University of Southampton

Our mission: to change the world for the better

The University of Southampton is an exceptional place whose people achieve remarkable things. We are a world-leading, research-intensive university, with a strong educational offering, renowned for our innovation and enterprise. This is a great platform from which to sharpen our focus with our new strategy.

It’s a very simple strategy. It’s about our aspirations. It’s about building our reputation. It’s about being simply better than our competitors at what we do.

Our UK league table rankings

Our latest rankings in the three main UK university league tables are:

- 15th in the The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021; ranked 1st in the UK for physiotherapy, with a further 14 subjects in the top 10.

- 17th in The Complete University Guide 2021, 1st for Physiotherapy with 14 additional subject areas in the top 10

- 23rd in The Guardian University Guide 2021, with number one rankings for Civil Engineering and Electrical & Electronic Engineering and 6 of our subject areas in the top 10. Learn more at theguardian.com.

We are measured and ranked as a university on a range of criteria, including: entry standards, student satisfaction, staff to student ratio, expenditure on facilities and resources, research quality, and reputation among employers and academics from other institutions.

Our International League Table Rankings

- 90th in the QS World University Rankings

- Four subjects in the global top 50, according to QS World University Rankings by Subject 2020: Nursing (5); Statistics & Operational Research (37); Engineering - Mineral & Mining (40); Archaeology (44)

- Also in the top 100 globally, according to QS World University Rankings by Subject 2020: Civil & Structural Engineering; Earth & Marine Sciences; Electrical & Electronic Engineering; Geography;  Mechanical, Aeronautical & Manufacturing Engineering; Medicine; Physics & Astronomy; and Psychology

- 122nd in Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2020 and 15th among UK universities listed. Explore the full rankings at timeshighereducation.com

- 11th in Times Higher Education's (THE) 'Golden Age' universities 2020 - the top 200 institutions founded as universities between 1945 and 1967. Southampton is second among the UK universities featured. 

Our student satisfaction

The annual National Student Survey (NSS) gathers honest feedback from mainly final-year undergraduates about their time in UK higher education institutions.  

The new survey, published in July 2020, reveals that we have made a number of improvements across the board with the following specific highlights:

- 84.7% of our students were satisfied with the overall quality of their course 

- 84.5% of our students were satisfied with the teaching on their course 

- 85.8% of our students were satisfied with the learning resources provided by the University 

- 89.3% of our students agreed that staff were good at explaining things 

- 87.7% of our students agreed that their course was intellectually stimulating 

- 87.1% of our students were satisfied they’d been able to contact staff when needed 

- 88.5% of our students were satisfied with their access to course-specific resources 

- 87.8% of our students agreed that our library services had supported them well 

- 86.9% of our students felt they had the right opportunities to provide feedback on their course