A majority of the UK's top universities have seen their global ranking fall for the second year in a row, as overseas enrolment declines sharply amid a tightening of immigration restrictions on international students.
The 2024 edition of the "Global 2,000" list by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), which ranked 20,966 institutions to ascertain the 2,000 best-performing universities in the world, features 92 British institutions, one fewer than last year.
Cambridge and Oxford remain the first- and second-ranked universities in the UK, respectively. Their standings in the global list have not changed since 2022: Cambridge ranks fourth; Oxford ranks fifth. Along with University College London they are the only UK universities to make the top 20, with all other spots taken up by US institutions, with the exception of the University of Tokyo in 13th and France's PSL University in 19th.
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Yet while the UK remains the university powerhouse of Europe, the overall trend continues to be downward. Only the University of Leeds has seen its position on the list rise over the past year, with seven institutions staying in the same place and the rest falling.
UK universities have been hit particularly hard by a sharp decline in international students, with analysis by the Financial Times of data from the university admissions service UCAS revealing the that a third of universities saw numbers enrolling from overseas fall last year.
UK universities rely on income from international students – who account for nearly half of all enrolments on taught courses – to subsidise domestic students on whom, according to Russell Group estimates, they make an average loss of £2,500 a year.
Tuition fees for domestic students are capped at £9,250 and have been "effectively frozen for a decade despite inflation", said the FT.
A "sudden fall in enrolments would make a wide range of courses uneconomic and cause severe financial dislocation at many institutions", said The Guardian.
The other main factor affecting university rankings is research, and once again the UK picture is "quite discouraging", said The Times.
Britain is slipping down the global research league for "the same reason our infrastructure is deteriorating", the paper said: "We're living off the past and running down our assets."
This matters because a "declining reputation for research is self-reinforcing". Fewer research grants and partnerships leads to further decline and less demand for places from foreign students, "further reducing income".
Here are the UK's top 20 universities:
1. University of Cambridge (world ranking: 4th)
2. University of Oxford (5th)
3. University College London (20th)
4. Imperial College London (29th)
5. King's College London (42nd)
6. University of Edinburgh (48th)
7. University of Manchester (51st)
8. University of Birmingham (89th)
9. University of Bristol (94th)
10. University of Leeds (106th)
11. University of Southampton (127th)
12. University of Glasgow (131st)
13. University of Liverpool (136th)
14. University of Nottingham (141st)
15. University of Sheffield (160th)
16. Queen Mary University of London (161st)
17. Cardiff University (162nd)
18. Newcastle University (167th)
19. University of Warwick (177th)
20. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (204th)
