Be University Wise guides › How we rank

How the Be Wise ranking works

We do not copy any commercial league table. The Be Wise ranking is built only from official data published by UK public bodies, using fixed rules set out on this page. Nobody can pay to appear in it or to move up it, and advertising never affects any ranking.

Checked against official sources on 24 September 2026.

What we measure

Student experience (30%)

What final-year students said in the National Student Survey 2026: the average positive score across its seven themes (teaching, learning opportunities, assessment and feedback, academic support, organisation and management, learning resources, and student voice).

Continuation (25%)

The share of students who are still studying, or have completed their course, a year after starting. Source: Discover Uni.

Graduate prospects (25%)

The share of graduates in professional or managerial work, or in further study, 15 months after finishing. Source: the Graduate Outcomes survey, through Discover Uni.

Earnings (20%)

Median earnings five years after graduating, compared with the UK average for the same subjects, so that a university is not ranked higher simply because it teaches subjects that tend to pay more. Source: Department for Education, LEO, tax year 2023-24.

What we show but do not score

Entry grades. We show the UCAS Tariff points of past entrants, and use them to label courses Aspirational, Realistic or Safer for your grades. We do not score them, because they measure who gets in rather than what a university does for its students.

What we leave out, and why

Research ratings (REF 2021), because research quality says little about the undergraduate experience. The Teaching Excellence Framework, because it covers England only. The National Student Survey's overall satisfaction question, because it is not asked in England.

How a score is worked out

1. For each measure, we see how far each university is above or below the average for the group being compared: all universities for the main table, or all universities teaching that subject for a subject table. Very unusual results are capped so that one figure cannot dominate.
2. We combine those four results using the weights above.
3. We convert the total to a score out of 100 and sort the table. Universities with the same score to one decimal place share a position.

In the app, each university has a "How this position is reached" panel showing every figure used, its weight and its source.

When there is not enough data

If a measure has not been published for a university, we do not guess. Its weight is shared among that university's other measures, and the panel says so. A university needs at least three of the four measures, including student experience or continuation, to be ranked. Otherwise it is listed as "Not enough data". Universities and colleges with fewer than 250 survey responses (50 in a subject table) are also listed this way, because results from small groups can swing from year to year. This says nothing about their quality.

Colleges

Colleges that teach degree courses are included and marked "College".

Things to bear in mind

• Small differences in score are not meaningful. Two universities a few points apart are, in practice, very similar on these measures.
• The data describes past students, not your future. Earnings data relates to people who graduated around 2018, and does not allow for graduates who live in London, where pay and costs are higher.
• LEO earnings data does not include Northern Ireland, so universities there are ranked on the other three measures.
• Many Scottish students start university at 17 on four-year degrees, so entry grades at Scottish universities are not directly comparable with the rest of the UK.

Set your own priorities

In the app, sliders let you change the weights. Your choices stay in your browser and are not sent to us.

Aspirational, Realistic and Safer

These labels come from fixed rules, not AI. We compare your points with the spread of UCAS Tariff points held by past entrants to the course. Below most past entrants (the lowest quarter) is Aspirational, the middle half is Realistic, and above most past entrants (the top quarter) is Safer. Courses that select on specific subjects or admissions tests, such as medicine, dentistry, veterinary science and Oxford and Cambridge, show "Check entry requirements" instead.

Updates

Rankings are updated once a year when new official data is published. Guides about visas, fees and student finance are checked every month. Changes are listed on our recent changes page. Sources and licences.

This is information, not careers or admissions advice. Be University Wise is not affiliated with UCAS or any university.

Sources

• National Student Survey 2026, Office for Students
• Discover Uni dataset, 8 September 2026 edition, HESA
• LEO graduate outcomes, tax year 2023-24, Department for Education

Data used under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (Office for Students, Department for Education, ONS) and CC BY 4.0 (HESA). All sources and licences.