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.

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.