Complete University Guide 2025: Loughborough moves up to sixth place in the UK and remains top university in the Midlands

University
A Welcome To Loughborough University sign flanked by trees in the sunshine. The Hazlerigg building stands in the background.

Loughborough has moved up to sixth place in the Complete University Guide 2025 – out of 130 institutions – securing a top ten spot in the national league table for the ninth year running.

It also remains the highest ranked university in the Midlands, underlining its position as one of the best universities in the country. 

Published today (Tuesday 14 May), the league table is based on ten measures: Entry Standards, Student Satisfaction, Research Quality, Research Intensity, Graduate Prospects – outcomes, Graduate Prospects – on track, Student-Staff Ratio, Spending on Academic Services, Spending on Student Facilities, and Continuation.  

Speaking about the 2025 guide Professor Nick Jennings, the University’s President and Vice-Chancellor, said: “Loughborough has always been justifiably proud of the unique environment we have created for our staff and students, a place where they can truly thrive. Our continuing success in the Complete University Guide shows that we are getting things right and that we remain one of the very best universities in the UK.” 

The top ten universities in the UK Complete University Guide 2025 are:  

  1. Cambridge  
  2. Oxford  
  3. London School of Economics  
  4. St Andrews  
  5. Imperial College London  
  6. Loughborough   
  7. Durham
  8. Bath 
  9. University College London  
  10. Warwick 

The full league table can be viewed at TheCompleteUniversityGuide.co.uk.  

Notes for editors

Press release reference number: PR 24/57

More Than Our Rank

Whilst Loughborough is proud of its ranking success, it is also signatory to the More Than Our Rank initiative which recognises a much broader range of our institutional ambitions, activities and achievements that are not captured by any university ranking.

Find out more here: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/about/more-than-rank/

About Loughborough University

Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines.

It has been awarded five stars in the independent QS Stars university rating scheme, named the best university in the world for sports-related subjects in the 2024 QS World University Rankings – the eighth year running – and University of the Year for Sport by The Times and Sunday Times University Guide 2022.

Loughborough is ranked 7th in The UK Complete University Guide 2023, 10th in the Guardian University League Table 2024 and 10th in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024.

Loughborough is consistently ranked in the top twenty of UK universities in the Times Higher Education’s ‘table of tables’, and in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 over 90% of its research was rated as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally-excellent’. In recognition of its contribution to the sector, Loughborough has been awarded seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes.

The Loughborough University London campus is based on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and offers postgraduate and executive-level education, as well as research and enterprise opportunities. It is home to influential thought leaders, pioneering researchers and creative innovators who provide students with the highest quality of teaching and the very latest in modern thinking.