The Times names Welsh University of the Year 2027

Stephen Price

The number one university in Wales according to The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2027 has been revealed – with no Welsh institutions now standing in the UK-wide top 30, and one suffering a historical fall of 21 places.

Cardiff University has been named Welsh University of the Year 2027, dropping four places in the national rankings and losing its place in the UK’s top 30 – reassuming its position from 2025, where the institution also stood at number 32.

The fall from the top 30 comes as Russell Group university continues to make headline news for a series of misfortunes – most notably its high profile spending of more than £1m in the last year on a controversial consulting firm as part of its ongoing cuts programme.

The Nous Group consultancy has been dubbed “Nousferatu” by critics in higher education internationally for the allegedly vampiric way that it is “extracting the lifeblood from universities”.

Cuts at Cardiff University began to make international headlines in 2025 when it announced that hundreds of jobs, and numerous courses, would be axed in a bid to save money. Staff represented by the University and College Union, and students affected by the cuts, managed to force concessions in a high-profile campaign that drew community and political support.

However, the university’s senior managers are continuing to implement a number of concurrent restructuring exercises relating to academic professional services staff.

An academic source at the university said: “It’s appalling that so much is being spent on expensive consultants when staff are losing their jobs and everyone who’s left over is stressed as hell, trying to keep the show on the road on a shoestring.

“What exactly are we paying the university’s senior managers their astronomical salaries for, if they are shelling out a million pounds to a bunch of suits to do everything for them?”

Elsewhere in Wales, Swansea was named the 38th best university in the UK – dropping one place, while Aberystwyth suffered a spectacular fall from grace, exiting the top 50, and coming in at number 63 – a catastrophic fall of 21 places from last year’s 42.

Bangor: 53 – a rise of six places

University of South Wales: 75 – a rise of 7 places

Cardiff Metropolitan: 78 – a fall of 7 places

Trinity Saint David: 97 – a rise of 2 places

Wrexham: 114 – a rise of 8 places

Definitive rankings

The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2027 provides the definitive rankings for UK universities and the most comprehensive overview of higher education in Britain, making use of the latest data.

It provides prospective students and their families with essential information for making informed higher education choices, evaluating aspects from teaching quality and student experience to degree completion rates and graduate employment prospects.

The top five reflect the elite of the UK’s higher education systems, with St Andrews coming in at number one, followed by London School of Economics and Political Science, Imperial College London and the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.

With evidence showing the competition is catching up with the historic heavyweights which have educated the elite for nine centuries, and Cambridge and Oxford only just holding on to their top five status, it led to the Times asking if Oxbridge losing its prestige.

Last year, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge were joint fourth – the first time neither have held a place in the top three in the 33 years the Times guide has been running.

Zoe Thomas, writing for the Times, shared: “St Andrews was the first university to break the No 1 duopoly held by the country’s most famous universities in 2021.”

Reflecting the state of affairs with Cardiff, she added: “The academic rankings celebrate the strength of UK universities at a time when they are under financial strain and their students are faced with uncertain graduate careers.

“Cost-cutting measures at universities from the upper to lower ends of our league table have brought widespread staff redundancies, strikes on campus and marking boycotts.”

In a further blow for Cardiff, the Times and Sunday Times also crown a university of the year – in Wales, Bangor was named Welsh university of the year with Cardiff coming in second.

Full results will be published in a 96-page supplement with The Sunday Times on September 20. The rankings can be found at thetimes.com/uk-university-rankings.

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