Best Non-Russell Group Universities

Although the Russell Group is commonly associated with academic excellence, and many of its members are among the strongest universities in the UK, there are plenty of outstanding universities which are not members.

In this guide, we will take a look at the best non-Russell Group universities, including several that rank in the top 10 institutions in the country according to official league tables. We’ll also break down the best universities outside the Russell Group for specific subjects like Law, Business, and Psychology.

If you’d like to find out more about the Russell Group, take a look at our guides to the Russell Group unis ranked and the easiest Russell Groups to get into.

What Is The Russell Group?

The Russell Group is an association of 24 research-intensive universities in the UK. Among its members it includes some of the most famous and prestigious institutions in the world – Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial, for instance, plus many more.

The Russell Group in popular usage is a byword for academic excellence – and it is certainly true that all its members are among the best universities in the country. However, it is important to remember that it is a self-selecting association – not an objective measure of the top universities.

That means there are many good non-Russell Group universities, including several which are often ranked in the top 10 in the UK. We’ll explore these excellent institutions in this guide.

For more information about the Russell Group, check out our guides to the best Russell Group universities and Russell Group universities’ acceptance rates.

Best non-Russell Group Universities

To work out the best non-Russell Group universities, we have used the league tables for the top universities in the UK published by the Guardian and the Complete University Guide (CUG). These publications rank universities by a wide variety of different metrics (e.g. spend per student, career outcomes, and teaching quality).

However, as the precise data each league table tracks is different and as they have different methods for collecting it, there are discrepancies – sometimes big ones – between the placings a university achieves in one ranking vs another.

With that caveat in mind, we’ve taken the rankings for the non-Russell Group universities in each guide and averaged them out to produce an overall ‘non-Russell Group rank’.

Note that the numbers in the ‘CUG’ and ‘Guardian’ columns refer to the universities’ positions in the UK as a whole (e.g. St Andrews comes fourth in the UK as a whole in the CUG ranking, with Cambridge, Oxford, and LSE – all Russell Groups – above it). This will allow you to get an idea of the quality of the university compared to other top institutions. All of the top five non-Russell Groups are in the top 20 of the UK as a whole.

We can see from this table that St Andrews is considered the top non-Russell Group university, with Bath, Loughborough, and Lancaster coming in behind. Surrey University then takes fifth place.

The top three non-Russell Groups are all ranked in the best ten universities in the UK by both publications – a clear indication that there is excellent quality to be found outside the Russell Group.

Let’s break down the best non-Russell Group universities in more detail.

St Andrews

St Andrews is the third oldest university in the UK (after Oxford and Cambridge) and one of Scotland’s four ancient universities. It was founded in 1413 and played a leading role in the Scottish Enlightenment during the 18^th century.

Today, it educates students from 145 countries worldwide. Notable recent alumni include Prince William and Princess Catherine (who met while at St Andrews), former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond, and Olympian Chris Hoy.

It is widely considered the best non-Russell Group university and one of the most selective universities in the UK. In 2023, it topped the Guardian’s league table as the best university in the country, ahead of both Oxford and Cambridge.

Bath

The University of Bath was awarded university status in 1966 and has rapidly become one of the strongest universities in the UK. It is based in the attractive spa town of Bath in South West England.

Though it is particularly known for its degrees in Business, Bath ranks highly across a range of subject areas. It has regularly ranked as one of the top 10 universities in the UK in recent years, and as such can be considered one of the top non-Russell Group universities.

Loughborough

Based in the market town of Loughborough in Leicestershire, in the midlands of England, Loughborough University was awarded university status in 1966.

Historically it has been especially known for its excellence in sports science and athletics. Its current chancellor is Lord Coe, the former British Olympic gold medallist, and in 2013, it bought the London Olympic park as a second campus.

It also has a strong tradition in Engineering, arising out of its history as Loughborough Technical Institute.

Lancaster

Lancaster is a collegiate university based on a campus outside Lancaster, in north west England. Founded in the early 1960s, it has regularly ranked in the top 10-15 UK universities in the UK over the past decade. It has a broad academic profile, with strong degrees in a range of subject areas, though Physics can be considered a particular strength.

Surrey

Like a number of the best non-Russell Group universities, the University of Surrey was awarded university status in the 1960s.

With its main campus in the town of Guildford, south of London, Surrey’s current teaching staff include ten Fellows of the Royal Society, twenty-one Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and six Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Why Are Bath University and St Andrews University Not in the Russell Group?

Many students and parents wonder why excellent universities like Bath, St Andrews, Loughborough, and Lancaster aren’t in the Russell Group.

The answer goes back to a point we made earlier in this guide – the Russell Group is not an objective standard of overall quality; instead, it is a self-selecting association of research-intensive universities.

Bath, St Andrews, and others rank high in league tables (which are designed to measure the quality of their undergraduate degrees). However, the Russell Group members have something different in common – the quality of their academic research output. The standard and quantity of research which fellows at a university are doing doesn’t always equate to the quality of the undergraduate education they offer.

Indeed, the Guardian’s league table doesn’t even factor research quality in to its university rankings. So while Bath and St Andrews might not perform so well by this metric compared to the best Russell Group universities, they still rank highly as some of the best universities for undergraduates in the UK.

Best non-Russell Group Universities by Subject

So far, we’ve been discussing the best non-Russell Group universities overall – for their performance across all degrees. However, in the UK, you apply for a specific course, and it is much more relevant to know how your chose universities rank for your subject of choice than to know how good they are on average.

For that reason, we’ll take a look at the top non-Russell Groups across a few popular subject areas.

Law

From the table above, we can see that the non-Russell Groups as a whole do not rank especially highly for Law, meaning that the strongest universities for aspiring lawyers are in the Russell Group.

That said, Aberdeen ranks in the top twenty for Law in both the CUG and Guardian tables and can be considered the best non-Russell Group university for law. Strathclyde and Lancaster are other relatively strong universities outside the Russell Group.

Top non-Russell Group Universities for Business

We mentioned earlier that Bath has an outstanding reputation for Business degrees, and this is borne out in the league tables. It comes second and third respectively in the whole of the UK in the CUG and Guardian rankings, while St Andrews tops the table for Business in the Guardian and comes sixth in the CUG. These can be seen as the best non-Russell Group universities for Business, though Loughborough, Strathclyde, and Lancaster are also strong.

Economics

St Andrews and Bath are the top performers here, though this time St Andrews is a clear first place as the top non-Russell Group university for Economics.

Lancaster comes in third place, meanwhile, as it features in the top 20 in the UK in both the CUG and Guardian rankings.

Best non-Russell Group Universities for Psychology

Once again, St Andrews and Bath are at the top of the table among the non-Russell Groups. They are the strongest universities outside the Russell Group for Psychology, with Loughborough and Surrey coming in third and fourth place.

As with Business, we can see that a number of non-Russell Group universities rank highly for Psychology – all of those four mentioned come in the top 20 in the whole of the UK in both the league tables we’ve been looking at, with St Andrews and Bath in the top five.

Conclusion

As this guide has shown, there are many outstanding universities in the UK outside of the Russell Group. While the Russell Group universities are known for their research output, this does not always translate directly into the best undergraduate experience. Many non-Russell Group institutions offer world-class teaching, excellent student satisfaction, and strong graduate outcomes.

St Andrews, Bath, Loughborough, Lancaster, and Surrey stand out as top-tier universities across a wide range of subjects, consistently performing well in national rankings. In certain areas—like Business, Psychology, and Economics—these universities not only rival, but often outperform, many Russell Group institutions.

Ultimately, when applying to university, the most important factors should be course quality, student experience, and career prospects—not whether the university belongs to a particular group. Non-Russell Group universities offer a wealth of opportunity and academic excellence, and they are well worth serious consideration by any student planning their next steps.