Revealed: These are the 50 best UK universities in the world right now

93 UK universities have been included in this year’s Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR) 2023 which lists the 2,000 best universities in the world.

While 60 per cent of UK universities have fallen in the league tables since last year, we have rounded up the top 50 British universities which are all in the top half of the table.

Maintaining their positions from last year, Oxford and Cambridge remain the fourth and fifth best universities in the world according to the CWUR.

There were equally good performances for Imperial, Bristol, Manchester, and UCL, all of whom rose in the global rankings.

The Centre for World University Rankings, which is based in the United Arab Emirates, uses millions of data-points to measure the success of over 20,000 universities around the world.

Namely, it focuses on four key areas which make up 25 per cent of each uni’s score: education, employability, faculty and research. It ranks academic success by the number of each university’s alumni who have won prestigious academic distinctions.

It measures employability based on the number of CEOs the university has produced who work for Forbes top 2,000 companies.

Faculty is measured by the number of staff who have won prestigious academic distinctions and research is measured not just by the total number of research papers published but also in which publications they appear and the number of times it has been referenced elsewhere.

All of the measurements are weighted against the size of the university to produce a global ranking of the world’s best universities.

British universities have overall not fared well in this year’s ranking. Almost 60 per cent have slipped down the table and of the Russell Group institutions, only six universities improved their ranking with 14 falling and four maintaining their position.

In fact of the 50 best UK universities in the world according the CWUR, numerous prestigious Russell Group universities appear outside the top 200 universities in the world.

Exeter is ranked 255th with York (324th), LSE (327th) and Durham (335th) all falling outside the world’s top 300 universities.

Here are the 50 best UK universities in the world right now according to the Centre for World University Rankings 2023:

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