Russell Group unis rich list: How much money your uni really has

There’s literally a fresh news story every day about unis being in financial trouble and laying off lectures. So, here’s a rundown of how much money all the Russell Group unis have squirreled away under the floorboards. Spoiler: They’re all pretty rich.

The University of Cambridge officially has more money than any of the other Russell Group unis. Cambridge is beating Oxford at money-making, even if it’s not winning in the university league tables. This is partially because Trinity College at the Uni of Cambridge is so ridiculously rich – with total net assets of £2.2 billion, it has more cash than most of the Russell Group unis on this list.

Remember – just because your uni has an eye-watering number written next to it, this doesn’t necessarily mean that your uni has that amount of money sitting in a bank account ready to spend on parties for students. Loads of Russell Group unis’ wealth is tied up in land and investments, and isn’t easily accessible. This explains why the University of Sheffield is near the top of this list, but is having financial troubles right now.

This data comes from the most recent financial report I could find on each university’s website.

So, here are all the Russell Group unis ranked by their total net assets.

24. University of York – £398,087,000

23. Durham University – £446,803,749

£409,899,000 is the total net assets of Durham University. The two fully independent colleges, St Chad’s and St John’s, have total net assets of £36,904,749.

22. University of Exeter – £450,069,000

I think the average Exetaaaaaah student might have more money than Exeter Uni has

21. Newcastle University – £455,200,000

Most Read

There’s a really good reason why Dorothy’s iconic ruby slippers aren’t red in Wicked

This Wicked press tour clip is getting utterly dragged and has become a massive meme

The journalist behind the Wicked ‘holding space’ meme has finally explained what she meant

20. University of Warwick – £481,600,000

19. University of Nottingham – £625,900,000

18. Queen’s University Belfast – £695,840,000

17. Cardiff University – £679,027,000

16. University of Southampton – £697,395,000

15. University of Liverpool – £679,800,000

14. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – £793,222,000

13. Queen Mary University of London – £856,503,000

12. University of Leeds – £897,651,000

11. University of Glasgow – £1,092,700,000

10. University of Birmingham – £1,128,409,000

I can only assume these Brum students are smiling because they’ve seen the size of their university’s endowment
(Credit: Jennifer Langman)

9. University of Bristol – £1,268,900,000

8. King’s College London – £1,322,824,000

7. University College London (UCL) – £1,622,100,000

6. University of Sheffield – £1,628,100,000

5. Imperial College London – £1,766,000,000

4. University of Manchester – £1,886,278,000

3. University of Edinburgh – £2,658,800,000

2. University of Oxford – £13,513,300,000

£5,385,000,000 is the total net assets of the uni. £8,128,300,000 comes from all the colleges.

1. University of Cambridge – £16,368,600,000

£6,468,200,000 is just the University of Cambridge’s total net assets. £7,167,700,000 is the uni’s total net assets if you include Cambridge’s businesses like Cambridge University Press. Then all the colleges put together have another £9,200,900,000.

Featured image by Theoden SA via Creative Commons. Image was cropped and edited.