The Daily Mail Clearing Guide 2026 has detailed its methodology for its comprehensive university rankings, which assess UK institutions across 12 indicators for its institutional ranking and five indicators for its subject rankings. The institutional ranking is described as the broadest-based of its kind, measuring university performance through a range of metrics.
Institutional Ranking Indicators
The institutional ranking incorporates data from several key higher education datasets. Teaching excellence is measured using final-year student responses from the National Student Survey (NSS) 2026, focusing on satisfaction with teaching and learning opportunities. This measure accounts for 10 percent of the overall institutional ranking.
Student support is also derived from the NSS, analyzing student feedback on assessment, feedback, academic support, and communication regarding mental wellbeing services. This indicator contributes 10 percent to the ranking. Student experience, based on NSS responses concerning organization, management, learning resources, and student voice, makes up 5 percent.
Other indicators include the proportion of first-generation students (those whose parents did not attend university), which contributes 10 percent. Graduate outcomes are assessed through two key metrics: high-skilled jobs and graduate salaries. High-skilled employment, defined by the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC2020) for roles like managers, professionals, and associate professionals, accounts for 15 percent of the ranking. Graduate salaries are measured by the median salary of UK-domiciled graduates 15 months after leaving university, contributing 5 percent.
The 'Career on track' metric, also from the Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS), assesses whether graduates feel their early careers align with expectations, contributing 5 percent. Research quality, based on the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021, accounts for 10 percent. Research income per capita, sourced from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa), contributes 5 percent.
Finally, the proportion of graduates achieving first-class or 2:1 degrees contributes 10 percent, while first-year completion rates—measuring student retention and transfers—also contribute 10 percent. The mean UCAS points of first-year UK-domiciled undergraduates accounts for the remaining 5 percent.
Subject Ranking Methodology
The guide's 79 subject rankings are based on a selection of five indicators, with adjusted weightings. Forty percent of the subject ranking is derived from 2026 NSS results, and 60 percent from the 2023-24 GOS results.
The five indicators used for subject rankings are teaching excellence, student support, student experience, high-skilled jobs, and career on track. Teaching excellence and student support each contribute 16 percent to the subject rankings, while student experience accounts for 8 percent. High-skilled jobs are weighted most heavily at 40 percent, and career on track at 20 percent.
Universities are included in subject rankings only if they have results in all five performance indicators and if at least 50 percent of students taking a particular subject responded to the NSS or GOS surveys at the relevant Common Aggregation Hierarchy (CAH) level. Subject areas are determined by CAH definitions, primarily at CAH level 3, with some exceptions at CAH level 2 and 1 for specific subjects.
Exclusions and Additional Data
Certain universities, including Falmouth University, Leeds Arts University, Leeds Trinity University, Ravensbourne University London, and University College Birmingham, are not included in the rankings because they withheld data or declined to complete the required survey. Single-subject universities are also excluded to ensure a fair comparison with multi-faculty institutions.
Additional data, not part of the main rankings, is provided in university profiles. This includes the number of undergraduate and postgraduate students, student domicile, secondary education background of new undergraduates, ethnic minority student figures, mature student data, application and place numbers, and offer rates for 18-year-old applicants. Sport rankings, world rankings, financial support figures, and university rent data, including rent as a proportion of student loans, are also included.