Three universities rank higher than Oxbridge in The Times’s league tables for 2027

The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2027 is out, but Oxbridge did not top the league tables.

The University of St Andrews has supplanted the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) as the top university in the UK. This may come as a surprise to some, as it is not part of the Russell Group. The Times and The Sunday Times ranked Imperial third, and named it University of the Year, University of the Year for Graduate Employment and Medical School of the Year.

The Times and The Sunday Times ranked the University of Cambridge fourth, and the University of Oxford fifth. In 33 years of league tables, this is only the second time that Oxford and Cambridge aren’t within the top three places.

Durham University, which came third in last year’s league table, has slipped down the rankings to sixth position. The uni’s overall score seems to have been depleted by students’ graduate prospects. According to The Times’s guide for 2026, 88.8 per cent of Durham grads progressed to further education or high-skilled jobs. The 2027 league table shows that 82.8 per cent accomplished this.

The league tables are based on several factors, including continuation rates, the proportion of students who get a first or 2:1 degree, and the average UCAS points that new students obtained.

Here are the best 20 universities in the UK for 2027, according to The Times and the Sunday Times Good University Guide:

20. University of Dundee

=18. University of York

=18. University of Southampton

17. University of Edinburgh

16. University of Exeter

15. University of Glasgow

University of Glasgow students

14. University College London (UCL)

13. Loughborough University

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12. University of Birmingham

11. University of Sheffield

10. University of Bristol

9. University of Strathclyde

8. University of Bath

7. University of Warwick

6. Durham University

Students at Durham University

5. University of Oxford

4. University of Cambridge 

3. Imperial College London

2. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

1. University of St Andrews

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