These are the 50 hardest unis in the UK to get a first from

Your mates from other unis are always telling you that it’s WAY harder to get a first from their uni. Well, it’s finally time to find out for sure.

Stats from HESA reveal the unis where the fewest students end up with a first – finally telling us where the hardest university in the country to end up with a first from is.

In joint first place is the University of Stirling and the Open University – located in Scotland and Milton Keynes, respectively. Quite surprising, considering there’s not much else to do other than study yourself bored there.

Only three Russell Group unis make the list – Queen’s University Belfast, York and Newcastle. Northampton, Oxford Brookes and Nottingham Trent also feature in the rankings.

It’s probably no coincidence that you don’t recognise a lot of the unis on this list – the likelihood is that these unis (AKA the less posh ones), tend to take people from more diverse backgrounds which may see fewer students getting firsts. The posh ones however, generally take people who are already more likely to get a first (e.g. higher grades are needed in the first place).

These are the hardest universities in the country to get a first from:

1. The University of Stirling – 15.25 per cent

2. The Open University – 15.45 per cent

3. The University of Winchester – 19.72 per cent

4. Nottingham Trent University – 19.95 per cent

5. The University of Dundee – 19.96 per cent

6. Buckinghamshire New University – 20.39 per cent

7. The University of the West of Scotland – 20.59 per cent

8. Bath Spa University – 20.98 per cent

9. Edinburgh Napier University – 21.03 per cent

10. University of the Highlands and Islands – 21.08 per cent

11. Robert Gordon University – 21.14 per cent

12. University of Worcester – 21.33 per cent

13. University of Bedfordshire – 21.39 per cent

14. BIMM Limited – 22.60 per cent

15. Abertay University – 22.60 per cent

16. Aberystwyth University – 22.90 per cent

17. St George’s, University of London – 22.94 per cent

18. Glasgow Caledonian University – 23.09 per cent

19. Harper Adams University – 23.85 per cent

20. University of the West of England, Bristol – 24.03 per cent

21. Birkbeck College – 24.34 per cent

22. Canterbury Christ Church University – 24.49 per cent

23. Newman University – 24.51 per cent

24. The University of Chichester – 24.55 per cent

25. The Arts University Bournemouth – 25 .00per cent

26. Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh – 25.00 per cent

27. Roehampton University – 25.12 per cent

28. The University of Sunderland – 25.16 per cent

29. Leeds Arts University – 25.23 per cent

30. The University of Westminster – 25.60 per cent

31. Falmouth University – 26.04 per cent

32. Brunel University London – 26.05 per cent

33. Norwich University of the Arts – 26.55 per cent

34. The University of Northampton – 26.85 per cent

35. The University of Brighton – 27.20 per cent

36. University of Cumbria – 27.24 per cent

37. University of Suffolk – 27.47 per cent

38. City, University of London – 27.86 per cent

39. Bournemouth University – 27.92 per cent

40. Edge Hill University – 28.34 per cent

41. Queen’s University Belfast – 28.82 per cent

42. Liverpool Hope University – 28.93 per cent

43. The University of York – 29.31 per cent

44. Oxford Brookes University – 29.62 per cent

45. The University of Strathclyde – 29.75 per cent

46. Heriot-Watt University – 29.82 per cent

47. Newcastle University – 30.31 per cent

48. Keele University – 30.58 per cent

49. The University of Bolton – 30.58 per cent

50. The University of Central Lancashire – 30.67 per cent

Note: We only included universities with more than 500 graduates in a year. HESA statistics are rounded to the nearest five, and so smaller cohorts can produce more inaccurate percentages.

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