Goldsmiths named UK’s named top university for students' academic…

Goldsmiths has been named number one in the UK for students' academic progression by the Guardian University Guide 2026, alongside the second-biggest overall rise in the annual ranking.

The analysis gives us a score of eight of 10 in the "value added" metric, which measures how much a university helps its students improve academically from their entry qualifications to their graduation results.

We are also ranked 67 overall, a jump of 42 places compared to the 2025 guide and the second-biggest rise of any of the 123 institutions in the 2026 edition. Goldsmiths is also in the top 10 for student-to-staff ratio, with 11.6 members of staff for every student.

We are sharing the top spot for value added with London Met University, who also scored eight out of 10.

The ranking comes as our second cohort of Equity Awards recipients graduate from Goldsmiths, a scheme which levels the playing field by supporting global ethnic majority students achieve their full potential.

The Guardian guide saw us ranked in the top 10 for Fine Art, History of Art and Product Design with Anthropology, Business and Management, Economics, Law, Politics, Media and Film Studies all in the top 50.

The rise in the Guardian ranking comes after we saw improvements in seven themes in the National Student Survey, which asks final-year undergraduates about their experiences.

Figures released by the Office for Students (OfS) earlier this year showed that we in the themes relating to Teaching on my course, Learning opportunities, Assessment and feedback, Academic support, Learning resources and Student voice.