It’s official: These Russell Group unis have the most overcrowded libraries in 2025

Well gals, it’s officially exam season.  UK university students are spending half their time stressing about revision, and the other half stressing about where to do that revision. At some unis, it’s the norm for students to be queue outside to get a spot in the library. Harrowing. To prove once and for all which university has the most overcrowded libraries, we asked each university for how many study spots there really are, then worked out how many students there are for each spot in the libraries. Honestly, the results were kind of alarming. At one Russell Group uni, there are 16 students for each place in a library?!

Unsurprisingly, a lot of studying goes on at Oxbridge. The central libraries at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge have around one study space for each six students, which is pretty decent. But this is only the tip of the iceberg – Oxbridge students also have access to the various libraries at each college. So, Oxbridge students actually have even more places to study than this.

At the other end of the scale, the Russell Group unis with the most overcrowded libraries is University College London (UCL). It’s five times harder to get a spot in the libraries there than it is at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). It’s also pretty tough to find a place to study at the University of Exeter and Cardiff University, where there are about 15 times as many students as there are seats in the libraries.

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Durham University doesn’t keep track of how many study spots there are for students, which is why it hasn’t been included in this ranking. Student numbers for Cardiff University, the University of Glasgow and the University of Southampton refer to the 2023/2024 academic year. The student numbers for all the other unis are from the 2024/2025 year.

So, without further rambling, here are the Russell Group unis ranked by how horrifically overcrowded the libraries are in 2025:

23. London School of Economics and Political Science

5.0 students per library study spot

22. University of Cambridge

Surely nowhere on earth is as intimidating at the University of Cambridge’s law library?!

6.3 students per library study spot

21. University of Oxford

6.5 students per library study spot

20. University of Leeds

6.9 students per library study spot

19. University of Nottingham

7.3 students per library study spot

=17. University of Glasgow

7.7 students per library study spot

=17. Newcastle University

7.7 students per library study spot

16. Queen Mary University of London

8.6 students per library study spot

15. University of Warwick

8.8 students per library study spot

14. Queen’s University Belfast

9.0 students per library study spot

13. University of Sheffield

Clearly, overcrowding isn’t an issue at the IC

9.0 students per library study spot

12. University of Southampton

9.1 students per library study spot

=10. University of Edinburgh

9.5 students per library study spot

=10. University of Liverpool

9.6 students per library study spot

9. University of Bristol

9.7 students per library study spot

8. Imperial College London

11.2 students per library study spot

7. University of Manchester

11.3 students per library study spot

6. King’s College London

12.7 students per library study spot

5. University of Birmingham

12.9 students per library study spot

4. University of York

13.1 students per library study spot

3. Cardiff University

14.9 students per library study spot

2. University of Exeter

15.8 students per library study spot

1. University College London (UCL)

16.1 students per library study spot

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