The least popular Russell Group unis this year, based on how few students bothered to apply

Not all Russell Group unis are born equal. Wildly different amounts of students apply to the UK’s different  universities. Some super famous Russell Group unis are way less popular among students, and receive much fewer applicants, than you might guess.

UCAS has just released data from the 2025 application cycle, so you can see precisely how many students fancied going to each UK uni. The most popular Russell Group uni is still the University of Manchester. Funnily enough, it’s also the druggiest. A whopping 93,195 students fancied going to Manchester Uni in 2025 – that’s 6,095 more than the year before. University College London (UCL) and King’s College London (KCL) aren’t far behind. King’s was already a very popular uni to apply for. But in 2025, more students than ever aspired to go there. 6,540 more people applied than the year before.

The absolute least popular Russell Group uni is Queen’s University Belfast. Only 18,265 bothered to apply. The University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge always received far fewer applications than you might expect. This is because undergrads can’t apply to both. As the application process is extra complicated and time-consuming, lots of schools won’t support sixth-formers with Oxbridge applications unless they genuinely think that pupil has a shot.

So, here are the least popular Russell Group unis, based on how few applicants they attracted in 2025:

24. University of Manchester – 93,195 applicants

23. University College London (UCL) – 77,535 applicants

22. King’s College London (KCL) – 70,970 applicants

KCL girlies

21. University of Edinburgh – 66,340 applicants

20. University of Leeds – 64,535 applicants

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19. University of Bristol – 62,830 applicants

18. University of Birmingham – 61,160 applicants

17. University of Nottingham – 54,205 applicants

16. University of Exeter – 48,110 applicants

15. University of Liverpool – 46,895 applicants

14. University of Warwick – 45,475 applicants

13. University of Sheffield – 44,650 applicants

Sheffield students living their best lives

12. Cardiff University – 43,480 applicants

11. Queen Mary University of London – 41,780 applicants

10. University of Southampton – 41,370 applicants

9. Durham University – 36,675 applicants

8. Newcastle University – 35,605 applicants

7. University of Glasgow – 33,075 applicants

Are these all the applicants Glasgow got last year?

6. University of York – 31,615 applicants

5. Imperial College London – 30,020 applicants

4. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – 27,115 applicants

3. University of Oxford – 24,400 applicants

2. University of Cambridge – 23,100 applicants

1. Queen’s University Belfast – 18,265 applicants

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