University of Cambridge ranks second in The Guardian University Guide 2022

Cambridge moves one spot up from last year, with a score of 97.8, behind the University of Oxford with a perfect score of 100.0

University of Oxford takes the top spot in this year’s overall rankingsDaniel Gayne

by Lorna Kimmins

This article is 3 years old

Friday September 17 2021, 11:50am

The University of Cambridge has ranked second in The Guardian University Guide 2022’s overall league table, moving up one spot from last year’s rankings.

The University of Oxford has taken first place for two years consecutively, after outranking Cambridge last year.

Unlike other university league tables, The Guardian University Guide does not take factors such as academic research into account, instead focusing on “things that matter most to students, such as good teaching and job prospects”.

The table ranks UK universities on eight different factors, including student to staff ratio and student satisfaction rates, generating an overall ‘Guardian score’ out of 100.

Cambridge earned a Guardian score of 97.8, while first-place Oxford received the maximum score of 100.0.

University of Cambridge ranks fifth globally

The scores are calculated based on data collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency and the National Student Survey, with the latter being disregarded for Cambridge due to insufficient data.

Cambridge had previously held the top spot on the table for nine years, before dropping to third-place last year.

Support Varsity

Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our print newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding and we expect to have a tough few months and years ahead.

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content and of course in print too!

Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as £1, to help with our running costs. Many thanks, we hope you can help!