Our international reputation

Our achievements

• Top 10 in the UK for Creative Writing and English (The Complete University Guide 2026)
• 16^th in the UK for English (The Times and Sunday Times, Good University Guide 2025)
• Top 10 most targeted UK university graduate employers (The Graduate Market Report 2024, High Fliers Research)

World rankings

• 36th in the world for English Language and Literature (QS World Rankings by Subject 2025)
• 54th in the world for Arts and Humanities (QS World Rankings by Subject 2025)

University awards

• 35th most international university in the world (Times Higher Education ranking 2020)
• We achieved a silver rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework 2023
• We were named University of the Year by The Times and The Sunday Times' Good University Guide 2017
• We're ranked as a world top 100 university (QS World University Rankings 2022)

Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021

Every six years, the UK’s four higher education funding bodies undertake an exercise to measure the quality of research undertaken by UK higher education institutions.

According to the Research Excellence Framework 2021:

• 100% of submitted impact case study work is "world-leading" or "internationally excellent", of which 88% was scored as "world-leading".
• 100% of submitted research environment activity is "world-leading" or "internationally excellent"
• 92% of submitted outputs are rated as "world-leading" or "internationally excellent".