The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025: Durham climbs up to 5th place

Durham University comes runner-up for graduate employment and is shortlisted for university of the year

2 months ago

Ben Green | News

It’s a great time to be a Durham student: Freshers’ Week is on the horizon, Jimmy Allen’s is opening a second establishment and we’ve just gone and placed fifth in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025.

Durham University improved on its 2024 position of seventh and was named as runner-up for graduate employment and shortlisted for university of the year.

This means that Durham placed higher than fellow prestigious universities such as Imperial College London, University College London, University of Warwick and University of Bath.

Durham also scored higher than second-placed University of St. Andrews for graduate prospects, determined by the percentage of graduates in high-skilled work or postgraduate study. It is also encouraging to see that Durham scored only ever so slightly lower than Oxford and Cambridge for graduate prospects, with our score of 88.4 being only marginally eclipsed by both Oxbridge unis scores of 90.4. It clearly doesn’t matter that I bottled my interview, still not salty at all.

The data shows that 91.9 per cent of Durham students gain honours at 1:1 or 2:1, a score that places Durham up in the highest echelons and indicates that Durham University is adept at not letting students slip through the cracks. Most Russell Group unis placed in the mid to high 80’s, while Cambridge, Oxford and the elite three London universities scored slightly higher than Durham in this regard.

Meanwhile, The London School of Economics and Political Science scored exceptionally well, storming in to first position and relegating Oxbridge down to third and fourth.

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Helen Davies, editor of The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025 said: “The best universities — whether they were founded in the 15th century or 2005 — are local and global powerhouses of intellectual thought and creativity, from the arts to science, that can power economic regeneration and lead the way to a better life. But what and where to study — and how to pay for it — has never been tougher. This is where our comprehensive guide can help.

“This year we have tweaked our methodology to keep up with contemporary concerns around climate change and careers and have added in a sustainability metric, teaming up with People & Planet, and boosted the weighting of graduate prospects.

“The higher education sector is facing unprecedented challenges from debates on free speech to financial stability, but it is important to remember the force for good that going to university can be. See how the universities compare subject by subject, a guide on campus life, and what scholarships and bursaries may be on offer online.”

Durham performed strongly in the new people & planet section, with a score of 62.9 placing Durham as the sixth highest rated Russell Group uni for this criteria. London universities received strong scores in the people & planet section, with four of the five unis scoring higher than Durham being based in the capital city.

This recent ranking is encouraging for Durham University, who bounced back from a disappointing ranking of 16th from The Daily Mail with a superb ranking of sixth from The Guardian just two weeks ago. To place fifth in one of the most reputable university rankings is a positive sign for students of Durham University that there is still a lot of value in “the Durham degree” and that employers are recognising their masses of potential, while the university is also succeeding in ensuring low drop-out rates and strong teaching quality.