The first university league table of 2026 is here – here’s where UK unis rank in Europe

Roll up, roll up. The first university league table of 2026 has arrived. The QS World University Rankings: Europe 2026 is out, so you can see precisely how good (or how rubbish) the UK unis are compared to ones on the continent.

Seven out of the top ten European universities are in the UK. Yay for them. The University of Oxford is apparently the best university in Europe in 2026. Unfortunately for Cantabs, the Uni of Cambridge rather flopped. Imperial College London, University College London (UCL) and Switzerland’s ETH Zuric all beat Cambridge. Imperial and UCL both scored better than Cambridge for sustainability and for how much the researchers’ papers were cited.

Although Durham University and the University of St Andrews really slayed in all the UK university league tables last year, QS ranks them in the very mediocre 32nd and 44th positions. This is because the UK university league tables take into account how happy students are with their experience. QS doesn’t bother with this, and puts more of an emphasis on research. Durham and St Andrews usually get lots of points for student satisfaction. That explains why they rank much, much lower among European unis than you might expect.

So, here are the 25 best UK unis in 2026 according to QS World University, and how well they rank among unis in Europe:

University of York

63rd in Europe, 25th in the UK, scored 80.9

Cardiff University

A pic of Cardiff Uni students which could absolutely be an album cover

62nd in Europe, 24th in the UK, scored 81.1

University of Bath

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58th in Europe, 23rd in the UK, scored 82.3

University of Exeter

=51st in Europe, 22nd in the UK, scored 83.6

University of Liverpool

=48th in Europe, 21st in the UK, scored 83.7

University of St Andrews

44th in Europe, 20th in the UK, scored 84.3

Queen Mary University of London

37th in Europe, 19th in the UK, scored 85.5

Newcastle University

36th in Europe, 18th in the UK, scored 86.0

University of Southampton

33rd in Europe, 17th in the UK, scored 86.8

Durham University

Maybe the Durham students can just pretend this league table doesn’t exist x

32nd in Europe, 16th in the UK, scored 86.9

University of Sheffield

28th in Europe, 15th in the UK, scored 88.5

University of Nottingham

25th in Europe, 14th in the UK, scored 90.4

University of Birmingham

21st in Europe, 13th in the UK, scored 91.7

University of Glasgow

19th in Europe, 12th in the UK, scored 91.9

University of Warwick

=17th in Europe, 11th in the UK, scored 92.1

University of Leeds

16th in Europe, 10th in the UK, scored 92.2

University of Bristol

15th in Europe, 9th in the UK, scored 92.4

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

14th in Europe, 8th in the UK, scored 93.9

University of Manchester

The Uni of Manchester main campus

9th in Europe, 7th in the UK, scored 95.6

King’s College London (KCL)

7th in Europe, 6th in the UK, scored 96.8

University of Edinburgh

6th in Europe, 5th in the UK, scored 97.1

University of Cambridge

5th in Europe, 4th in the UK, scored 97.5

University College London (UCL)

=3rd in Europe, =2nd in the UK, scored 97.8

Imperial College London

=3rd in Europe, =2nd in the UK, scored 97.8

University of Oxford

1st in Europe, 1st in the UK, scored 100

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