Rankings and reputation

UK rankings

• 17th in the Complete University Guide 2026
• 17th overall and 1st in Physiotherapy with 12 subjects in the Top 10 in the Complete University Guide 2026
• 19th in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025
• 20th overall in the Guardian University Guide 2026

International rankings

Times Higher Education

• 115th in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2025 and 14th among UK universities listed. Explore the full World University Rankings and UK Best Universities
• 11th in Times Higher Education's (THE) 'Golden Age' universities 2020 - the top 200 institutions founded as universities between 1945 and 1967. Southampton is second among the UK universities featured.

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.

• Eight of our academic colleagues received honours from HM The Queen in 2020 including:
  • Professor Stephen Holgate, knighted for services to medical research
  • Professor Lucy Yardley, awarded an OBE for services to the COVID-19 response
  • Professor Jackie Wahba, awarded an OBE for services to economic policy
  • Professor Hywel Morgan and Professor Paul Elkington, both awarded MBEs for services to Medicine particularly during COVID-19
  • Dr Nisreen Alwan, awarded an MBE for services to Medicine and Public Health during COVID-19
  • Professor Keith Godfrey, awarded an MBE for services to Medicine during COVID-19
  • Adjunct Professor Grahaeme Henderson, awarded an OBE for services to the international shipping industry.
• The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) has awarded the University of Southampton team behind PeRSo - Personal Respirator Southampton - a President’s Special Award for Pandemic Service for exceptional engineering achievements in tackling COVID-19 throughout the UK (August 2020).
• We hold two Regius Professorships, a rare honour bestowed by The Queen to recognise exceptional teaching and research:
  • Leading web scientist Professor Dame Wendy Hall, was appointed Regius Professor in Computer Science in 2017;
  • Distinguished oceanographer, Professor Harry Bryden, was appointed Regius Professor in Ocean Sciences in 2020.