Russell Group unis that dramatically dropped in the QS World University Rankings 2026

Overall, the UK’s Russell Group unis did pretty well in the QS World University Rankings this year. All 24 Russell Group unis are ranked within the top 200 universities in the world. But a few Russell Group unis dramatically dropped several spots in the QS World University Rankings 2026. So, here are the unis that have apparently got worse.

University of Cambridge – down one place

Last year, Cambridge ranked fifth in the world. This year, it came in a measly sixth place. Tut, tut.

University of Glasgow – down one place

The KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden overtook Glasgow, and bumped the uni down from 78th to 79th spot.

University of Oxford – down one place

Oxford peaked in 2022, when it was ranked as the second best university in the world. But it’s slipped down another place this year, and is now ranked fourth. MIT, Imperial College London, and Stanford University are the only unis to beat it.

University of Manchester – down one place

This uni slipped down one spot this year, from 34th to 25 position. Manchester didn’t score especially well for how many staff there are per student.

Durham University – down five places

At least Durham looks nice

The uni slipped from 89th to 94th place. It also got a fairly low score for the ratio of staff to students.

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – down six places

LSE came joint 50th last year, but only 56 this year. This is pretty surprising, because LSE scored way better in the Complete University Guide for 2026. It came third out of all the unis in the UK.

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LSE has criticised the methodology behind the QS World University Rankings in the past. The uni’s website legit used to say: “We remain concerned that all of the global rankings – by some way the most important for us, given our highly international orientation – suffer from inbuilt biases in favour of large multi-faculty universities with full STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) offerings, and against small, specialist, mainly non-STEM universities such as LSE.”

University of Edinburgh – down seven places

Edi came 22nd two years ago, 25th last year, then 34th this year.

University of Southampton

Soto students will just have to drown their sorrows in the pub

Soto came 80th last year, but only 87th this year. The uni didn’t score especially badly in any one area. I guess other unis just fared better.

University of Warwick – down seven places

Warwick plummeted from 67th to 74th place. Research from Warwick was cited less often in academic papers than from other similar unis.

Newcastle University – down eight places

Apparently, Newcastle is in its flop era. This is the Russell Group uni that dropped the most places in the QS World University Rankings 2026. It dramatically went from 129th place to 137th place. Newcastle didn’t score super well for employment outcomes.

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