Politics ranked 13th in the UK: Complete University Guide 2026

Posted on 12 June 2025

York is ranked 13th in the UK for Politics in the latest release of the Complete University Guide league tables (2026).

This week, we maintained our place among the UK’s most highly regarded institutions for the subject of Politics. York ranked 13th in the UK for the study of this subject in the Complete University Guide 2026.

The Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations, Professor Tony Heron said:

We are delighted to see the department recognised in the 2026 Complete University Guide, where we climbed five places from 18th to 13th. The department’s improvement was particularly marked in the ‘Continuation’, where we moved up 20 places from 39th to 19th and ‘Graduate Career Outcomes’, moving up 11 places from 21st to 10th. These improvements are a very welcome acknowledgment of the hard work and dedication of all of our staff and students. We are highly confident that further progress will be made in the coming months and years and our aim is for the department to be in the top 10 of politics departments by 2028."

York's overall position

The University of York ranked 12th overall and 8th in the Russell Group in the Complete University Guide 2026. The guide ranks 130 institutions across the UK.

In total, 15 subjects at York were ranked in the UK top 10:

Archaeology: 6th
Biological Sciences: 7th
Chemistry: 6th
Drama, Dance and Cinematics: 5th
English: 6th
French: 4th
History: 8th
History of Art, Architecture and Design: 7th
Iberian Languages: 6th
Linguistics: 5th
Marketing: 7th
Nursing and Midwifery: 7th
Philosophy: 8th
Psychology: 5th
Social Policy: 8th
Social Work: 9th

A further three subjects appeared in the UK top 20.

About the Complete University Guide

Published annually, The Complete University Guide league tables rank the best universities in the UK. It covers 74 separate subject areas, as well as an overall institutional ranking. Universities and subjects are ranked on entry standards, student satisfaction, research quality, graduate prospects, completion rates, student-staff ratio and spend on academic services and facilities.

The rankings are based on public domain data collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), the National Student Survey and the Research Excellence Framework 2021.