The Hardman Rankings

← World University Rankings 2026

University of Aberdeen

United KingdomROR 016476m91
=409
World University Rankings 2026 · 90% range 238–753 of 2,287 · score 46.0
Research Index =476

How it scores

Research
79
Alumni outcomes
83
Admissions & earnings
28/91

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)
90.1% src
Offer holders who enrol
20% src
Median earnings 5 years after graduating (LEO)
£37,600 src
Internationally notable alumni (Wikidata)
9 src
Heads of state or government (Wikidata)
1 src
Founders, billionaires and $30M+ alumni
not on the published top lists; estimated
Students (undergraduate / total)
9,815 / 13,930 src

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

Research Index

A · Quality
67.9
B · Strength
48.9

Percentiles among 1,305 ranked universities. Rank on quality alone: 411. On strength alone: 667. 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
11.3% (10.4%–12.2%)
Papers in the top 1% of their field
1.1% (0.9%–1.4%)
Top-10% papers (fractional count)
316
All papers (fractional count)
2,804
International co-authored
68.0%
Open access
84.9%
Papers from 2020–23 since retracted
4 (0.46 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 sciences=296range 213–447 of 1,671
Life & earth sciences=339range 234–471 of 1,092
Mathematics & computer science=1062range 899–1198 of 1,391
Physical sciences & engineering=683range 492–923 of 1,742
Social sciences & humanities=426range 302–641 of 1,262

Position over time

top 30%2006–2009: 135 of 5712020–2023: 476 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

=476Research Index 2026
–QS 2027 (not in top 100)
–THE 2027 (not in top 100)
–ARWU 2026 (not in top 100)

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
1
Staff laureates
3

Alumni: 1 Nobel. Most recent: John James Rickard Macleod (Nobel Medicine, 1923). 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.