Edinburgh University has fifth best reputation in the UK, according to new ranking

The University of Edinburgh has been ranked fifth in the UK on The Times Higher Education’s World Reputation Ranking for 2022.

Edinburgh has dropped two places on the global ranking compared with last year, whilst climbing one place on the UK-only scale, going from sixth to fifth place.

Oxford University is deemed to have the best reputation of all British universities, followed by Cambridge, Imperial College London and UCL, making Edinburgh University’s reputation the highest-ranked in Scotland. 

No other Scottish universities made it into the global top 100, with Glasgow coming in at 10th best in the UK and between 101st and 125th globally. Scotland’s third-ranked university, St Andrews, placed 23rd in the UK and narrowly made the world’s top 200. 

Aside from Oxbridge, the global top ten is largely dominated by American universities, with Harvard deemed as having the best reputation in the world, followed by MIT and Stanford. 

The annual ranking, compiled by Times Higher Education, asks senior academics around the world to name universities they deem to be the best in terms of research and teaching in their specific field.

Results are then calculated from the thousands of responses, giving more weight to research as “there is greater confidence in respondents’ ability to make accurate judgments about research quality.”

The top 10 UK universities by reputation:

1. Oxford
2. Cambridge
3. Imperial College London
4. UCL
5. Edinburgh
6. LSE
7. King’s College London
8. Manchester
9. Bristol
10. Glasgow

The full list of rankings can be found here.

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