University of Birmingham, located in Birmingham, United Kingdom, is the Russell Group institution with the steepest climb of any UK top-100 entry in QS World University Rankings 2027, advancing 23 positions in four years to reach #68 globally. The Collegedunia Study Abroad rank places it at #54 worldwide, with Sport Sciences pinned at #9 in QS by Subject 2025.
- QS World University Rankings 2027: #68 globally, joint UK #10
- Collegedunia Study Abroad 2026: #54 globally, UK #10
- THE World University Rankings 2026: #98 globally, UK #11
- U.S. News Best Global Universities 2026-2027: #97 globally
- ARWU (Shanghai) 2025: #151-200 band globally
Reading the rank pattern: Birmingham’s QS climb of 23 places since 2023 is the steepest of any UK institution already inside the QS top 100. THE places it 30 positions lower at #98, signalling that academic and employer reputation are running ahead of citation volume. For Indian applicants comparing UK Russell Group offers against IIT Delhi (QS #118) or IIT Bombay (QS #134), Birmingham’s four-year QS streak makes its degree brand value an upward curve rather than a flat line.
Table of Contents
- University of Birmingham Overall Rankings 2027
- University of Birmingham Rankings: Bottom Line for Indian Students
- University of Birmingham QS World University Rankings 2027
- Collegedunia Study Abroad Rankings of University of Birmingham
- University of Birmingham Times Higher Education (THE) Rankings
- University of Birmingham ARWU (Shanghai) Rankings
- University of Birmingham Other Global Rankings
- University of Birmingham Subject Rankings
- University of Birmingham Rankings: Indian Student Outlook
- University of Birmingham Ranking FAQs
University of Birmingham Overall Rankings 2027
Birmingham clears the global top 100 on every ranking body that publishes a numeric overall position, with QS placing it sharpest and ARWU softest. The cross-body gap between Collegedunia Study Abroad at #54 and ARWU at #151-200 is the single most important pattern on this page.
| Ranking Body and Edition | University of Birmingham Rank |
|---|---|
| QS World University Rankings 2027 | #68 globally, UK #=10 |
| Collegedunia Study Abroad 2026 | #54 globally, UK #10 |
| U.S. News Best Global Universities 2026-2027 | #97 globally |
| THE World University Rankings 2026 | #98 globally, UK #11 |
| ARWU (Shanghai) 2025 | #151-200 band globally |
The 83-position spread between Collegedunia Study Abroad and ARWU is wider than what most Russell Group peers show, because ARWU pulls almost entirely from research output while QS and Collegedunia Study Abroad fold in reputation and employer signals. For Indian applicants targeting employability and brand recall, the reputation-led numbers carry more weight than the band figure.
Key insight: Birmingham is the only UK university already inside the QS top 70 that has improved its QS rank in every one of the last four releases, a stability signal worth more than any single edition.
University of Birmingham Rankings: Bottom Line for Indian Students
The signals an Indian applicant should pull from Birmingham’s data are the QS upward streak, the subject-level placements in Sport, Dentistry, Business Administration and Linguistics, and the gap between Birmingham’s reputation-led rank and the closest Indian alternative.
| Signal | Birmingham Rank | What it means for Indian applicants |
|---|---|---|
| Best overall global rank | #54 Collegedunia Study Abroad 2026 | Higher than QS, useful for resume and visa context. |
| QS gap vs IIT Bombay | QS #68 vs IIT Bombay QS #134 | Birmingham sits 66 positions ahead of India’s #2 in QS 2027. |
| QS gap vs IIT Delhi | QS #68 vs IIT Delhi QS #118 | Birmingham sits 50 positions ahead of India’s QS #1. |
| Sport Sciences global rank | #9 QS by Subject 2025 | One of two UK universities in the global top 10 for this discipline. |
| ARWU Business Administration | #7 ARWU GRAS 2025 | MBA and MSc Business applicants get a research-led top-10 subject signal. |
| QS direction of travel | 4 consecutive years up | Degree brand value is rising while you are studying, not flat. |
Key insight
- Brand uplift: A 23-position QS climb in four years compounds the value of an Indian student’s degree at graduation versus enrolment.
- Subject premium: Sport at #9 and Business Administration at ARWU #7 give targeted applicants a single-digit rank to cite.
- India gap: Birmingham sits 50 to 66 QS positions ahead of IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay, the closest comparable Indian options.
University of Birmingham QS World University Rankings 2027
Four consecutive years inside the QS top 100, with each release moving Birmingham further up the table, is the central data point on this page. QS, which ranks universities mainly on academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per faculty and international diversity, has lifted Birmingham from #91 in 2023 to #68 in 2027.
| Year | University of Birmingham QS World Rank |
|---|---|
| 2027 | #68 (UK #=10) |
| 2026 | #76 (UK #11) |
| 2025 | #80 |
| 2024 | #84 |
| 2023 | #91 |
The five-year average sits at #79.8, which means every recent edition has pushed Birmingham above its own rolling baseline. The sharpest single-year jump came between 2026 and 2027, when the university climbed eight positions and broke into the UK top 10 for the first time in its history. For Indian applicants, that compounding trend matters because the degree’s QS rank at graduation in 2028 or 2029 is on a higher curve than its rank at enrolment in 2026.
What it signals: Birmingham is the only British top-100 QS entry to improve in every release between 2023 and 2027, a four-year streak no peer in the same band can match.
Read More: University of Birmingham Courses and Fees 2026 for Indian Students
Collegedunia Study Abroad Rankings of University of Birmingham
Collegedunia Study Abroad places Birmingham at #54 globally and #10 in the UK in its 2026 ranking, with the strongest categories being Arts and Humanities at #49 and Health Care at #53.
| Category | Collegedunia Rank (Global) | Collegedunia Rank (UK) |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | #54 out of 824 | #10 out of 127 |
| Arts and Humanities | #49 out of 385 | #15 out of 81 |
| Health Care and Medicine | #53 out of 356 | #11 out of 82 |
| Engineering | #63 out of 370 | #8 out of 70 |
| Law | #69 out of 243 | #15 out of 57 |
| Social Studies | #87 out of 442 | #18 out of 101 |
| Computer Science | #108 out of 392 | #15 out of 67 |
Engineering is the highest UK position in this set at #8, which beats Birmingham’s QS engineering position and matters for Indian applicants targeting the MSc Civil, Mechanical or Electrical streams. Computer Science is the weakest category at global #108, a category Indian applicants in MSc Data Science or AI should weigh against subject-specific QS and THE numbers below before deciding.
India-relevance: Collegedunia Study Abroad ranks Birmingham 14 positions higher than QS does in 2027, which means the consolidated India-facing signal is more favourable than the global QS number alone.
University of Birmingham Times Higher Education (THE) Rankings
THE, which weights teaching, research environment, citations and international outlook, has held Birmingham inside the global top 110 for four years and inside the top 100 for two of them. THE 2026 places the university at #98, five positions below its 2025 peak of #93.
| Year | University of Birmingham THE World Rank |
|---|---|
| 2026 | #98 (UK #11) |
| 2025 | #93 |
| 2024 | #101 |
| 2023 | #108 |
The net four-year movement is a 10-position climb from #108 to #98, a slower but still positive trend than QS’s 23-position jump over the same window. The 30-position gap between Birmingham’s QS 2027 rank of #68 and its THE 2026 rank of #98 tells Indian applicants that academic and employer surveys score the university higher than pure citation and research-environment metrics do. The implication is straightforward: the degree’s reputation value sits ahead of its raw research index.
Trend signal: Two consecutive THE editions inside the top 100 plus a four-year net climb confirm the QS direction of travel is not a single-body anomaly.
University of Birmingham ARWU (Shanghai) Rankings
ARWU, which ranks universities almost entirely on research output, Nobel and Fields counts, highly cited researchers and per-capita performance, places Birmingham in the #151-200 band for its 2025 edition. The university has held this band for three consecutive years after slipping one band in 2023.
| Year | University of Birmingham ARWU Rank |
|---|---|
| 2025 | #151-200 |
| 2024 | #151-200 |
| 2023 | #151-200 |
| 2022 | #101-150 |
| 2021 | #101-150 |
One band slip across five years is a flat picture compared with the QS climb, and that contrast itself is the signal: Birmingham’s reputation surveys are improving faster than its raw citation and Nobel-count base. For an Indian student doing a taught Master’s or MBA, the ARWU band matters less than QS or THE; for a PhD applicant relying on research index strength, ARWU’s #151-200 position deserves direct comparison with peers like Manchester or Leeds. The subject-level ARWU picture (covered below) is sharply stronger than the institutional band, especially in Business Administration.
What it signals: ARWU’s research-only methodology gives a lower floor than QS or THE, so Indian PhD candidates should weight subject-level GRAS data above the institutional band.
University of Birmingham Other Global Rankings
U.S. News Best Global Universities ranks Birmingham at #97 in its current 2026-2027 edition, the third body to place the university inside the global top 100. U.S. News uses thirteen indicators heavily weighted toward research reputation and publication impact, which lands Birmingham close to its THE 2026 rank of #98 and roughly 30 positions below its QS 2027 rank of #68.
| Ranking Body and Edition | University of Birmingham Rank |
|---|---|
| U.S. News Best Global Universities 2026-2027 | #97 globally |
The convergence of U.S. News at #97, THE at #98 and CWUR top-100 placement is the cleanest cross-body validation Indian applicants can use: three independent research-led bodies all agree Birmingham is a top-100 global university. The remaining gap to QS #68 is the size of the reputation premium for the Birmingham brand.
University of Birmingham Subject Rankings
Birmingham earns its strongest single-digit and top-30 ranks at the subject level. Seven subjects clear the QS top 50, seven sit inside the THE top 100, and four ARWU subject lists place the university inside the global top 50.
Key insight
- Single-digit subject: Sport at QS #9 and Business Administration at ARWU #7 are the two ranks Indian applicants in those streams should lead their applications with.
- Top-30 cluster: Dentistry (QS #19), Linguistics (QS #19) and English (QS top 30) reach far higher than the institutional QS 2027 rank of #68.
- Subject vs overall gap: The Business Administration ARWU subject rank of #7 is 144 positions above the institutional ARWU band, the largest subject-vs-overall premium in this set.
University of Birmingham QS Subject Rankings 2025
QS by Subject covers 55 disciplines and uses subject-tuned weights for academic reputation, employer reputation, citations and h-index. Birmingham’s top-50 list is led by Sport at #9, the only Birmingham subject inside the global top 10.
| Subject | QS 2025 Rank |
|---|---|
| Sport Related Subjects | #9 |
| Dentistry | #19 |
| Linguistics | #19 |
| English Language and Literature | Top 30 |
| Education | Top 50 |
| Anatomy and Physiology | Top 50 |
| Theology, Divinity and Religious Studies | Top 50 |
Education rose 27 places into the QS top 50 in the 2025 edition, the largest single-year subject climb on this page. Indian applicants in MSc Computer Science, Modern Languages, Nursing, Communication and Media should note these subjects also sit in the QS top 100, even though they are not in the top 50 list above.
India-relevance: Indian MBA applicants should pair Birmingham’s QS Business stream with the ARWU Business Administration rank of #7 below, since the two together give a stronger single-page application signal than QS alone.
University of Birmingham THE Subject Rankings 2026
THE by Subject reuses the institutional methodology but reweights teaching, research environment and industry inputs for each discipline. Birmingham places seven subjects inside the global top 100 in THE 2026, led by Psychology at #68.
| Subject | THE 2026 Rank |
|---|---|
| Psychology | #68 |
| Clinical and Health | #70 |
| Arts and Humanities | #86 |
| Education Studies | #=90 |
| Law | #=93 |
| Life Sciences | #93 |
| Business and Economics | #99 |
| Engineering | #101-125 |
| Physical Sciences | #101-125 |
| Social Sciences | #126-150 |
| Computer Science | #176-200 |
Law and Life Sciences each climbed eight positions versus THE 2025, while Business and Economics and Psychology each climbed two. Indian applicants in MSc Computer Science should treat the THE rank of #176-200 as the weaker of the two CS signals on this page, balanced against the stronger QS top-100 placement for the same subject.
Subject vs overall: Psychology at THE #68 sits 30 positions ahead of the institutional THE rank of #98, giving Indian applicants in that stream a stronger single number than the overall figure.
University of Birmingham ARWU Subject Rankings 2025 (GRAS)
ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) uses research papers, citation impact, international collaboration and top-journal publications. Birmingham clears the global top 10 in Business Administration and the top 30 in Dentistry.
| Subject | ARWU GRAS 2025 Rank |
|---|---|
| Business Administration | #7 |
| Dentistry and Oral Sciences | #29 |
| Metallurgical Engineering | #44 |
| Public Administration | #44 |
| Geography | #51-75 |
| Clinical Medicine | #51-75 |
| Education | #51-75 |
| Hospitality and Tourism Management | #51-75 |
Business Administration at ARWU #7 is the highest single rank anywhere on this page and the strongest individual signal for Indian MBA, MSc Business and MSc Marketing applicants. Dentistry at ARWU #29 plus QS #19 gives a consistent two-body top-30 placement, the cleanest cross-body confirmation among Birmingham’s subjects.
University of Birmingham Rankings: Indian Student Outlook
For Indian applicants, Birmingham’s ranking pattern reads as a rising QS curve, a subject portfolio with two single-digit ranks, and a reputation lead over its citation-only score. The popular programmes for Indian students at Birmingham are MBA, MSc Data Science, MSc Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, LLM and MSc International Business, and each aligns with a top-100 subject placement covered above.
Indian applicants pulling decision signals from these ranks should focus on four data points: the QS upward streak, the subject-level top-10 ranks in Sport and Business Administration, the Russell Group brand on UK shortlists, and the 50-to-66 position QS gap versus IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay.
| India-specific signal | Birmingham data |
|---|---|
| Strongest single subject for Indian MBA/Business applicants | Business Administration #7 (ARWU GRAS 2025) |
| Strongest subject for any Indian applicant | Sport Related Subjects #9 (QS 2025) |
| QS gap vs IIT Delhi (India’s QS #1) | Birmingham 50 positions ahead |
| QS gap vs IIT Bombay (India’s QS #2) | Birmingham 66 positions ahead |
| Collegedunia Study Abroad consolidated rank | #54 global, #10 UK |
| Engineering UK position for MSc Civil/Mechanical applicants | UK #8 (Collegedunia Study Abroad 2026) |
Key insight
- Direction of travel: A 23-position QS climb in four years means the degree value at graduation is on a steeper curve than at enrolment, a rare positional tailwind among top-100 UK options.
- Programme fit: Indian MBA and MSc Business applicants get a top-10 subject rank (ARWU Business Admin #7) to cite; MSc Data Science and AI applicants should weight the QS CS top-100 placement against the THE CS rank of #176-200.
- India alternative gap: Birmingham sits 50 QS positions ahead of IIT Delhi and 66 ahead of IIT Bombay, the two closest Indian alternatives for Indian applicants choosing between home and UK study.
- Reputation vs research: Birmingham scores 30 positions higher on reputation-led QS than research-led THE and ARWU, which favours taught Master’s and MBA applicants over PhD candidates.
Birmingham’s ranking pattern shows the trajectory Indian applicants typically watch for: a four-year QS climb of 23 positions, seven subjects in the QS top 50 and seven in the THE top 100, and an ARWU subject rank of #7 for Business Administration. The reputation-led bodies place the university 30 to 50 positions higher than the citation-only ARWU band, which makes the degree a stronger signal for applicants choosing the UK for employability than for those weighing pure research index. The picture flips for PhD candidates, where the ARWU band and THE Computer Science rank of #176-200 deserve direct comparison with chosen peer universities.
Read More: University of Birmingham Scholarships 2026 for Indian Students
University of Birmingham Ranking FAQs
Ques. What is the QS World University Ranking of University of Birmingham in 2027?
Ans. University of Birmingham is ranked #68 globally in QS World University Rankings 2027, joint #10 in the United Kingdom. The university climbed eight positions from QS 2026 and 23 positions since QS 2023.
Ques. Where does University of Birmingham rank in Times Higher Education 2026?
Ans. University of Birmingham ranks #98 globally and #11 in the UK in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026. This is the university’s second consecutive year inside the global THE top 100.
Ques. What is the Collegedunia Study Abroad ranking for University of Birmingham?
Ans. Collegedunia Study Abroad places University of Birmingham at #54 globally and #10 in the UK for 2026. Its strongest categories are Arts and Humanities (#49), Health Care and Medicine (#53) and Engineering (UK #8).
Ques. Which subjects does University of Birmingham rank in the global top 10 or top 30?
Ans. Sport Related Subjects ranks #9 in QS by Subject 2025 and Business Administration ranks #7 in ARWU GRAS 2025. Dentistry and Linguistics both rank #19 in QS, and English Language and Literature sits in the QS top 30.
Ques. Is University of Birmingham ranked higher than IIT Bombay or IIT Delhi?
Ans. Yes. In QS World University Rankings 2027, University of Birmingham at #68 sits 50 positions ahead of IIT Delhi (#118) and 66 positions ahead of IIT Bombay (#134). The gap holds across THE and U.S. News rankings as well.
Ques. What is University of Birmingham’s ARWU (Shanghai) rank in 2025?
Ans. University of Birmingham sits in the #151-200 band of the ARWU 2025 Academic Ranking of World Universities. ARWU uses only research output, citations and Nobel and Fields counts, which produces a lower band than the university’s reputation-led QS rank of #68.
Ques. How has University of Birmingham’s world ranking changed over the last five years?
Ans. University of Birmingham’s QS rank has improved every year from #91 in 2023 to #68 in 2027, a 23-position climb. Its THE rank has climbed 10 positions from #108 in 2023 to #98 in 2026, while ARWU has held the #151-200 band for three consecutive years.
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