Edinburgh University drops seven places in new global university rankings list

QS released its new world university rankings this week, and Edinburgh University placed at number 22 overall, out of 1,500 universities surveyed. This makes it fifth in the UK, with a total score of 86.1 out of 100.

It follows the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Imperial College London and UCL respectively, which all placed in the top 10 globally.

Edinburgh Uni dropped from its ranking of 15 overall in 2023, and this comes after QS included three new metrics: sustainability, employment outcomes and international research network. QS claims it is the only ranking of its kind that “emphasises employment and sustainability.”

An explanation of how the score is calculated can be found here.

Whilst Edinburgh scored 99.7 in the new sustainability category, making it the highest in the UK, its employment outcome result was a mere 48.1, which was less than half of the 100 Oxford and Cambridge each scored.

St Andrews was not one of the universities surveyed, but Glasgow University was ranked at number 76 overall, and Edinburgh Napier placed between 801-850, making Edinburgh Uni the highest ranked in Scotland by QS.

Edinburgh’s academic reputation was classed as 98.1, making it 25th globally for this category, just following Imperial College London, which achieved a 98.3.

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