Revealed: These are the most oversubscribed Russell Group unis in 2025
Good luck with getting into a London uni (you’ll need it)
Your odds of getting into different Russell Group unis vary wildly. One Russell Group uni gets over three times as many applicants per place than other unis. And it’s not even Oxbridge. Here are the most oversubscribed Russell Group unis in 2025.
UCAS has dropped a load of data from the 2024 applications cycle, including the number of people who applied to each uni, and the number of those people who started at each uni as silly fresh in autumn 2024. So, we did a whole load of painful maths to figure out exactly how many applicants each Russell Group uni got per place.
Keep in mind that the number of applicants per place is a different ballgame to the offer rates – unis do know that most sixth formers apply for five different unis, so always dish out far more offers than they actually have places.
The least oversubscribed Russell Group uni is Queen’s University Belfast. This uni only received 3.1 applicants per place – I guess UK students probably don’t apply there unless they’re committed to living in Northern Ireland. By far the most oversubscribed Russell Group uni is the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). A whopping 11.3 people apply for each spot there. In 2024, 11,184 sixth-formers fought over just 990 spots. The University of Manchester wasn’t far behind. Once again, the Russell Group uni where students take the most weed is also one of the most popular. Who’d have guessed?
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Fyi, the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford always get fewer applications than other Russell Group unis, because applying to Oxbridge is a nasty painful process and lots of schools won’t help students with Oxbridge applications unless they think the pupil has a genuine shot. And nobody really sends off an application to Oxford as an emergency back-up option.
Without further rambling, here are all the Russell Group unis ranked by exactly how many people applied for each place for the 2024/2025 academic year (aka how oversubscribed they are).
24. Queen’s University Belfast – 3.1 applicants per place
13,265 applicants for 4,300 places
23. University of Glasgow – 4.4 applicants per place
23,125 applicants for 5,215 places
22. Newcastle University – 4.6 applicants per place
27,780 applicants for 6,045 places
21. University of Nottingham – 4.9 applicants per place
40,215 applicants for 8,055 places
20. University of Liverpool – 5.0 applicants per place
33,930 applicants for 6,730 places
Liverpool might also have the most bars per student, tbh
19. Durham University – 5.1 applicants per place
22,920 applicants for 4,435 places
=17. Cardiff University – 5.2 applicants per place
35,325 applicants for 6,800 places
=17. University of Cambridge – 5.2 applicants per place
14,320 applicants for 2,730 places
=15. University of Exeter – 5.4 applicants per place
33,625 applicants for 6,175 places
=15. University of York – 5.4 applicants per place
26,800 applicants for 4,885 places
14. University of Oxford – 5.6 applicants per place
14,755 applicants for 2,610 places
13. University of Warwick – 6.0 applicants per place
27,035 applicants for 4,475 places
12. University of Southampton – 6.2 applicants per place
28,635 applicants for 4,580 places
11. King’s College London – 6.5 applicants per place
33,045 applicants for 5,100 places
KCL also has one cat per 33,000 students
(Credit: Olivia Jones)
10. University of Birmingham – 6.6 applicants per place
40,195 applicants for 6,120 places
9. University of Sheffield – 6.7 applicants per place
31,480 applicants for 4,740 places
8. University of Bristol – 6.9 applicants per place
41,815 applicants for 6,010 places
7. University of Leeds – 7.0 applicants per place
46,820 applicants for 6,715 places
6. Queen Mary University of London – 7.2 applicants per place
27,990 applicants for 3,895 places
5. University of Edinburgh – 7.3 applicants per place
35,705 applicants for 4,840 places
4. Imperial College London – 7.4 applicants per place
12,835 applicants for 1,735 places
3. University College London (UCL) – 7.4 applicants per place
33,315 applicants for 4,490 places
2. University of Manchester – 8.2 applicants per place
52,695 applicants for 6,330 places
1. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – 11.3 applicants per place
11,184 applicants for 990 places
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