Russell Group

The Russell Group is a consortium of leading British universities with significant post graduate research programmes and who attract substantial funding in order to further the research that they undertake. They are the leading research intensive universities in the United Kingdom, composed of some of the oldest and most prestigious universities from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and work closely together with their peers from other countries, including the leading Candian, American and Irish universities (see Old Four & U15, Ivy League and Innovation Alliance respectively).


Notwithstanding that the Russell Group is fundamentally an alliance of research intensive universities, it has come to be regarded as being composed of the most prestigious universities in the United Kingdom with each member being a fully fledged university of world class standing. Indeed, many would argue that the Russell Group has become the UK equivalent of the Ivy League.

The Russell Group universities are as follows:

University of Birmingham
University of Bristol
University of Cambridge
Cardiff University
Durham University
University of Edinburgh
University of Exeter
University of Glasgow
Imperial College London
King's College London
University of Leeds
University of Liverpool
London School of Economics & Political Science
University of Manchester
Newcastle University
University of Nottingham
University of Oxford
Queen Mary University of London
Queen's University Belfast
University of Sheffield
University of Southampton
University College London
University of Warwick
University of York