The 12 best universities in the UK, according to the new QS World University Ranking by Subject 2026

The QS World University Ranking by Subject 2026 is out, so you can see exactly how the unis in the UK shape up compared to unis in more than 100 other countries.

The UK’s unis actually did quite well – 40 per cent of them moved up in the league tables. Apparently, this makes the UK the joint third-most improved country. Yay for us, I guess?

The University of Oxford is officially the best in the world for accounting and finance, anatomy and physiology, anthropology, geography, and then modern languages. The University of Cambridge topped the charts for archaeology, plus English language and literature. University College London (UCL) came first for architecture and education. Oxford and UCL were also ranked as the joint best unis in the world for pharmacy and pharmacology. Congrats to them.

Presumably these Cambridge students are happy because they’ve looked at the league tables

The QS World University Ranking by Subject consists of league tables for 55 different fields. Unis’ scores are based on lots of different factors, including its reputation among academics, its reputation among employers, and how often the research is cited. The QS Rankings are a bit different from other league tables in the UK, as they don’t take into account what students think of their uni. Each league table shows the best few hundred unis for a specific subject, out of the 1,900 or so unis that get scored. You still with me?

Loads of UK universities made it into the league tables for numerous subjects. Here’s a guide to the UK universities which featured in the most subject league tables this year. Based on the QS World University Ranking by Subject, these are the all-round best 12 UK universities in 2026. All of them are part of the Russell Group.

12. Newcastle University – 41 subjects

11. University of Oxford – 43 subjects

10. University of Bristol – 44 subjects

9. University of Sheffield – 44 subjects

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Maybe pint-drinking was one of the disciplines Sheffield ranks so highly for?

=7. University of Nottingham – 45 subjects

=7. University of Birmingham – 45 subjects

=4. University College London (UCL) – 46 subjects

=4. University of Glasgow – 46 subjects

=4. University of Manchester – 46 subjects

3. University of Cambridge – 47 subjects

2. University of Edinburgh – 48 subjects

1. University of Leeds – 49 subjects

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