Revealed: The Russell Group unis that are harder for girls to get offers from than boys

You’d hope that in 2026, boys and girls would have equal chances to get offers from Russell Group unis… right?

Erm, I’m afraid boys are still likelier than girls to get offers from some of the UK’s most prestigious unis. Overall in the 2025 admissions cycle, 72.7 per cent of boys’ applications and 71.6 per cent of girls’ applicants resulted in an offer. The offer rates also very wildly among the 24 super-prestigious Russell Group unis.

Remember, some of the contributing factors for how many boys or girls end up at a uni are beyond that uni’s control. For instance, lots of degree subjects are still more or less popular among different genders. Some Russell Group unis *cough* Imperial and LSE *cough* focus more on STEM. A 2020 study by UCL found teenage boys were likelier to apply for Russell Group unis than teenage girls with the same qualifications and backgrounds. By that logic, Oxbridge and the other Russell Group unis should be filtering out more dud applications from over-confident boys than from girls.

These stats all come from UCAS, and refer to students who applied to undergrad courses in the 2025 admissions cycle. Obviously, not every student is male or female. The numbers of pupils who used another term for their gender on their UCAS forms are still very small, so it didn’t seem fair to compare these offer rates.

Seven Russell Group unis are letting in more of the boys who apply than the girls:

University of Birmingham

74.2 per cent of boys who applied got offers, while 72.1 per cent of girls did.

Cardiff University

Cardiff dished out offers to 76.5 per cent of boys, but only 69.5 per cent of girls.

University of Glasgow

69.4 per cent of boys got offers, yet only 68.2 per cent of girls did.

University of Liverpool

Well, some girls do go to Liverpool Uni

Er, this uni lets in way more boys than girls. 70.6 per cent of female applicants got offers in 2025, compared to 74.4 per cent of male applicants.

University of Sheffield

It is very slightly easier for boys to get into Sheffield than girls. 75.6 of male applicants received offers, and 74.8 per cent of female applicants did.

University of Southampton

Soto handed out offers to 79.9 per cent of the boys who wanted one, but 79.2 per cent of the girls who did.

University of Warwick

For a solid decade, Warwick has let in more of the girls who applied than the boys. The difference in offer rate was quite small in 2025, though. It was 78.1 per cent for boys, and 79.0 per cent for girls.

Girls are likelier than boys to get into nine Russell Group unis:

University of Bristol

Bristol girlies by their very fancy accommodation

72.5 per cent of the girls who applied got offers, but 71.2 per cent of the boys did.

University of Cambridge

Yup, you are likelier to get into Cambridge if you are a girl. 23.3 per cent of female applicant nabbed offers in 2025, yet just 19.5 per cent of boys did.

Durham University

81.5 per cent of girls got offers, compared to 74.1 per cent of boys.

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University of Edinburgh

It was ever-so-slightly easier for girls to get into Edinburgh in the 2025 admissions cycle. 52.4 per cent of girls and 51.3 per cent of boys received offers.

University of Exeter

Exeter is a very easy Russell Group uni to get into across the board, to be honest. 87.9 per cent of girls got offers. That’s a smidge more than the offer rate of 87.3 per cent for boys.

Exetaaaaah girls are a whole other species

Imperial College London

Imperial is a very tricky uni to get into. You do have a slight leg-up if you’re a girl, though. 26.3 per cent got offers in 2025, compared to 24.5 per cent of boys.

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

LSE has the lowest offer rate of any Russell Group uni. Boys are even less likely to worm their way in than girls. The offer rate is 17.9 per cent for girls, and just 13.6 per cent for boys.

University of Manchester

63.2 per cent of girls received offers, but only 62.0 per cent of boys did.

Queen Mary University of London

Queen Mary let in 67.7 per cent of girls who applied, but only 64.8 per cent of boys.

The offer rates are the same (or within 0.5 per cent of each other) at a few Russell Group unis:

King’s College London (KCL)

King’s is the Russell Group uni with the most girls. The offer rates are actually very consistent, though. In 2024, it was 50.4 per cent for boys, and 50.4 for girls.

University of Leeds

Performative men at Leeds, performing perfomatively

The offer rate was 66.4 per cent for boys, and 66.5 per cent for girls.

Newcastle University

Kudos to Newcastle Uni, because the offer rate (77.6 per cent) was exactly the same for both boys and girls in 2025. The offer rates have been very similar for men and women over the last decade, too.

University of Nottingham

Over the last ten years, Notts handed out more offers to male applicants than female applicants. 2025 was the first year when fractionally more girls got offers. The offer rate was 74.2 per cent for male applicants, but 74.3 per cent for female applicants.

University of Oxford

16.2 per cent of female applicants and 15.8 per cent of male applicants wormed their way into Oxford.

University of York

It is mildly harder for girls to get into York than boys. 86.9 per cent of male applicants got offers, compared to 86.6 per cent of girls. This is a big improvement from 2016, when 77.9 per cent of boys were offered places, but only 69.9 per cent of girls did.

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