The 18 best universities in the United Kingdom

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King’s College London comes in fifth place in the UK.

Every year, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), puts together a comprehensive ranking of the best universities on the planet.

A university’s ranking is based on the institution’s reputation with academics and employers, and the number of research citations the school gets per paper published in a specific discipline — in this case, law. QS then gives a score out of 100.

It hasn’t been a great year for British universities. Thirty-eight of the UK’s 48 universities in the top 400 have dropped down the rankings this year, with Cambridge falling out of the top three. Despite this, 18 of the top 100 universities listed by QS are British, with four in the top ten. 

Check out Britain’s top universities below. We’ve included their global ranking in brackets.

18th in the UK (93rd globally). University of Leeds — Located in England’s biggest county, Leeds scored best for employer reputation, picking up 81.8 points.

17 (87). University of Southampton — Southampton, on the south coast of the country, received 63.3 in its academic reputation, and 65.6 overall.

16 (84). University of Sheffield — Sheffield scored 66.9 overall from QS, but fell four places in the global rankings this year, dropping from 80th.

15 (82). University of Birmingham — An employer reputation score of 88.7 gives Birmingham a big boost in the overall rankings.

14 (77). University of St Andrews — Scoring 68.2 overall, St Andrews dropped from 68th globally in 2015 to 77th this year.

13 (75). University of Nottingham — Nottingham’s employer reputation score of 91.3 helps it pick up 68.7 points overall.

12 (74). Durham University — The north-eastern university, which counts famous actor Sir Peter Ustinov among its alumni, falls 13 places globally in 2016 from 61st last year.

11 (63). University of Glasgow — An academic reputation of 80 helps the Scottish university to 71.7 points overall and means it just misses out on the top 10.

10 (51). University of Warwick — A near perfect employer reputation of 98.9 and a world-renowed business school puts Warwick in the top 10 British universities.

9 (41). University of Bristol — The best university in south-west England, Bristol has an academic reputation score of 85.5, but fell four places globally from last year.

8 (37). London School of Economics and Political Science — LSE, located in central London, scored 100 out of 100 for employer reputation, and 81.7 overall.

7 (29). University of Manchester — Scoring 99.7 for employer reputation and 97.9 for academic reputation, the university at the heart of the Northern powerhouse ranked as the best in northern England.

6 (21). King’s College London — Despite being sixth overall, KCL ranks only fourth overall in the capital. It falls from 19th globally in 2015 to 21st this year.

5 (19). University of Edinburgh — Scotland’s best university is in its capital, with Edinburgh picking up 99.2 points for academic reputation, and jumping two places globally from 21st in 2015.

4 (9). Imperial College London — Famous for its science degrees, Imperial ranks above American powerhouses including Princeton, Yale, and Cornell globally, and is behind only three UK universities.

3 (7). University College London — The best university in London is UCL, according to QS, which gives it an overall score of 95.6, and three sub-index rankings over 98.

2 (6). University of Oxford — Unsurprisingly, Oxford takes a podium place in the UK, and retains its place of sixth globally. Oxford got perfect scores for both academic and employer reputations.

1 (4). University of Cambridge — Britain’s top university once again is Cambridge, scoring an overall score of 97.2. It ranks behind only Harvard, Stanford, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in QS’ global ranking.

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