Durham falls three places in Times Higher Education World Rankings 2026

Durham University has fallen three places in the Times Higher Education World Rankings 2026.

Now ranked 175th globally, the university was 172nd in the previous year.

This year’s rankings have seen Durham place in the top 40 for arts and humanities, and 55th in law.

Its social sciences and education studies courses also ranked in the top 100.

Durham scored an overall 60.3 points, with notable gains in its international outlook, at 94.6, and research quality, with 81 points.

This news comes as Durham was crowned “University of the Year” in the Ultimate University Guide’s scoring. Students, academics, governments and industry experts use the assessments to find the best among 2,191 institutions from 115 countries and territories.

Key statistics included 34 per cent of Durham’s intake being international students, a student-to-staff ratio of 13.2, and a total number of 21,470 students.

The Times Higher Education rankings saw Durham University’s nearest competitors, Oxford and Cambridge, make international gains, with well-established positions as top worldwide universities. Oxford sits comfortably at number one, with 98.2 points overall, having scored 100 per cent on research.

Top IVY league colleges such as MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Princeton came second and third, scoring 97.7 points, and 97.2 respectively.

How does Durham compare to other UK unis?

• University of Oxford – 1
• University of Cambridge – 3
• Imperial College London – 8
• University College London (UCL) – 22
• University of Edinburgh – 29
• Kings College London – 38
• London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – 52
• University of Manchester – 56
• University of Bristol – 80
• University of Glasgow – 84
• University of Birmingham – 98
• University of Sheffield – 108
• University of Leeds – 118
• University of Warwick – 122

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• Queen Mary University of London – 134
• University of Liverpool – 143
• Newcastle University – 144
• University of Nottingham – 149
• University of York – 154
• St Andrews – 162
• University of Exeter – 170
• Durham University – 175
• Lancaster University – 184
• Queen’s University Belfast – 198

The Times Higher Education rankings cover the three main missions of university activity, which are research, teaching and impact.

Each university in the rankings has a detailed profile, along with a breakdown of its overall scores across the rankings and extra data on student statistics.

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