The University of Oxford has fallen out of the top three universities in the UK for the first time, according to The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide for 2026.
Both Oxford and Cambridge universities have been supplanted by Durham University, which now holds the third-place spot among the top universities in the UK.
Oxford and Cambridge are tied for fourth in the 2026 rankings, after falling due to their relatively poor performance in the latest National Student Survey.
Durham University was named The Times’s University of the Year, although the number-one ranked university in the UK remained the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) for the second year in a row.
Second place was held by the University of St Andrews, again for the second consecutive year