The best and worst unis in the UK, according to the Daily Mail’s new ranking

The Daily Mail has dropped its university guide for 2026. Here’s a handy rundown of the 10 best (and the 10 absolute worst) unis in the UK right now, according to the Daily Mail.

The Daily Mail bases its university rankings on 12 different factors, including how much money the uni makes from research, student experience, median grad salaries and the proportion of first generation students. It doesn’t take into account the reputation of the unis (like the QS World University Rankings does), or how many students there are per staff member (like the Complete University Guide does).

The 10 best unis in the UK

The Daily Mail doesn’t think the University of Cambridge or the University of Oxford are the best unis in the UK *gasp*. Imperial College London topped the Daily Mail’s ranking for the third year in a row. Imperial has a great reputation among academics, and the average grad salary is eye-watering.

The University of Strathclyde has risen to sixth spot. The Daily Mail also named it their University of the Year. This is pretty surprising, because no other university league table ranks Strathclyde this high. The uni plummeted to 38th place in the Complete University Guide for 2026, and it came 251st in the QS World University Rankings 2026. Strathclyde scored well for student satisfaction.

So, here are the 10 unis that topped the Daily Mail’s ranking:

1st. Imperial College London

2nd. University of Oxford

3rd. University of Cambridge

Unfortunately, how Instagrammable a uni is does not factor into the rankings

4th. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

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5th. University College London (UCL)

=6th. University of Strathclyde

=6th. University of Warwick

8th. University of Bristol

9th. University of Bath

10th. University of St Andrews

The 10 worst unis in the UK

These are the unis that absolutely flopped this year in the Daily Mail’s uni rankings. They’re in the bottom 10, of all 128 unis on the list. Two are unis that specialise in the arts. These students tend to earn lower grad salaries, which probably didn’t help how the uni scored.

Here are the 10 unis that flopped the most in the Daily Mail’s ranking:

119th. University of Roehampton

120th. Bath Spa University

I like to imagine Bath Spa Uni is filled with hot tubs and saunas
(Credit: Jonnyc429)

=121st. Buckinghamshire New University

=121st. University for the Creative Arts

123rd. University of Wales Trinity St David

=124th. London Metropolitan University

=124th. York St John University

126th. Hartpury University

127th. Royal Agricultural University

128th. Arts University Plymouth

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