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The University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham continues to rise amongst the best performing research-intensive universities in the world, according to the 2020 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.

Already ranked in the top 100 global universities in the 2020 QS World University Rankings at 81st, Birmingham has climbed four places in the 2020 THE World University Rankings to 112th globally. The 2019 rankings saw the University rise 25 places to 116th.

This comes after a further rise in the number of citations and the reputation of research carried out at the University, as well increasing recognition of the quality of teaching. Earlier this year, the University retained its place as a Top 50 institution in the Reuters Top 100: Europe’s Most Innovative Universities.

Professor Sir David Eastwood, Vice-Chancellor and Principal at the University of Birmingham said: “The University of Birmingham is hugely proud of its standing as one of the world’s leading research-intensive universities. Our research creates solutions to some of the world’s biggest issues and our continued rise in THE rankings represents a significant achievement for all our staff and demonstrates increasing recognition of the global impact and reach of our research.”


Times Higher Education World University Rankings is the only global university performance table to judge research-intensive universities across each one of their core missions: teaching (the learning environment); research (volume, income and reputation), international outlook (staff, students and research); citations (research influence) and industry income (knowledge transfer).

The QS World University Rankings are the most commonly used global rankings and are a measure of a university’s global reputation. The Reuters Top 100: Europe’s Most Innovative Universities looks at a range of measures including number of global patents, citations and articles that collaborate with industry.

  • The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top institutions, its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers and teachers and more than 6,500 international students from over 150 countries.
  • The 2020 edition of THE World University Rankings includes a total of 1,396 institutions from 92 countries.
  • The Rankings use 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators used to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons - trusted globally by students and their families, academics, university leaders, industry and governments.
  • Independently audited by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC): the only global university rankings to be subjected to full, independent scrutiny of this nature.
  • View Full 2020 World University Rankings methodology.