These are the best UK unis right now according to the Daily Mail’s new uni rankings

The Daily Mail has published The Mail University Guide rankings for 2025, and some of the positions on the UK uni rankings are really surprising.

The Daily Mail apparently based its ranking on several factors including graduate salaries 15 months after leaving the unis, the unis’ incomes from research, and the opinions of 346,000 final-year students.

Oxbridge students may despair that the Daily Mail put Imperial College London ahead of both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge for the second year in a row. The Daily Mail says it put Imperial first because “it takes widening access seriously, with one of the most progressive bursary programmes in the UK. It also makes reduced offers to students who qualify under its contextual admissions criteria, which have been beefed up this year.”

The Mail added: “Imperial’s graduates are in demand, with more going into highly skilled jobs than those from any other university, and commanding the highest salaries, too.”

Grads from Imperial earn an average of £37,823.46 15 months after they graduate.

Several Russell Group unis are surprisingly low down. The University of Exeter and the University of York are in joint 35th place, and Newcastle University is in 41st place.

So, here are the up-to-date UK uni rankings, according to the Daily Mail:

=50. Harper Adams University

=50. Bangor University

=48. University of Bradford

=48. Edinburgh Napier University

47. London South Bank University

46. Northumbria University

45. Royal Holloway, University of London

44. University of Essex

43. University of Hull

42. University of Reading

41. Newcastle University

40. Glasgow Caledonian University

39. Ulster University

38. Swansea University

37. Lancaster University

=35. University of York

=35. University of Exeter

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Maybe the Daily Mail should have taken the prettiness of Exeter into consideration for its uni rankings?

34. Cardiff University

=32. University of Nottingham

=32. Heriot-Watt University

=30. University of Leicester

=30. University of Edinburgh

=28. University of East Anglia

=28. University of Manchester

27. City, University of London

I would like to take this opportunity to point out that City is still ranked no. 1 for journalism (and to remind everyone that I studied journalism at City)

=25. University of Leeds

=25. University of Liverpool

24. Aston University

23. Queen’s University, Belfast

22. University of Aberdeen

21. University of Glasgow

20. University of Southampton

I think Southampton Uni should get extra points for the amount of swans
(Credit: Pebble Barling)

=18. University of Surrey

=18. University of Bristol

=16. Queen Mary, University of London

=16. Durham University

15. University of Birmingham

14. Loughborough University

13. King’s College London

12. St George’s, University of London

=10. University of Sheffield

=10. University of Dundee

9. University of Bath

8. University of Strathclyde

7. University of St Andrews

6. University of Warwick

5. University College London (UCL)

4. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

3. University of Cambridge

2. University of Oxford

1. Imperial College London

Related articles recommended by this author:

• Revealed: These are officially the Russell Group unis with the highest crime rates
• Every Russell Group uni as a meal deal: A very scientific analysis based on vibes
• Bottoms up! These are the Russell Group unis with the most pubs in 2024

Feature image credit: Chessie Gunner