Revealed: These are officially the whitest Russell Group unis in 2024

There is a massive difference in how diverse all the Russell Group unis are in 2024. The whitest Russell Group uni has 62.5 per cent less students from ethnic minority backgrounds than the most diverse Russell Group uni has.

The Times and the Sunday Times’s annual Good University Guide includes info on how socially inclusive different UK unis are in 2024. The Times explains where it got all this data from here.

For context, according to the 2021 UK census, 82 per cent of people in the UK are white. Of course, UK unis have international students from all over the world as well.

The most diverse of the Russell Group unis is Queen Mary University of London – and by a long way. 75.5 per cent of the students at Queen Mary are people of colour. The next four best Russell Group unis for diversity are the other unis in London – the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), King’s College London, Imperial College London and University College London (UCL).

The whitest Russell Group unis in 2024 is the University of Exeter. This isn’t massively surprising, given the uni’s reputation as being a dumping ground for middle class kids from the home counties. Only 13 per cent of the students at the University of Exeter are people of colour.

Note: The University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow and Queen’s University Belfast are Russell Group unis too, but they’re not on this list because The Times didn’t seem to have this data for them.

Here are the Russell Group unis ranked by the percentage of students from ethnic minority backgrounds. So, number one is the least diverse and number is the most diverse.

21. Queen Mary University of London – 75.5 per cent

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20. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – 63.3 per cent

19. King’s College London – 52.1 per cent

18. Imperial College London – 60.1 per cent

17. University College London (UCL) – 56.0 per cent

16. University of Warwick – 45.6 per cent

15. University of Birmingham – 43.5 per cent

14. University of Nottingham – 34.5 per cent

13. University of Southampton – 33.4 per cent

A vibey pic of the Uni of Southampton

12. University of Manchester – 32.8 per cent

11. University of Cambridge – 30.8 per cent

10. University of Oxford – 24.6 per cent

9. University of Sheffield – 23.3 per cent

8. University of Leeds – 22.5 per cent

7. University of Bristol – 20.0 per cent

6. Cardiff University – 19.0 per cent

5. University of Liverpool – 18.8 per cent

4. Newcastle University – 15.6 per cent

3. Durham University – 15.0 per cent

2. University of York – 13.1 per cent

1. University of Exeter – 13.0 per cent

Related articles recommended by this author:

• These are the best Russell Group unis in 2024, according to The Times
• Sorry to break it to you, but these 20 unis officially have the most stressed students
• All the Russell Group unis that got worse this year in The Times university rankings 2024