The Russell Group unis where students are actually the happiest with their education in 2026

The UK’s 24 Russell Group universities have a reputation for being extra academic. But the students who get into them aren’t much happier with their teaching than at other unis. The latest results from the National Student Survey show exactly which Russell Group students are the happiest (and the most fed up) with the education at their unis.

The Russell Group uni where students are the most fed up with their teaching is Newcastle University. Queen Mary University wasn’t far behind.

At the other end, Oxbridge students are the happiest with their education. The University of Oxford scored a smidge higher than Cambridge. Wow, apparently Oxbridge students actually like being interrogated by professors multiple times a week in supervisions and tutorials.

This is all based on the proportion of students who answered positively to questions about the teaching on their courses in the National Student Survey. If you’re curious, then the average score across universities and further education colleges in the UK was 86.9 per cent. That’s pretty much the same as the median score for students at Russell Group unis. So, if you don’t succeeding at nabbing an offer from a Russell Group uni, then I wouldn’t fret – you’re just as likely to hate your lecturers as a Russell Group uni than you are somewhere else x

So, here are the Russell Group unis ranked by how contented the students are with their education, from the most fed up to the happiest:

24. Newcastle University – 84.1 per cent

23. Queen Mary University – 84.6 per cent

22. University of Manchester – 85.1 per cent

21. University of Edinburgh – 85.3 per cent

Perhaps the Edinburgh students are miserable because their campus is so cold?

20. University of Leeds – 85.7 per cent

19. King’s College London (KCL) – 86.0 per cent

18. University of Glasgow – 86.1 per cent

17. Cardiff University – 86.3 per cent

=15. University of Nottingham – 86.4 per cent

=15. Queen’s University Belfast – 86.4 per cent

14. University College London (UCL) – 86.5 per cent

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13. University of Birmingham – 86.6 per cent

Brum students, smiling away

12. University of Southampton – 87.0 per cent

11. University of York – 87.1 per cent

=9.University of Exeter – 87.7 per cent

=9. University of Liverpool – 87.7 per cent

8. University of Bristol – 88.0 per cent

7. Imperial College London – 88.9 per cent

6. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)- 89.4 per cent

5. University of Warwick – 89.5 per cent

Some very happy-looking Uni of Warwick students

4. University of Sheffield – 89.6 per cent

3. Durham University – 90.7 per cent

2. University of Cambridge – 92.1 per cent

1. University of Oxford – 92.4 per cent

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