University of Liverpool sits outside top 20 in Complete University Guide rankings for 2026

It’s that time of year again. The university rankings are starting to hit timelines left right and centre, and we’re already seeing some good progress up here in the North West.

In an unexpected turn of events, the University of Liverpool is sitting back and watching rivals Liverpool John Moores University climb the Complete University Guide rankings for 2026.

The Red Brick has fallen outside of the top 20, dropping four places after a successful 19th place in 2025. It might not feel like much, but even the University of Surrey have pipped the Russell Group to the post this year.

The Complete University Guide has ranked the University of Liverpool as 23rd in the league table, in comparison with 130 other universities across the UK.

It’s still sitting above a handful of Russell Groups, like Manchester, Glasgow and Newcastle, so it’s not all bad. It comes as no surprise that the University of Cambridge, and the University of Oxford, have stolen the top two positions again.

However, rival university Liverpool John Moores seems to be quietly climbing the rankings, boasting its best position in the table since 2023 with a solid 76th place.

The brand new league table puts LJMU five places higher than last year, right above the likes of Leeds Beckett University, the University of Derby, and Sheffield Hallam. We’re just as surprised as you are.

Liverpool Hope University has also dropped a wild seven places compared to last year, meaning it’s “officially” the lowest ranked out of the top three universities in the city. Sorry everyone.

The Complete University Guide organises their league table based on 10 different categories that evaluate each university’s performance every year.

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Student satisfaction, research quality, and graduate prospects are pretty key parts of each ranking.

The University of Liverpool achieved a positive score for its graduate prospects, meaning it now sits in 27th place, up seven spots from last year. If you’re taking student satisfaction into account, Liverpool John Moores University has been bumped up into 32nd, which is 18 places higher than the year before.

For all the dentistry or veterinary medicine students out there, the University of Liverpool is now the second best university in the country for both courses, sitting just below the University of Dundee and the University of Cambridge, respectively.

Liverpool John Moores University also had two subjects in the top 10 of the Complete University Guide’s subject ranking. If you’re a property management or building student, then congratulations!

These new rankings will do us all no favours in the “my uni is better than yours debate” but if you want to brush up on your facts, you can look at the full league table right here.

It might be worth looking at how your friends’ unis fared this year, just to see if you’ve got bragging rights over them too.