Awards and achievements
The University of York is one of the success stories in UK higher education.
Since our foundation in 1963, we have powered our way to a consistently high ranking in the UK and are one of just six post-war universities to have appeared in the world top 100.
Rankings
University of the Year shortlisted
We were shortlisted for two prestigious University of the Year awards:
- Times Higher Education Awards 2021
- The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2022
Times Higher Education World University Rankings
- 139th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings
- Top 50 in the world for arts and humanities (2023)
- Top 200 in the world for life sciences (2023)
- Top 150 in the world for social sciences (2023)
National Student Survey
Eight of our subjects ranked first for 'overall satisfaction' out of the Russell Group universities included in the National Student Survey 2022.
In total, 39 of our subjects ranked within the top 10 in the Russell Group.
QS World University Rankings
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66th= in the world for arts and humanities
Research Excellence Framework
We were ranked joint 10th in the UK for the quality of our research in the Times Higher Education (THE) ranking of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021.
All of our subject areas ranked in the top 30 in the UK, with four of our Departments positioned in the top five: Language and Linguistics (1st), Philosophy (2nd), Sociology (4th), Education (5th).
Athena Swan
Our commitment to gender equality has been recognised with a bronze institutional award and 23 departmental awards from Athena Swan. Find out more about our awards and Athena Swan charter.
THE Impact Rankings
The Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings is a global performance league table that assesses universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The University of York was ranked 4th in the UK (=27th globally) in 2023 against UN SDG 11 Sustainable cities and communities. This achievement recognises our research and internal approaches to sustainability, helping to make cities and settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and more sustainable.
We also fell within the Top 100 globally for:
- SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities (=76th in the world)
- SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals (86th in the world)
York ranked in the banding 101st - 200th out of 1591 institutions worldwide.
Awards
Queen's Anniversary Prize
York is a six-times winner of the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for research in the following departments and centres:
Times Higher Education Awards
In recent years we have won five prestigious Times Higher Education Awards:
- 2015: Best Development and Alumni Relations team
- 2012: Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers
- 2011: Outstanding Engineering Research Team, member of the Widening Participation Initiative of the Year partnership
- 2010: University of the Year
- 2009: Outstanding Contribution to Leadership Development
Quality Assurance Review
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) works to safeguard standards and improve the quality of UK higher education. In the most recent Institutional Review of the University of York (2012) we received an excellent outcome, and were commended on the enhancement of student learning opportunities.