Top 20 UK Universities

UPDATE: if you are looking for the Top UK Universities (according to the ‘rankings’) then have a look at this blog post.

What’s the top 20 Universities in the UK? What order would they come in?

I want you to reply right now to this blog post and add a comment listing the top 20 Universities UK 1-20.

I want people to list them as they perceive them, so don’t go and look up some list, I want to know your 1-20, if you were held at gunpoint and asked to instantly list the the best Universities in the UK, what would you answer.

I know some may be a little reluctant to do this for fear that, even though no one reads this site, it could come back to haunt them or whatever, e.g. your University may be impressed if you put them lower than they think they should be. If this is the case, comment anonymously. Seriously, just reply and leave any old name. Just leave a comment, it isn’t a test.

Some may ask: define ‘best’? what criteria?

The answer is what ever your gut reaction is. If you were an employer and one person had been to University A, and the other University B, (all else being equal) who would be more impressed by?

However I will say, I’m looking more towards the overall reputation of a University, not specifically just teaching or just research.

So your list of 20 Universities please (you can put more or less than 20 if you wish!), try and put them in some sort of order.

I’m hoping to get a few responses and will follow up with another blog post later this week.

Cheers.

UPDATE: I have now collected the rankings of 50 of the top UK Universities from major newspapers and other sources. The rankings have been combined to find out the overall ranking on these universities based on these league tables. You can find this, and some more info in this blog post.

01
Chris Keene
September 29th, 2008 9:34 pm

[my guesses...]
1 Cambridge
1 Oxford
3 UCL
4 Imperial
5 Edinburgh
6 Manchester
7 LSE
8 Bristol
9 Warwick
10 Birmingham
11 Southampton
12 Kings College (London)
13 York
14 Glasgow
15 Bath
16 Leeds
17 Nottingham
18 Cardiff
19 Newcastle
20 Sheffield

02
September 29th, 2008 10:36 pm

1 Cambridge
2 Oxford
3 Imperial
4 Durham
5 Kings
6 Edinburgh
7 Southampton
8 UCL
9 Bristol
10 Sussex (has to be in the top 10)
11 Manchester
12 St Andrews
13 Exeter
14 Cardiff
15 Bath
16 Surrey
17 Reading
18 Sheffield
19 Birmingham
20 Nottingham

03
Sally
September 30th, 2008 9:47 am

Only cos you asked so nicely:

No specific order - just 20…

Oxford
Cambridge
Imperial
Kings
Edinburgh
York
Durham
Nottingham
Warwick
Liverpool
Manchester
Southampton
Exeter
Bath
St. Andrews
Birmingham
LSE
UCL
Leeds
Cardiff

Now I have listed these exclusively on the basis of my mental map around Britain. Anything more specific would require far more time than I am prepared to offer right now!

04
E
September 30th, 2008 10:11 am

I’ve tried not to look at other people’s lists, and have probably missed some really obvious places partly because my English geography is bad, and partly because I think your view of ‘good’ unis depends on which subjects you know about.

1. Cambridge
2. Oxford
3. UCL
4. Imperial
5. Bristol
6. KCL
7. Southampton
8. Aberdeen
9. Edinburgh
10. Cardiff
11. LSE
12. Warwick
13. Nottingham
14. Birmingham
15. City
16. St. Andrews
17. Manchester
18. Sheffield
19. Huddersfield
20. Loughborough

05
September 30th, 2008 10:22 am

Depends on the subject but, OK, I’ll play along. In no particular order:

Birmingham
Manchester
Oxford
Cambridge
Durham
Sussex
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Imperial
UCL
Kings
Nottingham
Exeter
Leeds
Bath
Bristol
Sheffield
UEA
St Andrews
Newcastle

06
September 30th, 2008 10:51 am

Hmm.. Here’s my best 20 based on my interactions with them, and how innovative they are in terms of their library services - as you can probably tell, I’m not a traditionalist…

1. Glasgow
2. Warwick
3. Liverpool
4. Hertfordshire
5. UWE
6. St Andrews
7. UCE
8. Southampton Solent
9. Nottingham Trent
10. Edge Hill University (mine own)
11. Huddersfield
12. Stirling
13. Coventry
14. LJMU
15. Salford
16. City
17. Bangor
18. Chester
19. MMU
20. Oxford

In terms of employment, I feel a degree (from wherever) is just a small part of the package, and would be impressed by the individual, not the University!

07
October 3rd, 2008 10:03 am

Cambridge
Oxford
Edinburgh
Imperial
Manchester
UCL
Kings, London
St Andrews
LSE
Bristol
Leeds
Sussex
Cardiff
Kent
York
UEA
Birmingham
RVC
RHUL
QMUL

Not sure what influenced me here: who I’d like to work for, where’s strong in medicine, veterinary medicine, classics, who’s got the best library, who’s most impressive on University Challenge….; would be interesting to compare with my 1973 UCCA (now UCAS) choices, when my criteria were the radicalness of the politics and the easy availability of recreational drugs :-)…and the teaching. For this exercise the first half-dozen came very easily. After that it was very hard

08

[...] Top 20 UK Universities [...]

09
Kate
October 29th, 2008 1:49 pm

Oxford
Cambridge
Imperial, London
Kings College, London
LSE
St Andrews
UCL
Durham
Bristol
Warrick
Manchester
Leeds
Newcastle
Exeter
Birmingham
York
Bath
Sheffield
Liverpool
Nottingham

10
STANLEY KIBET LANGAT
November 1st, 2008 5:24 pm

I would wish to join one of your universities.

11
November 3rd, 2008 8:30 am

I WOULD LIKE TO JOIN YOUR UNIVERSTY,

12
Anonymous
November 3rd, 2008 9:57 am

my guess,
1.get a life

13
ali
November 14th, 2008 10:28 am

WHY HAS EVERY1 FORGOTTEN LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY WHEN ITS THE TOP 5!!!

14
Chris Keene
November 14th, 2008 10:57 am

hi Ali,

This was the point I was perhaps trying to make with this post. When asked to produce such a list, we choose Universities for various reasons (famous, geographically close, well established) which mean some are unfairly forgotten or higher than they should be.

You should check out the corosponding post which looks at the rankings of universities from different sources

http://www.nostuff.org/words/2008/combined-uk-university-rankings/

In particular the excel file holding the numbers

http://www.nostuff.org/words/wp-content/combined-university-ranking2.xls

Combing the UK rankings I collected, Loughborough comes 10th, and including the worldwide results around 25-28th (depending which ones you include).

Chris

15
Nikoletta
November 19th, 2008 11:54 pm

and where is Lancaster University?????

16
Chris Keene
November 20th, 2008 10:04 am

Nikoletta,

In Lancaster, I believe.

(but 17th according to this http://www.nostuff.org/words/2008/combined-uk-university-rankings/ not bad). See comment 14 above.

Chris

17
Nadia
November 28th, 2008 11:44 am

Hello.

Actually, I’m interested in doing my undergraduate studies in the UK. I’m from Asia by the way. The field I have in my mind is Accountancy. I’m currently spending time browsing and researching on various universities. Could you please suggest the relevant universities?

Thank you! :)

18
Nadia
November 28th, 2008 11:55 am

And by the way, a friend of mine gave the names of these universities;

Exeter
Loughborough
LSE
Warwick
Manchester
Essex
City

What do you think?

Again, thank you!

19
Chris Keene
November 28th, 2008 3:25 pm

I’m really not the best person to ask about how or where to study in the UK.

You can check out the guides from the Times and Guardian Newspapers:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/good_university_guide/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Times-Good-University-Guide-2009/dp/0007273533

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/universityguide

You can find out how to apply, and more via UCAS and the HERO website
http://www.ucas.ac.uk/students/nonukstudents/

http://www.hero.ac.uk/uk/studying/index.cfm

Good luck!

20
Nadia
November 29th, 2008 3:48 am

Oh ok. Thanks anyway! :)

21
waqas
December 2nd, 2008 4:25 pm

there is no unclude leichter uni which is also comes in ist 20

22
Laco
December 4th, 2008 11:30 pm

Oxford/Cambridge (Oxbridge) is one
LSE is a distant second.

the rest are of no significance

haha but I’m quite biased since I am currently attending Oxford and will most likely do a Dphil here and I have friends that attended LSE and Cambridge

23
amrita
December 31st, 2008 12:26 pm

hiya,

am considerin a master’s in marketing (sep 09)
i have done a post grad course in marketing and have a 80% academic track record till date plus a 6 month work ex . can someone please suggest the best uni to pursue this course. any suggestion will be o great help!!

thanx!!

24
Lumi
January 5th, 2009 6:33 pm

U know, being preferential in ranking does not make any sense to me!
I mean, how do we explain Hertfordshire being better than Imperial College (in all or any ranking)? I honestly think we have allowed our sense of reasoning to be clouded by emotions.
Please leave rankings to professionals who already know how to do it and stop confusing people! Each school has it’s own specialization!!!

25
amrita
January 6th, 2009 3:35 am

helloooooo…

am considerin a master’s in marketing (sep 09)
i have done a post grad course in marketing and have a 80% academic track record till date plus a 6 month work ex . can someone please suggest the best uni to pursue this course. any suggestion will be o great help!!

thanx!!

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