The Alternative UK University City League Table

The Alternative UK University City League Table

The Alternative UK University City League Table

We all know that the likes of Oxford and Cambridge regularly feature at the top of university league tables when it comes to student satisfaction and academic performance, but what about the other issues which matter to the students of today?

After all, it’s important to consider more than just the academic factors before making the choice of where to study.

For example, which city is the safest? And which is the most LGBTQ friendly? Here are our five individual ranking lists with a combined ranking to bring you the alternative UK university city league table.

Firstly (for those who simply want to see the overall outcomes of our research), here's a look at how the UK's top 37 university cities rank when combining third-party research across five areas:

 

For an insight into the individual league tables across the five areas, see below where you'll also find information on where the data was sourced from.

City Crime Rate (Pts) Grad Salary (Pts) Sustainability (Pts) Price Of A Pint (Pts) LGBTQ Friendliness (Pts) TOTAL
1. Bristol 14 36 35 25 30 140
2=. Coventry 27 34 28 36 14 139
2=. Exeter 24 17 36 27 35 139
4. Oxford 32 37 24 4 32 129
5. Nottingham 13 32 34 23 26 128
6. Sheffield 21 20 19 33 32 125
7. Guildford 35 31 17 1 37 121
8. Bath 36 26 20 14 19 115
9. Reading 37 31 25 7 14 114
10. Cambridge 22 35 23 5 26 111
11=. Bradford 1 22 29 32 26 110
11=. Lancaster 33 8 4 30 35 110
13. Swansea 30 1 37 34 7 109
14. York 34 15 7 22 30 108
15. Brighton & Hove 25 14 30 8 30 107
16. Kingston Upon Hull 19 12 12 37 26 106
17. Derby 29 3 18 17 35 102
18. Leeds 12 26 8 35 19 100
19. Birmingham 23 19 16 28 11 97
20. Cardiff 16 10 27 22 20 95
21. Manchester 3 31 21 17 19 91
22. Glasgow 2 27 3 31 27 90
23. Bournemouth 28 4 26 24 4 86
24. Leicester 8 23 33 12 9 85
25. Belfast 31 17 13 17 5 83
26. Canterbury 15 5 15 10 37 82
27. Newcastle Upon Tyne 11 12 32 20 6 81
28=. London 20 33 9 4 8 74
28=. Plymouth 17 7 11 20 19 74
30. Norwich 26 24 5 14 4 73
31. Aberdeen 4 31 1 10 26 72
32=. Liverpool 7 13 6 30 15 71
32=. Winchester 10 2 31 2 26 71
34=. Edinburgh 6 22 22 6 10 66
34=. Southampton 9 18 14 11 14 66
36. Lincoln 18 7 10 20 4 59
37. Dundee 5 10 2 26 1 44

 

CRIME RATE

Using the most recent statistics from The Complete University Guide, we’ve looked at which university cities have the lowest number of burglaries, robberies and violent crimes per 1,000 of the population, over a one year period.

Ranking City Incidents Per 1,000 Residents Points
1 Reading 26.1 37
2 Bath 26.9 36
3 Guildford 28.4 35
4 York 29.3 34
5 Lancaster 32.3 33
6 Oxford 32.8 32
7 Belfast 35.0 31
8 Swansea 35.2 30
9 Derby 35.6 29
10 Bournemouth 36.7 28
11 Coventry 37.7 27
12 Norwich 38.2 26
13 Brighton & Hove 39.5 25
14 Exeter 39.9 24
15 Birmingham 40.4 23
16 Cambridge 40.8 22
17 Sheffield 41.8 21
18 London 42.4 20
19 Kingston upon Hull 42.8 19
20 Lincoln 44.1 18
21 Plymouth 44.2 17
22 Cardiff 46.3 16
23 Canterbury 48.4 15
24 Bristol 48.7 14
25 Nottingham 49.1 13
26 Leeds 52.7 12
27 Newcastle upon Tyne 52.8 11
28 Winchester 55.0 10
29 Southampton 55.2 9
30 Leicester 55.7 8
31 Liverpool 57.6 7
32 Edinburgh 58.3 6
33 Dundee 60.0 5
34 Aberdeen 60.6 4
35 Manchester 67.0 3
36 Glasgow 71.4 2
37 Bradford 73.0 1

AVERAGE GRADUATE SALARY

Using the crowdsourced salary data from Emolument, we looked at the average salary of graduates from each of the universities in our 37 cities.

Ranking City Average Graduate Salary Points
1 Oxford £57,000 37
2 Bristol £56,500 36
3 Cambridge £56,000 35
4 Coventry £48,500 34
5 London £47,522 33
6 Nottingham £46,000 32
7= Guildford £44,500 31
7= Reading £45,500 31
7= Manchester £44,500 31
7= Aberdeen £44,500 31
11 Glasgow £44,250 27
12= Bath £44,000 26
12= Leeds £44,000 26
14 Norwich £43,000 24
15 Leicester £42,500 23
16= Bradford £42,000 22
16= Edinburgh £42,000 22
18 Sheffield £41,500 20
19 Birmingham £41,250 19
20 Southampton £41,000 18
21= Exeter £40,000 17
21= Belfast £40,000 17
23 York £39,500 15
24 Brighton & Hove £39,000 14
25 Liverpool £38,666 13
26= Kingston upon Hull £38,000 12
26= Newcastle upon Tyne £38,000 12
28= Cardiff £37,000 10
28= Dundee £37,000 10
30 Lancaster £36,000 8
31= Plymouth £35,000 7
31= Lincoln £35,000 7
33 Canterbury £34,333 5
34 Bournemouth £34,000 4
35 Derby £33,000 3
36 Winchester £30,000 2
36 Swansea £28,500 1

 

Sustainability

The People & Planet University League looks at universities environmental and ethical performance, giving them a percentage score based on factors such as environmental policies, workers’ rights and sustainable food.

Ranking City Sustainability Score (%) Points
1 Swansea 65.90% 37
2 Exeter 63.45% 36
3 Bristol 58.95% 35
4 Nottingham 58.70% 34
5 Leicester 58% 33
6 Newcastle upon Tyne 56.75% 32
7 Winchester 55.90% 31
8 Brighton & Hove 55.85% 30
9 Bradford 55.10% 29
10 Coventry 54.25% 28
11 Cardiff 51.57% 27
12 Bournemouth 51.35% 26
13 Reading 50.75% 25
14 Oxford 49.25% 24
15 Cambridge 48.50% 23
16 Edinburgh 47.30% 22
17 Manchester 46.83% 21
18 Bath 46.70% 20
19 Sheffield 46.25% 19
20 Derby 46.20% 18
21 Guildford 43.80% 17
22 Birmingham 43.10% 16
23 Canterbury 43% 15
24 Southampton 41.90% 14
25 Belfast 41.40% 13
26 Kingston upon Hull 39.70% 12
27 Plymouth 39.45% 11
28 Lincoln 37.30% 10
29 London 36.65% 9
30 Leeds 36.28% 8
31 York 36.05% 7
32 Liverpool 35.23% 6
33 Norwich 34% 5
34 Lancaster 32.80% 4
35 Glasgow 32.73% 3
36 Dundee 31.05% 2
37 Aberdeen 23.40% 1

 

Price Of A Pint

Using data from pintprice.com, we’ve compiled the average price of a pint of lager in each of the 37 cities we’re looking at. (Bear in mind that the national average was £3!)

Ranking City Cheapest Pint Points
1 Kingston upon Hull £2.40 37
2 Coventry £2.50 36
3 Leeds £2.55 35
4 Swansea £2.60 34
5 Sheffield £2.70 33
6 Bradford £2.72 32
7 Glasgow £2.75 31
8= Lancaster £2.80 30
8= Liverpool £2.80 30
10 Birmingham £2.87 28
11 Exeter £2.90 27
12 Dundee £2.92 26
13 Bristol £2.95 25
14 Bournemouth £2.97 24
15 Nottingham £2.98 23
16= York £3.00 22
16= Cardiff £3.00 22
18= Newcastle upon Tyne £3.10 20
18= Plymouth £3.10 20
18= Lincoln £3.10 20
21= Derby £3.15 17
21= Manchester £3.15 17
21= Belfast £3.15 17
24= Bath £3.20 14
24= Norwich £3.20 14
26 Leicester £3.22 12
27 Southampton £3.30 11
28= Canterbury £3.40 10
28= Aberdeen £3.40 10
30 Brighton & Hove £3.45 8
31 Reading £3.47 7
32 Edinburgh £3.55 6
33 Cambridge £3.63 5
34= Oxford £4.00 4
34= London £4.00 4
36 Winchester £4.30 2
37 Guildford £4.50 1

 

LGBTQ Friendly

In recent years the LGBTQ charity Stonewall has produced a university guide highlighting the institutions which are the most LGBTQ friendly, based on a ten-point checklist covering factors such as whether they have an LGBTQ society and what other sort of support and resources are available.

Unfortunately, they haven’t published a guide for 2017 so we’ve used the most recent data available.

(Bear in mind that Stonewall scored the universities and not the cities themselves, so a low score doesn’t necessarily mean the city doesn’t have a great gay scene outside of the university.)

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Ranking City LGBT Friendliness Points
1= Guildford 9 37
1= Canterbury 9 37
3= Exeter 8 35
3= Lancaster 8 35
3= Derby 8 35
6= Oxford 7.5 32
6= Sheffield 7.5 32
8= Bristol 7 30
8= York 7 30
8= Brighton & Hove 7 30
11 Glasgow 6.33 27
12= Nottingham 6 26