Russell Group uni rich list: Exactly how much money the UK’s fanciest unis have right now

The UK’s Russell Group unis are sitting on some absolute fortunes. 13 out of 24 now have more than £1 billion of assets – making them richer than Rihanna. Here are all the Russell Group unis ranked by how rich they are right now.

At the unis split into colleges, the assets of the university are only the tip of the iceberg. Durham University‘s two fully independent colleges –  St Chad’s and St John’s – have their own assets. The wealth held by Oxbridge colleges is truly astronomical. The Oxford colleges are sitting on a whopping £6.8 billion. The Cambridge colleges have almost £10 billion between them. Trinity College at the University of Cambridge has £2.4 billion all by itself. Really. It owns loads of land, including most of the UK’s largest shipping port.

Remember, most of this money is tied up in land, buildings and investments. Tragically, your uni does not have £1 billion in cash just lying around they they could spend on pizza at the Freshers Week fair. Sorry.

These figures are the consolidated total net assets of each uni at the end of the 2023/2024 academic year, and came from each uni’s most recent financial report.

So, here are all the Russell Group unis, ranked by how rich they are:

24. University of York – £523,552,000

23. Durham University – £543,186,000

22. Newcastle University – £604,200,000

21. University of Exeter – £634,647,000

I think the parents of some Uni of Exeter students might have more money than the Uni of Exeter

20. University of Warwick –  £771,400,000

19. Queen’s University Belfast – £821,477,000

18. University of Nottingham – £835,900,000

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17. Cardiff University – £854,854,000

16. Queen Mary University of London – £856,503,000

15. University of Liverpool – £877,000,000

14. University of Southampton – £942,549,000

13. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – £1,008,846,000

12. University of Leeds – £1,263,289,000

11. University of Birmingham – £1,334,692,000

10. University of Glasgow – £1,427,100,000

The Uni of Glasgow’s campus is so slept on
(Credit: Mike Peel)

9. University of Bristol – £1,593,800,000

8. King’s College London (KCL) – £1,669,018,000

7. University of Sheffield – £1,894,400,000

6. Imperial College London – £2,053,000,000

5. University College London (UCL) – £2,219,600,000

4. University of Manchester – £2,229,707,000

3. University of Edinburgh –  £3,051,600,000

2. University of Oxford –  £6,387,500,000

1. University of Cambridge – £7,991,000,000

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