Five reasons why university league tables are important

League tables can give you a good overall picture of a university’s performance and quality. By looking at factors like entry standards, student satisfaction and graduate prospects, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different universities to help you make an informed decision about where to study

2. Our league tables can be sorted by what matters to you

Our league tables can be ranked in various ways depending on what is important to you. For example, you might want to compare a university’s research quality, their degree continuation rate, or the amount spent on student facilities. You can also use our subject-specific rankings to find the institutions that perform best in your area of interest. Similarly, you might know you’d like to study in a particular region. Our regional ranking filter will find the top universities in your preferred location

3. Subject rankings

Our subject rankings rate 74 different subject areas offered at universities across the UK. 

Choose a subject from our pop-out menu to see all the universities offering that subject. For example, you might be interested in studying art and design. You’ll then see all the universities providing that course in rank order. Compare this against other measures that are important to you, such as student satisfaction.

4. Regional rankings

Our regional tables rate universities within the 12 areas of the UK. Select the place you’d like to live in, and you’ll get a list of universities located there in overall performance order. For example, out of the 20 London universities listed in our regional table, London School of Economics and Politics tops the regional list in 2026 and is number three in the overall league table rankings.  

5. League tables can help you compare universities

Comparing universities against various factors will help you assess their strengths and weaknesses. It will also help you decide what matters most to you. Perhaps you want to live in a certain place, but the university considered best in your subject area is elsewhere in the UK. Or perhaps your first-choice uni has high entry standards but not as favourable stats around degree continuation.

Do uni league tables really matter?

Our league tables help you get an idea of strengths and weaknesses but also a university’s reputation which might be worth considering when thinking about employers.  

To help you decide which uni rankings to check out, use our uni shortlisting tool, Uniselect, which has been created using our league table data and more. Once you’ve made your shortlist and done some league table research, you’ll want to back it up by visiting a university, to check it is the right place for you.