Inside Oxford and Cambridge’s lavish May Balls 2026 – and everything a ticket gets you
AJ Tracey headlined one of them..?
Ranked: All 24 Russell Group unis by NSS teaching score – Newcastle scores lowest
Oxford tops the Russell Group for teaching quality at 94.4 per cent – while Newcastle scores lowest at 85.6 per cent, a gap of 8.8 percentage points, according to the National Student Survey 2026
Ranked: Every Russell Group uni by NSS academic support scores – KCL last at 87.4 per cent
Oxford topped the table at 93.5 per cent for academic support, while KCL scored lowest at 87.4 per cent, a gap of 6.1 percentage points, according to the National Student Survey 2026
Ranked: All 24 Russell Group unis by NSS organisational management – Oxford scores lowest
Birmingham leads the Russell Group for organisational management at 87 per cent – while Oxford scores just 73 per cent, the lowest of any Russell Group university in the National Student Survey 2026
Ranked: Russell Group unis by employability – Oxford and Cambridge miss the top 20 again
Oxford and Cambridge top the Complete University Guide but failed to make StudentCrowd’s top 20 for employability – for the second time
Ranked: Russell Group unis by student social life – Oxford and Cambridge miss the top 20 again
Cambridge tops the Complete University Guide’s overall rankings but failed to make StudentCrowd’s top 20 for clubs and societies, with Oxford and Manchester also absent
Ranked: All 24 Russell Group unis by share of spending on staff – Cambridge spends the lowest
Cambridge and Oxford spend the smallest share of their budget on staff of any Russell Group university – while King’s College London allocates the most at 59.9 per cent
Ranked: All 59 Oxbridge undergrad colleges by private school intake – 5.4 to 50 per cent
Hughes Hall and Wolfson take nine times more private school students than Lucy Cavendish, the lowest of any Oxbridge college
Ranked: All 24 Russell Group unis by endowment income – Oxford at £154m, Cardiff at just £1.4m
Oxford receives over 100 times more in donations and endowment income than Cardiff – and endowments make up more than five per cent of Oxford’s total income, compared to just 0.2 per cent at Cardiff
Ranked: All 24 Russell Group unis by learning experience – Oxford scores four times Queen Mary
Oxford and Cambridge score 100 for learning experience in the QS World Rankings 2027 – Queen Mary scores just 24, less than a quarter