An exterior shot of a building on Highfield Campus

Rankings and reputation

The University of Southampton is among the top 24 UK universities committed to maintaining the highest research and teaching standards. We're also a founding member of the Russell Group - an indicator of quality university education.

  • Top 17 UK University

    The Complete University Guide 2026

  • Global top 100 university

    QS World University Rankings 2025

UK rankings

International rankings

Times Higher Education

QS World University Rankings

  • 14th in the UK According to QS World University Rankings 2026
  • Three subjects in the global top 50, according to QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025: 13th Nursing, 36th Archaeology, 40th Earth and Marine Sciences.
  • Twelve subjects in the top 100 globally: 51st-100th Geology, 51st-100th Geophysics, 51st-100th Philosophy, 51st-100th Statistics and Operational Research, 75th Physics and Astronomy, 81st Medicine, 83rd Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 93rd Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering, 97th Accounting & Finance.

Student satisfaction

The National Student Survey (NSS) gathers feedback from mainly final-year undergraduates about their time in UK universities. Highlights from our NSS 2024 results include:

  • 90% of students responded that teaching staff were good at explaining things
  • 87% of students responded that their course was intellectually stimulating
  • 87% of students were positive about learning resources provided by the University
  • 85% of students were positive about the teaching on their course

Research and innovation excellence

We are a research-intensive university, with continued substantial growth in research funding and seventh in the UK for the total value of The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grants. We are also a founding partner of SETsquared, the university business incubator ranked number one in the world by UBI Global.

According to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021:

  • 92% of our research is world leading or internationally excellent, which assessed the quality of research in UK higher education institutions
  • we are in the top 10% of UK universities and 4th in the Russell Group for impact demonstrating the real-world benefit of our research
  • over 97% of our research environment is world-leading or internationally excellent

Honours and awards

Southampton is one of the first universities in the UK to be named an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education. The Gold Award complements the University's existing status as a Centre of Excellence for Cyber Security Research, which it first obtained in 2012.