the near future. It is a natural development for a university in which just under one–third of the undergraduate intake already opt for nursing and allied health and social care courses. Business, computing and engineering are big here, too – the latter is especially appropriate for an institution partly housed on the site of the old de Havilland aircraft factory. The de Havilland campus and the nearby original College Lane campus are both in the commuter town of Hatfield, 25 minutes from central London by train. The university recruits strongly from the immediate local area, and the student population reflects the social and ethnic diversity of its main recruiting ground. However, admissions are running at half the level they were pre–pandemic and applications have fallen by a similar proportion over the past decade. 32. University of Stirling Eight University of Stirling–based swimmers competed at the Paris Olympics last summer, bringing home three medals: Duncan Scott earned a gold and a silver (and is now Scotland's most–decorated Olympian), while Jack McMillan also won gold. Scotland's University for Sporting Excellence is getting used to this level of success. 'Sport is part of our DNA here at Stirling,' says David Bond, head of performance sport. As well as outstanding facilities, which include a 50m pool, the campus is criss–crossed with cycling and running paths to encourage those with more modest sporting ambitions. The campus can lay claim to being the most beautiful in the UK. Indeed, the International Student Barometer last year judged it to be the third–best campus environment in the world. Set around Airthrey Loch, with the Ochil Hills as a backdrop and a castle in the grounds, students have no complaints about their surroundings. Even the 1960s architecture is impressive, with some now being Category A–listed. Courses retain a broad–based approach across the first two years of study before specialising in the final two years of study and often offer a choice of September or January start dates. 33 (joint). Buckinghamshire New University Lights, camera, action! If a career in film or television is for you, then the only UK university to have a base inside a world–famous film studio is worth a look. Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) has 15 undergraduate programmes taught at Pinewood Studios, a short distance from its main campus in High Wycombe. Courses cover BAs in animation, costume design and making, film and television production, visual effects and 3D game art, which are offered with or without a foundation year, and hair and make–up for film performance, which can be studied as a two–year degree programme. BNU looks to take care of its diverse student body, which includes mature returners and first–generation students – one of the reasons why it won our University of the Year for Student Support two years ago. Financial support benefits the many not the few, and the university strives to keep the hidden costs of higher education to a minimum. The university has restricted the increased tuition fee of £9,535 charged from September 2025 to new students only. Existing students will complete their courses paying £9,250. Headquartered in High Wycombe, the university has further outposts for healthcare courses in Uxbridge, and work–related programmes in Aylesbury. 33 (joint). Leeds Beckett University Leeds Beckett is one of the modern universities created in the past 35 years. With an excellent track record in areas as diverse as teacher training, sport, media and health, the university has been moving slowly back up domestic rankings after a period in the doldrums. Applications have settled around pre–2022 levels after surging beyond 30,000, with the university recruiting more than half of its domestic intake from within Yorkshire and Humberside. There is a focus on embedding skills valued by employers within degree programmes, and recent upgrades of computing, sport, education and healthcare facilities will produce graduates familiar with workplace–standard technology and skills. Leeds Beckett's careers team delivers in–curriculum and extra–curricular activities across all subjects. It provides guidance and opportunities for professional development for students both during university and for up to five years after graduation. This approach has helped produce consistently good scores for student support in the annual National Student Survey. Leeds Beckett is in the vanguard of the earn–while–you–learn movement in higher education, with around 1,000 degree apprentices on campus following 16 programmes. The university has two campuses, City and Headingley, and the latter is home to the likes of teacher training and sport courses. 35. University of the West of England The University of the West of England (UWE) is one of the country's largest universities with more than 35,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. It has campuses across Bristol, with the biggest – the Frenchay campus – north of the city centre. There is also the City campus and a third, Glenside, which is in the Fishponds district. More than half of its UK intake come from the immediate region, but a further 24% come from London and the South East, demonstrating its wider appeal. Nursing and healthcare, business and the creative arts are the main subject areas, but there is a strong presence in engineering, technology and computing, too. The City campus is home to creative and cultural industries courses. It features the Arnolfini and Spike Island arts venues, and the Watershed film culture and digital media centre. The Glenside campus, a short bus ride from the city centre, is the base for allied health, social care, nursing and midwifery students. There is a package of support available for students from low–income households, including employability bursaries worth £500 or £1,000 to help meet the costs of placements, summer internships or other activities that will enhance graduate job prospects – the university's second strongest–performing measure in our ranking. 36. Royal Agricultural University From the King to Jeremy Clarkson's co–star, the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) has friends in high places. King Charles is the latest in an unbroken line of sovereigns going back across the full 180–year history of the RAU to accept its patronage. Meanwhile, Kaleb Cooper, the spin–out star of the Clarkson's Farm television show, is behind two £3,000–a–year scholarships for students studying agriculture who come from a non–farming background, like Cooper himself. The tie–up shows the first agricultural college in the English–speaking world is able to move with the times. It is seeking to make itself a university of choice for students from diverse and under–represented backgrounds, increasing the number of state-educated recruits and the proportion from the 40% of postcodes considered to be the most deprived – all a far cry from the days when it recruited more privately educated students than even Oxford and Cambridge. The academic offering is built around eight core degrees – in agriculture, agricultural business management, bloodstock and equine performance management, business management, environment and sustainability, equine science and business, real estate, and rural land management – plus several complementary foundation degrees, foundation years, top–up courses and professional placement years. The university will be hoping that a 25% fall in admissions in September 2024 was just a blip. 37 (joint). Liverpool John Moores University Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) plays a vital part in the educational landscape of the Liverpool city region. It recruits 38% of its students from the area, which contains some of the districts with the lowest rates of participation in higher education in the UK. Applications for admission in 2024 dipped below 30,000 for the first time in the past decade but the number gaining places held up well. There are two campuses: Mount Pleasant, home to the faculties of business and law, and arts, professional and social studies, and City where health, science, and engineering and technology students are based. It offers more than 200 undergraduate degrees spanning most academic disciplines, and 22 pathways for degree apprentices. The faculty of arts, professional and social studies is the biggest, but healthcare subjects saw the largest number of undergraduate admissions in 2024. The university's supply line of graduates into the NHS and other public-sector areas contributes significantly to the 70% who go on to gain high–skilled employment. LJMU is the most popular English university with students from Northern Ireland, with more than 500 enrolling in 2024. It holds bespoke applicant days in Belfast and runs a customised induction programme. 37 (joint). Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan is shortlisted this year for our University of the Year title after another jump up our rankings and outstanding ratings from its students for the support they receive and their wider student experience. No British university admitted more undergraduates than Manchester Met in September 2024. More than 11,500 students got a place, 11,000 of them from the UK. Situated in the heart of the city, Manchester Met is consistently one of the highest–ranked modern universities (those created since 1992) and a £400million campus investment programme over the past decade has provided students with modern facilities and industry–standard equipment. The university offers a broad and largely vocational course portfolio, with business and management hoovering up more than one in five students. It also has a strong presence in nursing and healthcare, creative and performing arts, and computing. A £4.5million success fund should offer financial support to a wider range of students, and the university runs a bespoke outreach programme across the region to attract applications from families with no history of higher education. The university is one of the biggest providers of degree apprenticeships, with 2,740 apprentices working across 17 pathways in September 2024. The university partners with more than 700 UK employers for these programmes, which were rated outstanding by Ofsted in both 2018 and 2022 – making Manchester Met the first university offering degree apprenticeships at scale to achieve this double success. 39. University of Portsmouth Portsmouth took radical action last September by admitting close to 1,000 more students than the year before following a £20million fall in tuition–fee income between 2023 and 2024. The surge comes as the university shakes up its curriculum and course delivery and assessment to better equip its students for working life beyond university. The connected curriculum will be rolled out from 2026, but connected degrees are already here, which offer students flexibility around their placement year. Traditionally it slots in before the final year of study, but Portsmouth now gives students the option of taking it after. It opened a second campus in the capital in 2024, offering a limited range of undergraduate degrees such as business and management, computer science and economics. The Walthamstow campus is expected to grow. The university has ambitions to be the top–ranked modern university (those founded since 1992) by 2030 and already features consistently in the top ten among that group, ranking eighth this year. Its main campus in Portsmouth is home to more than 20,000 students, three–quarters of whom come from London and the South East. The busy port city and the beaches of Southsea, where many students live, offer a great backdrop to student life. 40. St Mary's University, Twickenham St Mary's celebrates its 175th anniversary this year with the opening of a new medical school and a significant upgrade of on–campus academic and social facilities. The first medics will be recruited in the new admissions cycle to begin their studies in September 2026. Initially only open to international applicants, the medical school adds some heft to this small university located on an attractive campus in South–West London. With fewer than 4,000 undergraduates, St Mary's offers a very different university experience to that found elsewhere in the capital – more personal and with the ethos of its Catholic foundation very much to the fore, although the university is open to students of all faiths and none. It's popular with its students, scoring consistently well in the annual National Student Survey (NSS) across all three ranking measures. St Mary's has an outstanding reputation for its ten sports degrees – its biggest study area – and has attracted (and continues to attract) top–flight athletes, none greater than Sir Mo Farah. Courses include sport and exercise science, sports coaching science, sports management, sports psychology, strength and conditioning science, and sport rehabilitation. Teacher training, for which the institution was originally founded in 1850, remains a core activity. 41. Newcastle University The lowest–ranked of the Russell Group of research–intensive universities, Newcastle is nevertheless experiencing record popularity with applicants and near–record admissions. Although it recruits nearly a quarter of its undergraduates from the North East – the English region with the lowest uptake of higher education – Newcastle has strong national appeal; applicants are attracted by both the university's academic standing and the city's reputation for enjoying itself. Its medical school is one of the best and the university aims to further advance its outstanding reputation in medicine and healthcare more generally – its biggest subject discipline. It has recently embarked on developing a £500million health innovation neighbourhood on the site of the former Newcastle General Hospital. This will build on the university's expertise in healthy ageing by creating a living laboratory of intergenerational and later living with interdisciplinary primary healthcare focused on helping residents live longer, healthier lives. A raft of other capital projects and redevelopments on the city centre campus have been completed in the past year which will enhance the student experience. The university will hope these filter through to improved scores in the annual National Student Survey; underperformance here is primarily responsible for Newcastle's disappointing ranking in this guide. 42 (joint). University of Kent Kent has set out its stall in the past year with its 2030 strategy, which offers more flexibly delivered degrees, assessments that take place close to when a module is taught and no studying over the Christmas and Easter breaks. While many universities have moved to a two–semester academic year, Kent is moving to three ten–week terms. The university is celebrating its 60th birthday this year, but the celebrations have fallen a little flat, as Kent has been in the headlines due to financial deficits and job losses. The university is looking to save nearly £20million after reporting underlying deficits of £12million and £6million for 2022–23 and 2023–24 respectively. Applications are steady, at around 20,000 per year, but the number of admissions fell by 800 in September last year – possibly as a consequence of an unexpected expansion in many Russell Group universities' intakes. Kent was set up in the 1960s as a collegiate university in the style of institutions founded in the previous century. Seven colleges form the social heart of the student experience; six of them are on the university's original campus, a green 300–acre site in the historic city of Canterbury, and the seventh is on Kent's Medway campus. 42 (joint). University of Lincoln Lincoln's medical school is set to become independent from September 2026. Students enrolling for the university's medicine degree in the new application cycle should be the first to take a medical degree here awarded by the University of Lincoln, subject to approval from the General Medical Council. Since the university's medical school was created in 2018, degrees have been validated by the University of Nottingham, despite being studied at Lincoln. With 100 places available (80 for medicine and 20 more with a gateway year), it is a significant moment for the university. It's welcome good news amid continuing threats to academic jobs due to 'financial headwinds... [that] have not gone away', as the university put it earlier this year. Lincoln was among those hit hard after some Russell Group universities admitted hundreds of students last September with lower grades than they would normally take, contributing to a 15% drop in admissions. Lincoln recruits around two–thirds of its students from the East Midlands and East Anglia – mostly to its Brayford Pool campus, which successfully mixes old and new on an attractive waterfront site. There is a second campus at Holbeach, which is home to the National Centre for Food Manufacturing. It offers part–time courses, mostly to food–industry employees. 44. University of South Wales The University of South Wales (USW) has embraced degree apprenticeships, with 1,150 degree apprentices on campus working across 18 programmes. These span mechanical, railway, civil, electrical and electronic engineering, semiconductor technologies, building and quantity surveying, real estate, policing, digital and technology solutions, and construction project management. The profile of degree apprenticeships reflects the USW's hands–on and practical approach to higher education. Further evidence is provided by a new chiropractic teaching and learning space being created on the Treforest campus which, as well as meeting the needs of students on the course, offers out–patient clinic facilities for the local community. USW ranks fifth in the UK and top in Wales for the number of student start–up businesses – 136 – established in 2023–24, demonstrating the entrepreneurial spirit fostered in its 23,000–strong student body. Those students are spread across five sites in three locations – Cardiff, Newport and Pontypridd. The Welsh capital is home to the university's creative industries courses, while Newport provides education and teacher training, business, computing, social work and psychology degrees. Everything else is taught in Pontypridd, where the university is headquartered and which is home to three of USW's sites. 45. Robert Gordon University Exceptional graduate employment statistics make a compelling case for applicants to consider Robert Gordon University (RGU), making the downturn in applications to this vocationally oriented institution hard to fathom. Admissions via Ucas in 2024 were at their lowest in the past ten years, but those who sign up for this mid–sized university, based in Aberdeen, find it is four years well spent. Four in five end up in high–skilled jobs – many of them having met their employer during the work placements that are integral to many courses – and a similar proportion believe their careers to be on track 15 months after leaving. Healthcare students account for about a third of the student body. The university performs strongly in the National Student Survey. RGU occupies a modern riverside campus close to the centre of Aberdeen; Garthdee is home to around 10,000 undergraduates and 5,000 postgraduates, including a 680–strong population of graduate apprenticeship learners. Scotland's third–largest city is a popular student destination, no longer as expensive as during the Oil City boom years, and is also the winner of 11 consecutive Purple Flag awards for having a safe nightlife. The surrounding coast and mountains offer endless possibilities for the outdoorsy, too. 46. University of East Anglia Broadening the student mind and experience is at the heart of what the University of East Anglia (UEA) offers to its students. For many years now, UEA has pushed study–abroad options, and by 2026 the university will have more than 200 global partners. It is also significantly expanding the number of degrees offered with foundation years (to widen access and diversify the student body) and work placement years (to increase graduate employability). A dental school moved a step closer in June with approval from the General Dental Council for UEA to provide undergraduate training. UEA is about to see some major upgrades to its attractive parkland campus come on stream, too – central among them the upgrade to the iconic, Grade II–listed Lasdun Wall. UEA came early to the financial crisis besetting many other universities, and consequently is now coming out the other side. Having cut jobs, courses and budgets, it has emerged leaner and more student–focused. Admissions jumped by 9% in September 2024 and the university will be hoping for a rise in the number of applications, too. UEA has a strong global reputation for everything from creative writing to climate change courses. Its sports facilities are among the best in the UK, while the Sainsbury Centre is home to one of the finest collections of modern art in the country. 47. Royal Holloway, University of London The University of London's campus in the countryside, Royal Holloway admitted a record number of undergraduates in September 2024 after receiving the second–highest number of applications ever. It is p