Revealed: the UK’s best university for value for money

Uni is a big commitment. You’re dedicating at least three years of your life to studying in one place and, unfortunately, usually setting yourself up for a hefty amount of student debt. So you have to be sure that it’s worth it. 

Luckily, student review platform StudentCrowd has dug into more than 30,000 reviews across its website to help you discover which UK university is the best value for money. It looked into feedback that had been posted between June 2022 and June 2024, taking note of which institutions received the most stars in the ‘value for money’ category. 

StudentCrowd doesn’t specify what constitutes value for money but other reports count the number of contact hours, in-person teaching, pastoral support and graduate opportunities among the factors. 

Ranking number one for value for money was the University of St Andrews, which average 4.5 out of five stars. One student praised its ‘amazing resources, range of classes and very good sense of community’ while another said that the teaching staff are ‘amazing and professional’.

Ulster University in Northern Ireland came second with an average of 4.36 stars out five and the University of Aberdeen ranked third with 4.29. 

Scottish universities actually made up half of the top ten unis offering value for money (that could have something to do with them being free for Scottish students). After the University of Liverpool in fourth, The University of Glasgow came in fifth, Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen came seventh and the University of Strathclyde landed in tenth. 

The top 20 UK universities for value for money, according to StudentCrowd

1. University of St Andrews
2. Ulster University 
3. University of Aberdeen
4. University of Liverpool 
5. University of Glasgow
6. Queen’s University Belfast
7. Robert Gordon University
8. University of Sheffield 
9. Loughborough University 
10. University of Strathclyde 
11. University of Dundee
12. University College London
13. Bangor University 
14. Durham University 
15. Liverpool John Moores University 
16. Nottingham Trent University 
17. University of Birmingham
18. University of Portsmouth
19. Sheffield Hallam University 
20. University of Nottingham

On the hunt for more UK university rankings? These are the country’s finest unis according to Times Higher Education, the Sunday Times and the Guardian. Here’s where students are happiest, according to the Complete University Guide 2025 and these are the best unis overall, based on student reviews from StudentCrowd. 

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