|
A student (L) poses for photos with her relative at the graduation ceremony of University College London. Photo courtesy of the university |
According to the 2025 World University Rankings, released last month by Times Higher Education (THE), the University of Oxford holds the top spot globally for the ninth consecutive year. Following closely are the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London, ranking 5th and 9th globally, respectively.
The remaining top-ranking U.K. universities within the world’s top 100 include University College London, the University of Edinburgh, King’s College London, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Manchester, and the Universities of Bristol and Glasgow. For international students attending these universities, tuition fees in 2025 will range between £23,900 and £67,000 per year, varying by course.
Cambridge’s Medicine program has the highest fees, while courses like Language, Sociology, and History at the University of Bristol are among the least expensive.
Some universities have already announced their fees for next year.The University of Oxford will charge between £35,000 and £51,000, while fees at the University of Cambridge will range from £27,000 to £70,500, reflecting slight increases.
In addition to tuition, international students are estimated to need an additional £12,000 to £15,600 per year for living expenses, as per the study abroad website Shiksha.
| No. | Universities | Global ranking | Tuition fees 2024-2025 (£/year) |
| 1 | University of Oxford | 1 | 33,000 – 48,600 |
| 2 | University of Cambridge | 5 | 25,700 – 67,000 |
| 3 | Imperial College London | 9 | 37,650 – 53,700 |
| 4 | University College London (UCL) | 22 | 28,100 – 41,000 |
| 5 | University of Edinburgh | 29 | 26,500 – 37,500 |
| 6 | King’s College London (KCL) | 36 | 27,100 – 58,000 |
| 7 | London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) | 50 | 26,184 – 28,176 |
| 8 | University of Manchester | 53 | 26,500 – 38,000 |
| 9 | University of Bristol | 78 | 23,900 – 46,500 |
| 10 | University of Glasgow | 87 | 25,290 – 56,500 |
(£10,000 = US$13,000)
The U.K. continues to attract large numbers of international students, with over 758,000 studying there last academic year, according to the U.K. Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Students primarily come from India, China, and Nigeria, with 7,140 Vietnamese undergraduates in the U.K. in 2022.
Since mid-2023, the U.K. has tightened visa requirements to manage immigration numbers. Earlier this year, the government raised the income requirement for skilled work visa applicants to £38,700 annually, up from £26,200, with a five-year validity. Starting next year, international students must also show proof of at least £1,130 to £1,480 per month to qualify for a student visa.
THE is one of three well-known university ranking organizations, alongside QS and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). The 2025 rankings evaluated over 2,000 higher education institutions across 115 countries and territories, using 18 criteria in five categories: teaching (29.5%), research environment (29%), research quality (30%), international outlook (7.5%), and industry income and patents (4%).