The Russell Group - Best Universities in the UK

Which are the Best Universities in Great Britain?

If you want to see the list of best universities in Britain without the explanation then scroll down the page. If you want to read the explanation then read on. This site was first published here - The Russell Group

If you are thinking of applying to university in the UK then you may be wondering which are the best universities and which ones will give you the best job prospects once you leave university. Well the top 20 universities in the UK have very kindly joined forces in a 'club' which they call the Russell Group of universities.

Back in the 'good old days' everyone knew that Oxford and Cambridge were the best universities in the UK and indeed the world ! If you were very bright (or daddy was very rich) then you went to one of these two universities. After Oxford and Cambridge came the 'best of the rest' - places where students often considered themselves to be 'Oxbridge rejects'- places like Edinburgh, Bristol, London, and possibly a few more.

In the latest list of Best universities in the UK there are a number of universities that are in the top 10 universities but are not in the Russell Group e.g. Durham and Lancaster and St. Andrews - you can see current ratings for best univerities in Britian here - Best Universities in the UK

 After these came the old universities in major towns and cities followed by the newer universities. If you couldn't get in to one of these universities you applied to one of the many polytechnics around the country.

The End of the Polytechnics

In 1992, in a fit of egalitarianism zeal, and no doubt because someone thought there were votes to be had, the UK decided to put an end to polytechnics. They did this by changing their name and calling them universities. One of the aims was to put an end to elitism and have a more 'democratic' system. But a rose by any other name etc...

Human nature being what it is people want to get the best for themselves or their children if they possibly can, so going to the best univeristies is still important. One of the reasons being, of course, that your job prospects are greatly enhanced if you can say you went to Oxford University than if you went to Xtown Polytechnic. Every country in the world has its prestigious educational establishments for the intellectual or financially or politically well endowed elite and its ordinary establishments for everybody else. Even in places like the Soviet Union there were prestigious institutes and universities for the children of the great and the good. Absolute egalitarianism and equality of opportunity is just a dream I'm afraid.

The upshot for universities in Britain was that in 1994 a group of universities decided they need to form themselves into a select group which they named the ' Russell Group of Universities' (compared by some to the Ivy League in the USA) to distinguish themselves from the rest, or as they put it :

with the aim of :

• maximising income for member institutions;
• leading the research effort in the UK;
• creating the regulatory environment needed to achieve these objectives by reducing government interference;
• attracting the best staff and students;
• identifying ways to co-operate to make best use of the universities' collaborative advantage.

They took the name the Russell Group from the Russell hotel in which the first meeting took place in Russell Square in London.

In the National Student Survey in the UK, Russell Group Universities get average to strong ratings but there are other universities that get better ratings. There are also universities not in the Group with higher levels of employment for graduates than Russell Group Universities.

The Russell Group Universities are, however, perceived as being among the best with regard to academic achievement, so get more applications from future undergraduates.

As a reaction to the Russell Group, 19 other research universities created the '1994 Group'. One criticism of the Russell Group of universitiies is that they place higher priority on research ratings and their teaching quality has suffered.

The Twenty Russell Group Universities i.e. the Best Universities in the UK are (in alphabetical order):-

University of Birmingham
University of Bristol
University of Cambridge
Cardiff University
University of Edinburgh
University of Glasgow
Imperial College London
King's College London, University of London
University College London, University of London
University of Leeds
University of Liverpool
London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London
University of Manchester
Newcastle University
University of Nottingham
Queen's University Belfast
University of Oxford
University of Sheffield
University of Southampton
University of Warwick

The 19 Universities in the 1994 Group are : -

University of Bath
Birkbeck, University of London
Durham University
University of East Anglia
University of Essex
University of Exeter
Goldsmiths, University of London
Royal Holloway, University of London
Lancaster University
University of Leicester
Loughborough University
Queen Mary, University of London
University of Reading
University of St Andrews
School of Oriental and African Studies
University of Surrey
University of Sussex
University of York