These Russell Group unis actually have the least lecturers and professors right now

Lots of students pick Russell Group unis so they can be taught by extra clever academics. But how many lecturers are really kicking about campus? Here’s a ranking of exactly how many lecturers all the Russell Group unis have right now.

You’d expect Oxbridge to have the most academic staff, since these unis are supposed to be world-renowned for research and teaching and whatnot. But this actually isn’t the case. University College London (UCL) and the University of Edinburgh have way more academic staff than the University of Oxford, and King’s College London also has more academic staff than the University of Cambridge.

A lot of these staff numbers are likely to go down soon. Loads of Russell Group unis are planning to get rid of staff in 2025 in a somewhat desperate attempt to save money.

These statistics come from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and refers to the 2023/2024 academic year (since that’s the most recent data available).

So, here are Russell Group unis ranked by how many lecturers (and other academic staff) they have, from most to least.

24. University College London (UCL) – 10,350 academic staff

23. University of Edinburgh – 8,430 academic staff

22. University of Oxford – 7,220 academic staff

21. King’s College London – 6,200 academic staff

20. University of Cambridge – 6,090 academic staff

19. University of Glasgow – 5,795 academic staff

18. University of Manchester – 5,310 academic staff

17. Imperial College London – 4,540 academic staff

16. University of Birmingham – 4,205 academic staff

15. Cardiff University – 3,975 academic staff

14. University of Leeds – 3,940 academic staff

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13. University of Exeter – 3,915 academic staff

12. University of Nottingham – 3,855 academic staff

11. University of Sheffield – 3,795 academic staff

10. University of Warwick – 3,780 academic staff

9. University of Bristol – 3,770 academic staff

8. Queen Mary University of London – 3,745 academic staff

7. University Liverpool – 3,325 academic staff

6. Newcastle University – 3,030 academic staff

5. Durham University – 2,895 academic staff

4. University of Southampton – 2,800 academic staff

3. University of York – 2,655 academic staff

2. Queen’s University Belfast – 2,120 academic staff

1. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – 1,920 academic staff

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Featured image of the University of Southampton by FlickScully via Creative Commons.