Bristol awarded an impressive global ranking, but teaching scores lag behind
By Harry Mayes, MA Neuroscience
The University of Bristol has risen from the position of 91-100 held in 2023 to 78th place in The Times Higher Education (THE) World Reputation Rankings of 2025.
The survey ranked a total of 300 institutions across 38 different countries. Now in its 14th year, the survey has been refined to include six performance metrics, making it more robust than ever, according to THE. It has been refined to consider reputation in a wider context, with THE claiming that university reputations are ‘gaining a wider audience among the academic community’.
This year the University of Bristol has scored 78th place. Each of the six metrics that comprise this ranking is scored out of 100. Here’s how Bristol scored in each category:
1) Teaching -49.8
2) Research Environment – 56.9
3) Research Quality - 96.8
4) Industry -71.1
5) International Outlook 92.6
6) Overall - 70
The University Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Prof Judith Squires said: ‘It is wonderful to see Bristol making strides in THE’s highly regarded rankings.’ For context, Bristol scored 76th and 81st in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Regardless, it is a proud position to shine in by global standards.
The data seem to suggest that the rise in ranking from last year stems from the excellent international outlook and research quality, with the University of Bristol ranking first in the world for research quality in Medical and Health subjects, including medicine, dentistry and anatomy. Alluding to this, Prof Squires went on to say:
‘It is particularly pleasing that fellow academics are recognising our research and teaching as world-leading. We collaborate with universities across the globe and we are incredibly proud of those strong relationships. Thank you to everyone in our community – staff, students alumni and partners in Bristol and around the world – for making this possible.’
For specific subjects, the university ranked highest in Education studies, scoring 43rd in the world. Bristol scored lowest in Business and Economics, with a global ranking range of 151-175th. This category also saw the worst ranking for teaching in the university, with a score of 34.5/100. Conversely, the best school at the University of Bristol for teaching was Medical and Health, with a score of 70.3, placing 54th in the global ranking.
Other proud rankings include Law at 60th globally, Physical Sciences at 63rd and Psychology at 65th. However, schools such as Life Sciences and Engineering ranked at 81st and 100th respectively, again with low metrics for teaching and research environment dragging them down.
The data indicate that perhaps the quality of output by senior academics is excellent, but the environment and care for teaching their students require improvement at Bristol.
Bristol has also excelled in other global rankings. Bristol was named 54th in the QS World University Rankings 2025, ranking as the 12th most sustainable university in the world.
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