United Kingdom has a large number of universities ranked among the best in the world. In this article we are going to give you information about the Top 10 best universities in UK
Top 10 Best Universities in United Kingdom
1- Oxford University
The University of Oxford is a chartered research university in Oxford, England. It is recorded to have been teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second oldest continuously operating university in the world.
It grew rapidly from 1167, when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. Following disputes between the students and the inhabitants of Oxford in 1209, some scholars fled northeast to Cambridge, where they established what became Cambridge University.
The two ancient English universities share many common features and are jointly known as Oxbridge. Oxford is among the most prestigious universities in the world.
The university consists of thirty-nine semi-autonomous constituent colleges, six permanent private halls and a number of academic departments organized into four divisions.
All colleges are autonomous institutions within the university, each of which controls its own members and has its own internal structure and activities. All students are members of a college.
It has no main campus, and its buildings and facilities are spread throughout the city center. Undergraduate teaching at Oxford consists of lectures, small group tutorials in the colleges and halls, seminars, laboratory work and, occasionally, other tutorials given by the faculties and departments of the central university. Postgraduate teaching is predominantly delivered centrally.
Oxford operates the oldest university museum in the world, as well as the world’s largest university press[ and the largest academic library system nationally.
In the fiscal year ended July 31, 2019, the university had total revenues of £2.45 billion, of which £624.8 million came from research grants and contracts.
Oxford has educated a wide range of notable alumni, including 28 prime ministers of the United Kingdom and many heads of state and government from around the world. As of October 2020, 72 Nobel laureates, 3 Fields Medalists and 6 Turing Award winners have studied, worked or held visiting fellowships at Oxford University, while its alumni have won 160 Olympic medals.Oxford is home to numerous scholarships, including the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the oldest international postgraduate scholarship programs.
2- Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a collegiate research university in Cambridge, United Kingdom
Founded in 1209 and endowed with a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the third oldest surviving university in the world. The university grew out of an association of scholars who left Oxford University after a dispute with the city’s inhabitants The two ancient English universities share many common features and are often referred to together as Oxbridge.
Cambridge is among the most prestigious universities in the world and currently ranks as the second best university in the world, and the best in Europe, according to the QS World University Rankings
It has won more Nobel Prizes than any other institution, with 121 Nobel Prizes. The University’s notable alumni and faculty also include 11 Fields Medalists, 7 Turing Award winners, 47 heads of state and 14 British prime ministers. As of 2016, alumni of the University had won 194 Olympic medals.
Cambridge is made up of a variety of institutions including 31 semi-autonomous constituent colleges and more than 150 academic departments, faculties and other institutions organized into six schools
All colleges are autonomous institutions within the university, each of which controls its own members and has its own internal structure and activities. All students are members of a college.
The university does not have a main campus, and its colleges and central facilities are spread throughout the city. Undergraduate teaching at Cambridge focuses on weekly supervisions in small groups in the colleges, in groups of usually 1 to 4 students
This intensive method of teaching is considered the “crown jewel” of Oxbridge undergraduate education. In addition, central university faculties and departments provide lectures, seminars, laboratory work and occasionally other supervision, while postgraduate teaching is also predominantly delivered centrally. Degrees are awarded by the university, not by the faculties.
By both endowment size and consolidated tangible assets, Cambridge is the wealthiest university in Europe
In the fiscal year ended July 31, 2019, the central university, excluding colleges, had total revenues of £2,192 million, of which £592.4 million came from research grants and contracts. At the end of the same financial year, the central university and the colleges together had a combined endowment of over £7.1 billion and overall consolidated net assets (excluding historical “intangible” assets) of over £12 billion
Cambridge University Press & Assessment combines the world’s oldest university press with one of the world’s leading examining bodies, providing assessment to more than eight million students worldwide each year and reaching some fifty million students, teachers and researchers on a monthly basis
It also manages eight cultural and scientific museums, including the Fitzwilliam Museum, as well as a botanical garden. Cambridge’s libraries, of which there are more than 100, house a total of some 16 million books, of which some nine million are housed in the Cambridge University Library, a legal deposit library
The university is home, albeit independently, to the Cambridge Union, the world’s oldest debating society. The university is closely linked to the development of the high-tech business cluster known as“Silicon Fen“, the largest technology cluster in Europe. It is the central member of Cambridge University Health Partners, an academic health sciences center based at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
3- Imperial College London
Imperial College London, legally the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine,is a public research university in London
Imperial arose from Prince Albert’s vision of creating an area of culture, which included the Royal Albert Hall, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum and several Royal Colleges.
In 1907 the Imperial College was created by royal charter, unifying the Royal College of Science, the Royal School of Mines and the City and Guilds of London Institute. In 1988 the Imperial College School of Medicine was formed by merging with St Mary’s Hospital Medical School. In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II inaugurated the Imperial College Business School.
It focuses exclusively on science, technology, medicine and business, although students can take courses in the humanities through its “Horizons” program. The main campus is in South Kensington, and there is an innovation campus in White City. Facilities also include teaching hospitals throughout London, and a research field station at Silwood Park
The college was formerly a member of the University of London, but became independent on its centenary. It is a major center for medical teaching and research and, together with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, forms an academic health sciences center. Imperial has a very international community, with over 59% of students from outside the UK and 140 countries represented on campus.
4- University College London
University College London, operating as UCL, is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. It is a member institution of the federal University of London, and is the second largest university in the United Kingdom by total enrollment and the largest by postgraduate enrollment.
Established in 1826 as the University of London by its founders, inspired by the radical ideas of Jeremy Bentham, UCL was the first university institution established in London and the first in England to be entirely secular and to admit students regardless of religion
UCL also claims to be the third oldest university in England and the first to admit women. It has grown through mergers, including the Institute of Ophthalmology (in 1995), the Institute of Neurology (in 1997), the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine (in 1998), the Eastman Dental Institute (in 1999), the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (in 1999), the School of Pharmacy (in 2012) and the Institute of Education (in 2014).
It has its main campus in the Bloomsbury area of central London, with a number of colleges and teaching hospitals elsewhere in central London and satellite campuses at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, and in Doha, Qatar. UCL is organized into 11 faculties, within which there are more than 100 departments, institutes and research centers.
It manages several museums and collections in a wide range of fields, including the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and the Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, and administers the annual Orwell Prize for political writing
In 2019/20, UCL had some 43,840 students and 16,400 staff (including some 7,100 academic staff and 840 lecturers) and had a total income of £1.54 billion, of which £468 million came from research grants and contracts.
The university generates some £10 billion annually for the UK economy, mainly through the dissemination of its research and knowledge (£4 billion) and the impact of its own spending (£3 billion).
UCL is a member of numerous academic organizations, such as the Russell Group and the League of European Research Universities, and is part of UCL Partners, the world’s largest academic health sciences center[14]. It is regarded as part of the “golden triangle” of research-intensive universities in the South East of England[15] UCL has publishing and commercial activities, such as UCL Press, UCL Business and UCL Consultants.
It has many notable alumni, including the respective“Founding Fathers” of India, Kenya and Mauritius, the founders of Ghana, modern Japan and Nigeria, the inventor of the telephone and one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA
UCL scholars discovered five of the naturally occurring noble gases, discovered hormones, invented the vacuum tube and made several foundational advances in modern statistics
As of 2020, 34 Nobel Prize winners and three Fields Medalists have been affiliated with UCL as alumni, faculty or researchers.
5- University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh (Scottish Gaelic: Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as Edin. in postnominals) is a public research university in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Granted by King James VI in 1582 and officially opened in 1583, it is one of the four oldest universities in Scotland and the sixth oldest operating university in the English-speaking world.
The university played an important role in making Edinburgh a leading intellectual center during the Scottish Enlightenment and contributed to the city’s nickname“Athens of the North“.
Edinburgh is a member of several research-intensive university associations, including the Coimbra Group, the League of European Research Universities, the Russell Group, One Europe and Universitas 21.
In the fiscal year ending July 31, 2021, it had a total income of £1,175.6 million, of which £324. 0 million came from research grants and contracts, making it the third largest endowment in the UK, behind only Cambridge and Oxford.
It has five main campuses in the city of Edinburgh, which include many buildings of historical and architectural importance, such as those in the Old Town[10].
Edinburgh receives over 60,000 undergraduate applications per year, making it the second most popular university in the UK by application volume. It is the eighth largest university in the UK by enrollment, with 35,375 students in 2019/20. [4] Edinburgh had the seventh highest average UCAS points average among UK universities for new entrants in 2019
It continues to have links with the British royal family, having had Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh as its chancellor from 1953 to 2010 and Anne, Princess Royal since March 2011.
Alumni of the university include some of the leading figures in modern history. Inventor Alexander Graham Bell, naturalist Charles Darwin, philosopher David Hume and physicist James Clerk Maxwell studied at Edinburgh, as did writers such as Sir J. M. Barrie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson
It counts several heads of state and government among its graduates, including three British prime ministers. Three justices of the UK Supreme Court were trained in Edinburgh, as were several Olympic gold medalists. As of October 2021, 19 Nobel laureates, three Turing Award winners, two Pulitzer Prize winners, and one Abel Prize and Fields Medalist have been affiliated with Edinburgh as alumni or academic staff.
6- University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, England
The main campus is located south of central Manchester on Oxford Road. The university owns and manages important cultural assets such as the Museum of Manchester, the Whitworth Art Gallery, the John Rylands Library, the Tabley House Collection and the Jodrell Bank Observatory, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It is considered a red brick university, a product of the civic university movement of the late 19th century. The current University of Manchester was formed in 2004 following the merger of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) and the Victoria University of Manchester, after a century of close collaboration between the two institutions.
The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology was founded in 1824 as the Mechanics Institute. The founders believed that all professions were based to some extent on scientific principles. Therefore, the institute taught workers branches of science applicable to their occupations. They believed that the practical application of science would encourage innovation and advancement within those trades and professions.
Victoria University of Manchester was founded in 1851, as Owens College. The scholarly research conducted by the college would be published through the Manchester University Press beginning in 1904.
It is a member of the Russell Group, the N8 Group and the World Association for University Research. The University of Manchester, including its predecessor institutions, has had 25 Nobel laureates among its past and present students and staff, the fourth highest number of any UK university
In 2020/21, the university had a consolidated income of £1.1 billion, of which £237 million came from research grants and contracts (6th highest nationally, behind Oxford, UCL, Cambridge, Imperial and Edinburgh). It has the fifth largest endowment of any UK university, after the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh and King’s College London.
7- King’s College London
King’s College London (informally King’s or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King’s was founded by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington.
In 1836, King’s became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London. It is one of the oldest university-level institutions in England
In the late 20th century, King’s grew through a series of mergers, including Queen Elizabeth College and Chelsea College of Science and Technology (in 1985), the Institute of Psychiatry (in 1997), the medical and dental schools of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals and the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery (in 1998). King’s is often ranked among the best and most prestigious universities in the world[12][13].
It has five campuses: its historic Strand campus in central London, three other Thames-side campuses (Guy’s, St Thomas’ and Waterloo) nearby and one at Denmark Hill in south London. It also has a presence in Shrivenham for its professional military education and in Newquay, Cornwall, where its information services center is located
In 2020/21, King’s had total income of £1 billion, of which £188.0 million came from research grants and contracts. It has the fourth largest endowment of all UK universities, and the largest of any university in London. It is the twelfth largest university in the United Kingdom by total enrollment. Its academic activities are organized into nine faculties, which are subdivided into numerous departments, centers and research divisions.
King’s is a member of academic organizations such as the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the European University Association and the Russell Group
It houses six Medical Research Council centers and is a founding member of the King’s Health Partners academic health sciences center , the Francis Crick Institute and MedCity. It is Europe’s largest center for undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and biomedical research, by student numbers, and includes the world’s first nursing school, the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery.
It is generally considered part of the“golden triangle” of universities located in the cities of Oxford, Cambridge and London. It has royal patronage by virtue of its foundation. The current patron is Queen Elizabeth II.
Alumni and staff at King’s include 14 Nobel laureates; contributors to the discovery of the structure of DNA, hepatitis C, the hepatitis D genome and the Higgs boson; pioneers of in vitro fertilization, stem cell/mammalian cloning and the modern hospice movement; and key researchers in advances in radar, radio, television and cell phones. Also included are heads of state, government and intergovernmental organizations; nineteen members of the current House of Commons and seventeen members of the current House of Lords; and the winners of three Oscars, three Grammys and one Emmy.
8-London School of Economics and Political Science
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public research university located in London, England, and a constituent college of the federal University of London
Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidney Webb, Beatrice Webb, Graham Wallas and George Bernard Shaw, LSE joined the University of London in 1900 and established its first degree courses under the auspices of the university in 1901[7] LSE began awarding degrees in its own name in 2008, previously awarding degrees from the University of London.
LSE is located in the London Borough of Camden and Westminster in central London, near the boundary between Covent Garden and Holborn. The area is historically known as Clare Market
It has more than 11,000 students, of whom just under seventy percent are from outside the UK, and 3,300 employees
It had an income of £391.1 million in 2020/21, of which £32.8 million came from research grants
One hundred and fifty-five nationalities are represented among LSE’s student body and the school had the second highest percentage of international students (70%) of the 800 institutions in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2015-16.
Despite its name, the school is organized into 25 academic departments and institutes that conduct teaching and research across a range of pure and applied social sciences.
LSE is a member of the Russell Group, the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the European University Association, and is often considered part of the “Golden Triangle” of top universities in the southeast of England. LSE is also part of CIVICA – The European University of Social Sciences, a network of eight European universities focused on social science research
In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, the school had the highest proportion of world-leading research among submitted research of any non-specialist UK university.
LSE alumni and faculty include 55 former or current heads of state or government and 18 Nobel laureates. As of 2017, 27% (or 13 out of 49) of all Nobel Prizes in Economics have been awarded or jointly awarded to LSE alumni, current or former staff, who consequently comprise 16% (13 out of 79) of all Nobel Laureates. LSE alumni and faculty have also won 3 Nobel Peace Prizes and 2 Nobel Prizes in Literature.
Of all European universities, LSE has educated the most billionaires (11) according to a 2014 world census of billionaires in dollars.
9- University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a red-brick Russell Group research university in Bristol, England
It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots back to a merchant school founded in 1595 and University College, Bristol, which had been in existence since 1876.
Bristol is organized into six academic faculties composed of multiple schools and departments that teach more than 200 undergraduate courses, largely in the Tyndalls Park area of the city
The university had total income of £752.0 million in 2020-21, of which £169.8 million came from research grants and contracts. [It is Bristol’s largest independent employer
Current academicians include 21 members of the Academy of Medical Sciences, 13 members of the British Academy, 13 members of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and 44 members of the Royal Society. Among alumni and faculty, the university has 9 Nobel laureates.
Bristol is a member of the Russell Group of British research-intensive universities, the European-wide Coimbra Group and the World University Network, of which the university’s former vice-chancellor, Eric Thomas, was president from 2005 to 2007
In addition, the university has an Erasmus Charter, sending more than 500 students a year to partner institutions in Europe and has an average of 6.4 (Faculty of Science) to 13.1 (Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry) applicants per undergraduate place.
10- University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located on the outskirts of Coventry, between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England
The university was founded in 1965 as part of a government initiative to expand higher education. In 1967 the Warwick Business School was established, in 1968 the Warwick Law School, in 1980 the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) and in 2000 the Warwick Medical School. Warwick incorporated the Coventry College of Education in 1979 and Horticulture Research International in 2004.
Warwick is based on a 720-acre campus on the outskirts of Coventry, with a satellite campus at Wellesbourne and a central London base at the Shard. It is organized into three faculties – Arts, Science, Engineering and Medicine, and Social Sciences – within which there are 32 departments
In 2019, Warwick had some 26,531 full-time students and 2,492 academic and research staff. It had a consolidated income of £703.7 million in 2020/21, of which £139.8 million came from research grants and contracts
Warwick Arts Centre is a multi-venue arts complex on the university’s main campus and is the largest venue of its kind in the UK, which is not in London.
Warwick has an average of 4,950 undergraduate students out of 38,071 applicants (7.7 applicants per place).
It is a member of the AACSB, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Association of MBAs, EQUIS, the European Association of Universities, the Midlands Innovation group, the Russell Group, Sutton 13 and Universities UK. It is the only European member of the Center for Urban Science and Progress, a collaboration with New York University. The university has extensive commercial activities, including the University of Warwick Science Park and the Warwick Manufacturing Group.
Warwick’s alumni and staff include winners of the Nobel Prize, Turing Award, Fields Medal, Richard W. Hamming Medal, Emmy Award, Grammy and Padma Vibhushan, and are members of the British Academy, Royal Society of Literature, Royal Academy of Engineering and Royal Society. Their alumni also include heads of state, government officials, leaders of intergovernmental organizations and the current chief economist of the Bank of England
Warwick researchers have also made important contributions such as the development of penicillin, music therapy, the Washington Consensus, second wave feminism, computer standards including ISO and ECMA, complexity theory, contract theory and International Political Economy as a field of study.
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