The Hardman Rankings

How it scores

Research
98
Alumni outcomes
94
Admissions & earnings
9/91

Research and Alumni outcomes are percentiles among 2,287 universities; alumni outcomes are counted per student. Admissions & earnings is the position among universities in the same country (United Kingdom).

Admissions, outcomes and alumni

Offer rate (UK 18-year-olds, UCAS)
49.9% src
Offer holders who enrol
20% src
Median earnings 5 years after graduating (LEO)
£43,400 src
Internationally notable alumni (Wikidata)
74 src
Heads of state or government (Wikidata)
12 src
Founders, billionaires and $30M+ alumni
not on the published top lists; estimated
Students (undergraduate / total)
23,200 / 40,870 src

Each figure links to its source. Admissions and earnings figures are comparable only within a country.

Research Index

A · Quality
94.4
B · Strength
94.8

Percentiles among 1,305 ranked universities. Rank on quality alone: =61. On strength alone: 69. The Research Index scores research only; admissions, earnings and alumni outcomes are scored in the overall ranking where data exists.

The numbers behind it (2020–2023)

Papers in the top 10% of their field
15.3% (14.9%–15.9%)
Papers in the top 1% of their field
1.7% (1.6%–1.9%)
Top-10% papers (fractional count)
1,841
All papers (fractional count)
11,999
International co-authored
63.2%
Open access
82.3%
Papers from 2020–23 since retracted
10 (0.29 per 1,000)

Core publications, fractional counting, field-normalised citation shares. Brackets show Leiden’s stability interval. Collaboration and open-access shares use full counting and aren’t field-normalised. Retraction counts come from the Retraction Watch database and include publishers’ mass retractions as well as honest-error retractions; a retraction is not by itself evidence of misconduct, and the count is never scored.

By field

Biomedical & health sciences14range 11–24 of 1,671
Life & earth sciences337range 203–527 of 1,092
Mathematics & computer science=104range 77–224 of 1,391
Physical sciences & engineering=213range 151–353 of 1,742
Social sciences & humanities=39range 27–88 of 1,262

Position over time

top 3%top 10%2006–2009: 57 of 5712020–2023: 38 of 1,305

The same method applied to each 4-year publication window. The number of ranked universities grows from period to period, so position is shown as a share of the field.

How other rankings place it

=38Research Index 2026
37QS 2027
40THE 2027
67ARWU 2026

Other rankings are cited for comparison. The Research Index measures research only; QS and THE also use reputation surveys and figures universities submit, and ARWU counts prize winners and total output.

Prize winners

Alumni laureates
6
Staff laureates
9

Alumni: 6 Nobel. Most recent: Michael Houghton (Nobel Medicine, 2020), Michael Levitt (Nobel Chemistry, 2013), Peter Higgs (Nobel Physics, 2013), Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace, 1984), Max Theiler (Nobel Medicine, 1951), Frederick Hopkins (Nobel Medicine, 1929). Counted from Wikidata (CC0). Alumni laureates count toward the overall ranking per student (10 of 65 global weight points); staff laureates are shown for context only.