Research rankings

The amount of data included in the RAE results means there are a number of different ways of analysing them. But by any evaluation Manchester ranks among the country's top performing universities.

• A research power ranking, which uses a quality score (grade point average) times the number of full-time equivalent staff submitted, places this University in third place nationally, behind only Cambridge and Oxford;
• A ranking based on quality alone (grade point average), and which excludes very small specialist institutions, puts the University in sixth place behind Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, Imperial College and UCL;
• A ranking which looks at the overall volume of staff within 3* and 4* quality levels shows this University in third position, behind Cambridge and Oxford.
• A similar table which looks at the overall volume of staff within 4* quality levels shows this University in fourth position, behind Cambridge and Oxford and UCL

View selected ranking tables

Shanghai Jiao Tong Ranking of the World's Top 500 Universities

The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) results corroborate the year-on-year improvements that the University has made to its position in the Shanghai Jiao Tong Ranking of the World's Top 500 Universities. 

Between 2007 and 2008 The University of Manchester jumped eight places from 48th to 40th in the world, the biggest climb of any University in the top 100.

Source: 2008 Shanghai Jiao Tong University Academic Ranking of World Universities

* 2004 rankings were for the Victoria University of Manchester prior to the merger with UMIST

Useful links

• Full 2008 RAE results - www.rae.ac.uk/

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