The Best Universities for Finance in the UK (2024)

There are many reasons why someone might want to study Finance at a university in the UK. Here are just a few:

• The UK has a long-standing reputation for exceptional higher education standards, especially in Finance. Institutions like the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford are just a couple of examples where a Masters Degree carries substantial international weight.
• London, among other cities in the UK, is considered a global hub for finance, hosting the world’s top financial firms and a multitude of investment banks. This provides unparalleled access to industry leaders and potential employers.
• Masters programmes in Finance within the UK are designed to be intensive and intellectually rigorous often incorporating the latest research and current industry practices giving students leading edge knowledge in a fast-evolving sector.
• The Finance programmes in the UK cover various specializations such as corporate finance, risk management, investment banking, quantitative finance, and more – enabling students to tailor their studies to niche interests or career goals.

The following tables gives the 10 top universities in the UK for Finance, according to global and local university rankings. It can show you which British universities are amongst the best in the world - and help you compare institutions on an international level.

This information is based on the latest rankings tables, researched and published by Times Higher Education, QS and Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).

Each ranking system uses its own methodology, with different factors having more or less influence on a university's result.

For more information on using international rankings as a postgraduate, see our guide.

The Times Higher Education rankings are strong in academic focus and diverse teaching metrics, but do not include employer-specific metrics. Additionally, the rankings may not include all specialist institutions.

The QS World University Rankings are designed to meet the needs of prospective students, with more weight given to student-centric metrics such as staff/student ratio, international recruitment and employer opinion. The rankings are balanced between qualitative and quantitative data, but give less weight to research than some other rankings.

The ARWU rankings reflect the presence of elite academics and the future academic success of graduates. However, they do not directly assess the quality of education at a university or take into account other aspects of university performance.