It’s official: the best university in the world is in Britain

Prospective uni students, it’s the league table you’ve all been waiting for – the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking for 2026 is officially out in the world. 

There are dozens of university rankings out there (the Daily Mail, the Guardian and the Sunday Times have all recently released theirs) but THE’s league table is among the most trusted of the lot. Every year, it looks at the quality of teaching and research at more than 2,000 institutions across 115 countries and territories, then scores and ranks them all. And once again, a British university has been crowned the best one the planet. 

The University of Oxford topped the THE chart for an impressive 10th year in a row. It received an overall score of 98.2, which although is the highest in the ranking, is ever so slightly lower than its score last year of 98.5. It did particularly well thanks to its ‘research environment’ (ie. its research volume income and reputation) which earned a perfect score of 100.

The University of Cambridge was the next highest ranked UK uni. It was bumped up two places from last year to come joint third with the US’s Princeton University. Imperial College London was the only other British institution in the top 10, landing in eighth place.  

Overall, 26 universities from the UK were named among THE’s top 200 in the world – that’s one more than last year, with Queen’s University Belfast rising up the ranks to come in at 198. 

All the UK universities in the Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2025 top 200

Here’s every British uni in this year’s THE list, with its place in the overall ranking.

1. University of Oxford
3. University of Cambridge
8. Imperial College London
22. University College London
29. University of Edinburgh
38. King’s College London
52. London School of Economics and Political Science
56. University of Manchester
80. University of Bristol
84. University of Glasgow
98. University of Birmingham
108. University of Sheffield
118. University of Leeds 
122. University of Warwick 
129. University of Southampton
134. Queen Mary University of London
143. University of Liverpool 
144. Newcastle University
145. University of Nottingham
154. University of York
162. University of St Andrews
170. University of Exeter
175. Durham University 
184. Lancaster University 
192. University of Leicester
198. Queen’s University Belfast

You can browse the full global Times Higher Education ranking for 2026 here.