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🎓 Top Research Universities in United Kingdom

Universities and colleges in United Kingdom ranked by the total citations their research has received (OpenAlex).

📅 2026📏 citations50 entries🇬🇧 See all of this country’s rankings →
Every dot is one entry, placed by its value (citations); the vertical bar marks each row’s median.
1
University of Oxford625,716 papers
74,391,898
2
University of Cambridge509,419 papers
61,857,290
3
University College London498,440 papers
59,018,406
4
Imperial College London401,904 papers
49,644,857
5
University of Manchester326,408 papers
31,753,979
6
University of Edinburgh298,406 papers
29,012,617
7
King's College London268,571 papers
26,544,212
8
University of Glasgow199,901 papers
25,896,604
9
University of Birmingham220,933 papers
25,548,810
10
University of Bristol217,418 papers
23,312,514
11
University of Sheffield189,620 papers
16,651,267
12
University of Liverpool188,342 papers
16,490,755
13
Queen Mary University of London144,587 papers
15,799,521
14
University of Leeds195,901 papers
14,746,583
15
University of Nottingham190,368 papers
14,614,759
16
Cardiff University134,259 papers
14,397,168
17
University of Southampton185,401 papers
14,048,798
18
Newcastle University178,399 papers
13,131,580
19
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine106,109 papers
11,604,294
20
University of Warwick136,868 papers
9,414,240
21
University of Leicester104,426 papers
9,332,402
22
University of London132,602 papers
8,754,143
23
University of Exeter114,128 papers
8,523,054
24
UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology37,394 papers
8,122,295
25
University of Aberdeen96,116 papers
7,849,464
26
University of York104,456 papers
7,819,898
27
Queen's University Belfast114,114 papers
7,733,080
28
Institute of Cancer Research29,034 papers
7,466,976
29
University of Dundee63,336 papers
7,300,537
30
Durham University109,689 papers
6,996,073
31
University of Sussex83,369 papers
6,739,119
32
Lancaster University87,868 papers
6,658,886
33
University of East Anglia72,346 papers
5,599,425
34
St George's, University of London41,703 papers
5,451,712
35
University of Reading85,914 papers
5,396,851
36
Scottish Universities Physics Alliance4,295 papers
5,229,688
37
University of St Andrews78,665 papers
4,893,944
38
University of Bath73,929 papers
4,737,997
39
University of Strathclyde86,983 papers
4,624,936
40
University of Surrey80,760 papers
4,347,795
41
University of Wales51,436 papers
3,989,523
42
Royal Holloway University of London43,071 papers
3,935,479
43
Swansea University63,306 papers
3,736,017
44
Loughborough University79,369 papers
3,433,072
45
Brunel University of London51,767 papers
3,307,503
46
London School of Economics and Political Science75,963 papers
3,123,471
47
Bangor University37,372 papers
2,524,216
48
The Open University55,126 papers
2,468,687
49
Keele University41,683 papers
2,452,324
50
Liverpool John Moores University37,788 papers
2,395,337

Highlights

Within United Kingdom, University of Oxford ranks first in 2026 with 74,391,898, followed by University of Cambridge (61,857,290) and University College London (59,018,406).

Across 50 entries, values run from 74,391,898 (University of Oxford) to 2,395,337 (Liverpool John Moores University), with a median of 7,834,681.

Source: OpenAlex, citations received by each institution's papers, 2026. Unit: citations.

Source: OpenAlex, citations received by each institution's papers · CC0 1.0 (OpenAlex) · fetched Oct 13, 2026 — Counts every citation to papers by authors affiliated with the institution, so large and old universities score high. It measures research impact, not teaching quality.