Good University Guide 2027: St Andrews Takes No. 1 as Imperial Climbs Three Places

LONDON, Sept. 18, 2026 — The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2027 has been published, ranking 130 universities across a range of measures including student satisfaction, student experience, graduate employment prospects and continuation rates.

The University of St Andrews has taken the top spot, rising one place from last year. The university performed particularly strongly on teaching quality, student experience and entry standards.

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) fell from first place to second.

Imperial College London recorded the biggest rise among the top five, climbing three places to third and moving ahead of both the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. Imperial performed particularly strongly on research quality and graduate prospects.

The University of Cambridge retained its fourth-place position, with a particularly strong continuation rate.

The University of Oxford slipped one place to fifth, while recording strong results for the proportion of graduates achieving first-class or upper second-class degrees (Firsts/2:1s).

These five institutions make up the top five of the Good University Guide 2027.

The remaining universities in the top 10 are Durham University, the University of Warwick, the University of Bath, the University of Strathclyde and the University of Bristol.

How the Good University Guide Ranks Universities

The Times and The Sunday Times have published university guides since 1993 and 1998, respectively. Since 2013, the two publications have produced the combined Good University Guide, providing a comprehensive guide to higher education in Britain across print and digital platforms, including The Times, The Sunday Times and thetimes.com.

The rankings are based on a range of measures covering student satisfaction with teaching quality and the wider student experience, entry standards, research quality, sustainability and graduate prospects.

Since 2018, the guide has also included social inclusion rankings for universities in England and Wales, alongside a separate table for Scottish universities. These rankings assess measures designed to reflect the diversity of universities' student intakes and their subsequent outcomes.

The 2027 edition provides a snapshot of how UK universities perform across student experience, academic standards, research and graduate outcomes, while highlighting significant movement among the country's leading institutions.