Best universities in the UK: the Sunday Times league table revealed

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has beaten its Oxbridge rivals to the top spot of our UK university rankings for the first time, claiming the title of best university in Britain.
The University of Oxford has been knocked into third place and Cambridge into fourth in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025 league table, which is published today. The University of St Andrews takes second place.
These are the lowest positions the country’s two most famous universities have held in the 31-year history of the rankings, and it is the first time Cambridge has failed to place in the top three.
An increased focus on career prospects in a tough graduate jobs market and improved feedback from students have helped LSE to climb from fourth place to first this year, and take our University of the Year 2025 title.
The academic rankings are based on an analysis of graduates’ prospects and students’ satisfaction with teaching, as well as research quality and entry standards.
Professor Larry Kramer, the president and vice-chancellor of LSE, said he was delighted with the No 1 ranking, adding: “The world comes here, there is no university on the globe like this one.”
About three quarters of LSE’s students, including postgraduates, come from overseas, drawn from more than 150 countries. The university has educated four serving cabinet ministers — including the first female chancellor of the exchequer, Rachel Reeves — and 18 Nobel prizewinners.
• Explore the Good University Guide 2025
Kramer, formerly the dean of Stanford Law School, who joined the social sciences powerhouse this year, said LSE excels at placing its students in well-paid graduate jobs, including in the City. Our table backs this up, showing that 92.5 per cent of LSE students were in high-skilled full-time jobs or further study 15 months after graduating, a score beaten only by Imperial College London.
It is a remarkable achievement, particularly when vacancies at the top 100 graduate employers are each attracting 40-50 applications and 98-99 per cent of them are rejected, according to The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers survey.
The university has also boosted its scores for student satisfaction after tackling complaints about poor feedback and marking in the wake of long-running strikes by lecturers over pay and pensions.
The league table is published at a time when the higher education landscape has never been more challenging. In the spring the Office for Students, the regulator of higher education in England, forecast that 40 per cent of English universities would run budget deficits in 2024 and warned of closures and mergers. Three universities are understood to be on the verge of bankruptcy.
• How to apply to university in 2025
Universities are heavily dependent on tuition fees, which account for about half of their funding. However, levies for UK students have risen by only £250 since David Cameron’s government increased the cap to £9,000 a year in 2012, and recruitment of overseas students, from countries such as China, Nigeria and India, who pay up to £38,000 a year, is falling. Kramer supports the call made this week by a group of 141 UK universities for the annual tuition fee of £9,250 to be raised at least in line with inflation.
Jo Saxton, the chief executive of Ucas, has said that teenagers today, facing bills of nearly £30,000 for tuition alone, are focusing on the courses that will put them in line to earn the highest salaries after they graduate, as well as thinking carefully about whether or not to study for a degree in the first place.
A record number of UK 18-year-olds secured a place at university or college this year, close to a 3 per cent rise on last year, new Ucas data shows. In total there were 498,340 acceptances (all ages, all domiciles), which is a 0.9 per cent increase on last year but still lower than the peak of 515,650 in 2020.
“We are definitely seeing a strong trend for Stem-related courses,” Saxton said. “Applications for maths and computer science degrees were up this year.” By contrast, interest in the arts and humanities, widely seen as less likely to lead to a well-paid career, is down. Arts courses at several universities are being axed and thousands of academic posts have been lost.
Applications for medicine and nursing degrees have also slumped, and experts are blaming the waning enthusiasm on the recent strikes over low pay and depictions in books and on TV of gruelling training on overstretched NHS wards.
• What should I study at university?
A graduate salary table published with the online guide today reveals that the degree course with the highest pay potential is computer science at Imperial College London, whose graduates were earning £65,000 a year 15 months after finishing their degree. The lowest earners were graduates of dance drama and cinematics at the University of Bristol.
Helen Davies, the editor of The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide, said: “The best universities — whether they were founded in the 15th century or 2005 — are local and global powerhouses of intellectual thought and creativity, from the arts to science, that can power economic regeneration and lead the way to a better life. But working out what and where to study — and how to pay for it — has never been tougher.
“This year we have tweaked our methodology to keep up with contemporary concerns, boosting the weighting of graduate prospects and adding a sustainability metric.”
The University of Reading has been named Sustainable University of the Year 2025, leaping ten places in our main league table and into the top 25. It has reduced its carbon emissions by more than 60 per cent since 2009 and cut waste by 35 per cent against baselines. Reading is also one of the leading universities for the study of climate change.
Meanwhile, Northumbria University’s climb six places up the league table has helped it to take the Modern University of the Year 2025 title. It was recently awarded more than £9 million to create the UK Research and Innovation AI Centre for Doctoral Training in Citizen-Centred AI.
But many of the universities crowding the top of the academic league table — those with the highest entry standards, best job prospects and most competition for places — are at the bottom of our social inclusion rankings. The highly selective Russell Group universities occupy 15 of the lowest 20 places in the diversity measure for England and Wales, with Cambridge in last place and Oxford fifth from the bottom. York St John University is the highest riser in this table, climbing from 47= to 16th this year. These rankings are based on measures reflecting the diversity of the student intake and their success in their degrees.
LSE is Britain’s No 1 university in our league table and wins the University of the Year 2025 title. Its success is based on improved graduate prospects, student satisfaction rates and student evaluations of teaching quality. Competition for a place at LSE is fierce; it is one of the few universities not to enter clearing. Last year’s rank: 4
St Andrews was the first university to break the Oxbridge duopoly at the top of our academic league table three years ago, and remains ahead of its rivals and top of the Scottish institutions for 2025. In our National Student Survey analysis it ranks top for the broad experience and 2nd for teaching quality. Pubs, societies, balls and sport are the mainstays of St Andrews’ social scene. Last year’s rank: 1
It is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, has produced 56 Nobel prizewinners and is the alma mater of 31 British prime ministers, but now Oxford’s dreaming spires look to the future. And although it has slipped to third place, Oxford remains unsurpassed in its ratio of students to staff (10.3:1).Last year’s rank: 2
Founded in 1209, the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world reigned over our league table for eight years until 2021, but has fallen to fourth place this year. Compared with institutions that share its broad academic range, however, Cambridge’s outcomes are the strongest: the university leads in 18 of our subject tables.Last year’s rank: 3
Durham was shortlisted for University of the Year 2025 and is a runner-up for University of the Year for Graduate Employment. The collegiate university in the northeast has risen two places in the competitive league table, and its entry requirements are high: ABB to A* A* A. Last year’s rank: 7
The UK’s only university to specialise in science, engineering, technology, medicine and business has a stellar teaching record. It tops our graduate prospects index for the fourth time (95.9 per cent of students move on to highly skilled jobs or further study within 15 months of completing their course) and is our University of the Year for Graduate Employment 2025. Last year’s rank: 5
A powerhouse of British higher education, promising “disruptive thinking since 1826”, UCL was our University of the Year 2024, but has slipped one place this year. Its new campus in east London focuses on the study of robotics and AI, ecology, sustainable cities, decarbonised transport, assistive technology, fair finance, and health.Last year’s rank: 6
The University of Bath has been in the top ten for a decade and holds its own without being a member of the elite Russell Group. It is runner-up for the Sport University of the Year 2025 title; the £35 million Sports Training Village is a national training centre for several Olympic and Paralympic sports, and students have free use of most of its facilities.Last year’s rank: 8
The No 1 university in the Midlands ranks ninth overall in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025. It was awarded triple gold in the latest Teaching Excellence Framework, and our analysis of the National Student Survey shows high rates of satisfaction with teaching quality (33=) and the wider undergraduate experience (13th) — outdoing most of Britain’s research heavyweights. It was shortlisted for our overall University of the Year 2025.Last year’s rank: 9
Loughborough University is our Sport University of the Year 2025. Athletes who have studied and trained there won an astonishing 35 medals at this year’s Olympics and Paralympics in Paris. The campus hosts the governing bodies of England Netball, England and Wales Cricket, British Weightlifting, British Swimming, British Triathlon, and British Athletics.Last year’s rank: 10
See the full league table and a guide to all of the university profiles detailing everything from their academic reputation to campus facilities, wellbeing support, and scholarships and bursaries at The Sunday Times Good University Guide
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