World Rankings
Newcastle University performs consistently well in university rankings, featuring in the top 200 of most world rankings.
Currently, Newcastle University is ranked:
- 129th in the QS World University Rankings 2025 (published 2024)
- 168th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (published 2023)
- 23rd in the Times Higher Education Europe Teaching Rankings 2019
- 78th in the Leiden Ranking 2022
- 176th in the University Ranking by Academic Performance 2021
- Top 100 in the world for sustainable development in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2024
- Top 60 in the world for sustainability and social impact in the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2025
- Awarded 5 Plus QS Stars for Overall Excellence 2023
Our position in the global rankings
This table shows our position in the global rankings. They typically measure various metrics relating to students, staff, research and teaching.
Please note, the table refers to the year data was published.
| 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QS World Ranking | 127 | 126 | 129 | 127 | 162 | 168 | 161 | 141 | 146 | 152 | 134 | 122 | 110 | 129 |
| Leiden Ranking (PP top 10%) | 167 | 172 | 133 | 121 | 104 | 114 | 105 | 132 | 91 | 78 | 66 | 78 | ||
| Times Higher Education | 146 | 180 | 198 | 202 | 196 | 190 | 175 | 171 |
201-205 |
178 | 146 | 139 | 168 | |
| University Ranking by Academic Performance | 149 | 155 | 161 | 159 | 198 | 203 | 200 | 200 | 185 | 182 | 176 | |||
| Academic Ranking of World Universities | 201-300 | 201-300 | 201-300 | 201-300 | 201-300 | 301-400 | 201-300 | 201-300 | 201-300 | 201-300 | 201-300 | |||
| Webometrics | 262 | 212 | 253 | 230 | 217 | 184 | 155 | 148 | - | 143 | 130 |
How these league tables are weighted
The QS World University Rankings measures a range of student and staff metrics.
| Metric | Weighting |
|---|---|
| Academic reputation | 30% |
| Citations per faculty | 20% |
| Employer reputation | 15% |
| Employment outcomes | 5% |
| Faculty student ratio | 10% |
| International faculty | 5% |
| International research network | 5% |
| International students | 5% |
| Sustainability | 5% |
The Leiden Ranking focuses on research output and collaboration. It measures:
- papers published
- articles cited
- international co-authors
(other statistics from Leiden are available on scientific impact, collaboration, open access publishing, and gender diversity).
The Times Higher World Rankings looks at a range of measures across teaching and research.
| Metric | Weighting |
|---|---|
| Citations (research influence) | 30% |
| Research reputation | 18% |
| Teaching reputation | 15% |
| Research income | 6% |
| Research productivity | 6% |
| PhDs per academic | 6% |
| Staff student ratio | 4.5% |
| International students | 2.5% |
| International staff | 2.5% |
| International co-authors | 2.5% |
| Research income from industry | 2.5% |
| Income per academic | 2.25% |
| PhDs per undergraduate | 2.25% |
The Academic Ranking of World Universities focuses on a series of research measures.
| Metric | Weighting |
|---|---|
| Nobel laureates (staff) | 20% |
| Papers published in Science or Nature | 20% |
| Papers published | 20% |
| Highly cited researchers | 20% |
| Nobel laureates (alumni) | 10% |
| All of the above measures, per academic | 10% |
| Metric | Weighting |
|---|---|
| Global research reputation | 12.5% |
| Regional research reputation | 12.5% |
| Number of publications that are among the 10% most cited | 12.5% |
| Publications | 10% |
| Normalised citation impact | 10% |
| Percentage of total publications that are among the 10% most cited | 10% |
| Total citations | 7.5% |
| International collaboration – relative to country | 5% |
| International collaboration | 5% |
| Number of highly cited papers that are among the top 1% most cited in their respective field | 5% |
| Percentage of total publications that are among the top 1% most highly cited papers | 5% |
| Books | 2.5% |
| Conferences | 2.5% |
University websites are compared by the Webometrics ranking. The Webometrics ranking looks at the performance of university websites. Its measures and weightings are:
- 50% - web contents impact
- 40% - top cited papers
- 10% - top cited researchers