What are your top ten UK universities?

for me it would be:
1. oxford
2. cambridge
3. imperial
4. kcl
5. lse
6. ucl
7. st andrews
8. warwick
9. durham
10. glasgow

In my opinion:
1) Oxford
2) Cambridge
3) Imperial
4) LSE
5) UCL
6) St Andrews
7) Bath
8) Durham
9) Warwick
10) KCL
It heavily depends on the subject though. Warwick excels in maths, business and econ but for its other subjects, I'd say it's interchangeable with other unis such as Bath or KCL. A lot of people may argue KCL doesn't deserve the list but its law and medicine departments are top-class. League tables are subjective as a lot of factors are taken into account so, I mainly just look at graduate prospects and research quality.

So if I were to based it on a combination of national and global rankings, reputational rankings, research output, entry standards at undergraduate and postgraduate level, distinguished alumni, Nobel Laureates, and impact on UK and global history/culture/academia, my top ten UK universities would be as follows:

1) University of Cambridge.
2) University of Oxford.
3) Imperial College London.
4) London School of Economics.
5) University College London.
6) University of Edinburgh.
7) King's College London.
8) University of Manchester.
9) University of Bristol.
10) University of Glasgow.

What would be your top ten and why?

This is interesting because if we compare our lists the unis are basically the same, with some position difference, but we can't choose between Edinburgh, Bath and Glasgow

Why are you on Anon?

So if I were to based it on a combination of national and global rankings, reputational rankings, research output, entry standards at undergraduate and postgraduate level, distinguished alumni, Nobel Laureates, and impact on UK and global history/culture/academia, my top ten UK universities would be as follows:

1) University of Cambridge.
2) University of Oxford.
3) Imperial College London.
4) London School of Economics.
5) University College London.
6) University of Edinburgh.
7) King's College London.
8) University of Manchester.
9) University of Bristol.
10) University of Glasgow.

What would be your top ten and why?

This is very course dependent but I would say:

1. Oxford
2. Cambridge
3. LSE
4. Imperial
5. UCL
6. KCL
7. Edinburgh
8. Manchester
9. Bristol
10. Glasgow

There are many more that I’d add if I could (Warwick, St Andrews, Durham) but unfortunately they don’t get as much international credit. Manchester (surprisingly) does better on international metrics.

I personally think that the international metrics have some big issues. Probably everyone would argue that manchester and bristol are worst than durham, st andrews and warwick but they rank consistently higher in the international tables thanks to the city they are in. If you ask somebody they probably know about the cities of Manchester and Bristol and they also assume that the uni is better, but in reality the unis are good but not great.

Yes, I think the top 6 are the only ones you can reliably believe are in the 'elite' group. International metrics use some (imo pointless) factors.. like International Students ratio, citations, etc.

would argue that Warwick is way above KCL in terms of prestige and employability. Excluding maybe law. Durham would be higher than KCL too but the rest I agree with; though I don't think LSE and Imperial can be compared for undergrad. Probably better to compare their specific courses with the equivalents at UCL

yeah since LSE & Imperial are niche they're not easily comparable.

Yes, even by international standards, Warwick has better employer reputation than KCL (92 vs 81.1). But then Warwick falls short in factors like Faculty:student ratio, which in my opinion, shouldn't even matter.

Hence it always pays to look at the individual scores for each factor within these rankings. These rankings are often swayed by research which are mostly irrelevant for a lot of degrees. It's much better to look at employability, academic reputation, employer reputation, teaching quality, etc.

I'm an international student and i will never understand why %percentage of international students should matter in a ranking. Usally ont students prefer big cities and that is why unis in a big cities rank better

would argue that Warwick is way above KCL in terms of prestige and employability.

I think it depends on the subject. Warwick is mainly known for its maths, econ, business and social science departments, whereas KCL is known for law and medicine (and a lot of the health sciences). If you compare them excluding maths and econ etc, a lot of the subjects are of a similar standard in terms of entry requirements.

unsure why King's is known for med but ok