What is Loughborough so high? That’s staggering to me. They are known only for sports. I guess something has changed since I last lived there (British person here)

And btw, Americans if you are considering sending your kids there it’s pronounced loth-bur-ah

Anonymous wrote:The Complete University Guide is the only one worth looking at. As a UK/US parent whose kids are just starting at a UK university this week, I can tell you absolutely no one take the guardian rankings seriously. They are only based on "student satisfaction" and only use data from a very small selection of students.

This. The high ranking for St. Andrews made the Guardian a laughingstock.

Very little difference. Top 6 are the same with minor changes. The only major difference is Complete Guide has Lancaster in top 10 vs Guardian has UCL.

For comparison’s sake this is the Complete University Guide rankings from this summer:

1. University of Cambridge
2. University of Oxford
3. LSE
4. University of St Andrews
5. Durham University
6. Imperial College London
7. Loughborough University
8. University of Bath
9. University of Warwick
10. Lancaster University
11. University of Exeter

Rank Institution Guardian score
1 University of Oxford 100
2 University of St Andrews 98.6
3 University of Cambridge 94.5
4 LSE 88.1
5 Imperial College London 82.6
6 Durham University 80.8
7 University of Bath 79.5
8 University of Warwick 75.2
9 University College London 74.8
10 Loughborough University 74

You can just click on the link…..not that difficult….it is free

Can someone post the rankings here?

Same here. I’m English, my husband is American. We just moved to the states 3 years ago. I want my kids to go to school in the UK, my husband doesn’t really care.

We look at all 3. They all have their pro’s and cons. And quite frankly, they are not the different in the rankings.

We look at all of them. We understand the limitations and strengths of each. Each is useful in its proper context. None is perfect by itself.

The Complete University Guide is the only one worth looking at. As a UK/US parent whose kids are just starting at a UK university this week, I can tell you absolutely no one take the guardian rankings seriously. They are only based on "student satisfaction" and only use data from a very small selection of students.

The UK has 3 main rankings.
1) Complete University Guide (the most unbiased and complete in my view)
2) Guardian
3) Times

The new Guardian rankings for 2026 came out today: https://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2025/sep/13/the-guardian-university-guide-2026-the-rankings

The Complete U Guide rankings came out last month or so: https://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2025/sep/13/the-guardian-university-guide-2026-the-rankings

The Times rankings will come in the next couple of weeks.