Move over Oxford and Cambridge, there’s a new number one in town.
If you asked someone to name the best university in the UK, chances are Oxford or Cambridge would be among the first answers. For centuries, “Oxbridge” has been practically synonymous with British academic excellence.
But there’s a new name at the top of the list and, for those of us in St Andrews, it’s a rather familiar one.
The University of St Andrews has officially been named the best university in the UK in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2027, placing ahead of the London School of Economics, Imperial College London, Cambridge, and Oxford. It marks the third time in six years that St Andrews has claimed the top spot.
And yes, you read that correctly: St Andrews ranked above both Oxford and Cambridge.
So, how exactly did Scotland’s oldest university manage to do what once seemed almost impossible?
It starts with the student experience
Perhaps the biggest reason St Andrews has managed to climb above Oxbridge is also one of the simplest: students are actually happy here.
The Times and The Sunday Times ranking takes several factors into account, including student satisfaction, teaching quality, graduate prospects, research quality and entry standards. For 2027, student satisfaction and research quality were among the measures given particular weight. This is an area where St Andrews has consistently performed exceptionally well.
The university has built a reputation for being academically rigorous without losing the personal side of university life. With a relatively small student population compared with institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge, St Andrews can feel less like an enormous academic machine and more like an actual community. That matters.
University rankings aren’t only about how accomplished your lecturers are or how many Nobel laureates an institution has produced. They can also ask a much more immediate question: what is it actually like to be a student here? And, St Andrews appears to have a rather good answer.
Small really can be beautiful
St Andrews has always been somewhat of an anomaly in the UK university landscape. Founded in 1413, it is Scotland’s oldest university and the third oldest university in the English-speaking world. Yet, despite its age, St Andrews doesn’t have the sheer scale of many of the UK’s other research-intensive universities.
That smaller size can translate into a more intimate academic experience; students aren’t simply numbers on a spreadsheet, and the university’s compact campus means that your academic, social and extracurricular lives frequently overlap.
You might see your lecturer in Tesco. You might run into someone from your tutorial at the Union. You might somehow end up knowing the person who lives three streets away from you, despite having met them only once.
It is difficult to recreate that sense of community at a university the size of a small city.
And apparently, students notice.
St Andrews isn’t sacrificing academics for student satisfaction
It would be easy to assume that a university could climb a student-focused ranking by providing a lovely campus, good societies, and plenty of opportunities to complain about the weather.
But St Andrews’ number-one ranking isn’t based on student satisfaction alone. The university also performs strongly in research quality, entry standards and graduate prospects, all areas considered in The Times and The Sunday Times rankings for 2027.
In other words, St Andrews isn’t simply winning because students enjoy living in a tiny seaside town where everyone owns at least one pair of muddy walking boots. It is combining that student experience with serious academic performance. The university’s most recent Research Excellence Framework results found that more than 8% of its research was classified as world-leading or internationally excellent.
That combination, high academic standards alongside a strong undergraduate experience, is arguably one of St Andrews’ biggest strengths.
the entry standards are no joke
Another factor behind St Andrews’ position is its demanding entry requirements. The university has some of the highest entry standards in the UK, which means that the students arriving in St Andrews are already academically high-achieving. The Times and The Sunday Times specifically highlighted demanding entry requirements as one of the factors contributing to St Andrews’ success in the 2027 rankings.
But, there’s an interesting distinction here.
Getting into St Andrews isn’t necessarily the end of the academic challenge. The university’s ranking also reflects what happens after students arrive, including their academic progress and graduate outcomes.
Essentially, it isn’t enough to attract brilliant students. A university has to help them do something with that potential.
St Andrews is quietly dominating its subjects
Another reason the #1 ranking shouldn’t be dismissed as a fluke is the university’s performance across individual subjects. Five St Andrews subjects were ranked first in the UK in the 2027 guide: English, Modern Languages, History, Art History, and Physics. Furthermore, every subject at St Andrews was ranked within the top six in the UK. For a university of St Andrews’ size, that is particularly striking.
It also reflects the university’s unusual academic breadth. Whether you’re studying English, International Relations, Art History, Physics or Modern Languages, St Andrews has managed to maintain strong subject-level performance rather than relying on excellence in just one particular field.
So…what happened to Oxbridge?
None of this means Oxford and Cambridge have suddenly become bad universities.
Far from it.
Oxford and Cambridge remain two of the world’s most internationally recognised universities, with enormous research profiles, centuries of academic tradition, and highly selective admissions. Their tutorial and supervision systems, collegiate structures, and global alumni networks remain distinctive strengths.
What has changed is what we are measuring. The Times and The Sunday Times rankings aren’t asking which university has the most famous name. They are measuring a collection of indicators including teaching, student satisfaction, research, and graduate prospects. And, on those particular measures, St Andrews came out ahead in 2027.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time the university has disrupted the traditional Oxbridge hierarchy. St Andrews broke the longstanding Oxbridge dominance of the top of UK university league tables in 2019, and it reached number one in The Guardian’s rankings in 2023.
The Times and The Sunday Times ranking has now put St Andrews at the very top again.
There isn’t one definition of a “great” university
For years, the idea of university prestige in Britain has been fairly straightforward: Oxford and Cambridge at the top, followed by everyone else fighting for the remaining places. St Andrews complicates that picture.
Because, perhaps the best university isn’t necessarily the one with the oldest college, the biggest research budget, or the most famous alumni. Perhaps it’s the one where students feel supported, challenged and prepared for what comes next.
St Andrews certainly has plenty of history. It has medieval buildings, ancient traditions and an impressive list of alumni, including future kings and Nobel laureates. But its latest achievement suggests that its success isn’t simply about looking backwards. It is about what is happening in St Andrews right now. And, for a university tucked away on the coast of Fife, small enough that you can walk across town in twenty minutes, beating Oxford and Cambridge is quite the statement.
So, to the rest of the UK: perhaps it is time to learn how to spell “St Andrews.”
We have a feeling you’ll be hearing the name rather a lot.