17 best universities in the United Kingdom

Every year, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), puts together a comprehensive ranking of the best universities on the planet.
 A university’s ranking is based on the institution’s reputation with academics and employers, and the number of research citations the school gets per paper published in a specific discipline — in this case, law. QS then gives a score out of 100.
 UK universities have been on a downward trend. Most have dropped down the global rankings and Cambridge, the UK’s best, fell out of the top three in 2016 and hasn’t managed to reclaim its spot.

Check out Britain’s top universities below. We’ve included their global ranking in brackets.
 17: University of Leeds (101st globally) — Located in England’s biggest county, Leeds scored best for employer reputation, picking up 86.9 points.
 16: University of St. Andrews (92nd globally) — The UK’s third oldest university, after Oxford and Cambridge, scored 98 out of 100 for its international faculty.
 15: University of Birmingham (84th globally) — An employer reputation score of 88.6 wasn’t enough to stop Birmingham dropping two places globally.

 14: University of Nottingham (84th globally) — Nottingham has dropped nine places globally, but scores well for employer reputation and its international faculty.
 13: University of Sheffield (82nd globally) — Sheffield rose two places in the ranking, increasing its overall QS score to 67 points, up from 66.9 last year.
 12: Durham University (78th globally) — The north-eastern university, which counts famous actor Sir Peter Ustinov among its alumni, has an employer reputation score of 97.1.

11: University of Glasgow (65th globally) — The Scottish university scores highly for its academic reputation, getting 80.4 out of 100 points.
 10: University of Warwick (57th globally) — A near perfect employer reputation of 98.9 and a world-renowned business school puts Warwick in the top 10 British universities.
 9: University of Bristol (44th globally) — The best university in south-west England, Bristol fell out of the global top 40 two years ago and is yet to reclaim its place.
 8: London School of Economics and Political Science (35th globally) — LSE, located in central London, scored 99.7 out of 100 for employer reputation, and 81.8 overall.
 7: University of Manchester (34th globally) — Scoring 99.4 for employer reputation and 97.4 for academic reputation, the university at the heart of the Northern powerhouse ranked as the best in northern England.
 6: King’s College London (23rd globally) — Despite a top 10 spot in the UK, KCL has declined in the global rankings from 19th to 21st last year, to 23rd this year.

  5: University of Edinburgh (23rd globally) — Scotland’s best university is in its capital, with Edinburgh picking up 99.1 points for academic reputation.
 4: Imperial College London (8th in the world) — Famous for its science degrees, Imperial rose one place to rank eighth in the world this year.
 3: University College London (7th globally) — UCL has held onto its position as the seventh best university in the world, making it the best in London three years in a row.
 2: University of Oxford (6th globally) — While there are five better universities in the world, there is only one better in the UK than Oxford.

 1: University of Cambridge (5th globally) — Britain’s top university once again is Cambridge. But the institution drops one place in the world rankings to fifth.