This is so eye-opening 5 seconds ago It’s a common complaint from people who live near a Russell Group uni that all us pesky students are taking over the towns. Well, the data does back this up. A surprisingly small percentage of Russell Group unis students are actually from the local area. The UK university system is pretty unusual. In many European countries, most students go to the uni nearest to where they live. UK students seem to have collectively decided in the middle of the 20th century to make things as complicated (and spenny) as possible by making it the norm to pick unis hours away from where they live. The Russell Group uni with the fewest students from the local area is Durham University. The uni has nearly four times as many students from London as it does from County Durham. Yikes. At the other end of the scale, lots of London unis have very high percentages of students who are actually from London. Presumably this is because there are so many fab unis in London, and because student accommodation in London costs a small fortune. We worked out the percentage of students at Russell Group unis who come from the local area by analysing data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). The statistics refer to the 2023/2024 academic year. So, here are all the Russell Group unis ranked by how few students are really from the local area: 24. Queen Mary University of London – 44.3 per cent 11,545 students from Greater London out of 26,080 23. King’s College London – 34.9 per cent 13,770 students from Greater London out of 39,435 22. University College London (UCL) – 25.6 per cent 13,185 students from Greater London out of 51,435 21. Imperial College London – 23.9 per cent 5,350 students from Greater London out of 22,420 20. University of Birmingham – 19.0 per cent 6,995 students from the West Midlands out of 36,835 19. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – 18.9 per cent 2,445 students from Greater London out of 12,910 18. University of Glasgow – 13.5 per cent 5,145 students from Glasgow out of 38,125 17. Queen’s University Belfast – 12.9 per cent 3,210 students from Belfast out of 24,930 =15. University of Liverpool – 12.4 per cent 3,810 students from Merseyside out of 30,735 =15. University of Manchester – 12.4 per cent 5,795 students from Greater Manchester out of 46,915 14. Newcastle University – 11.2 per cent 3,110 students from Tyne and Wear out of 27,660 13. University of Leeds – 10.5 per cent 4,010 students from West Yorkshire out of 38,100 12. Cardiff University – 10.2 per cent 3,380 students from Cardiff out of 33,020 11. University of Sheffield – 9.8 per cent 3,040 students from South Yorkshire out of 31,070 10. University of Edinburgh – 8.5 per cent 3,435 students from Edinburgh out of 40,625 9. University of Exeter – 6.5 per cent 2,125 students from Devon out of 32,880 =7. University of Cambridge – 5.9 per cent 1,330 students from Cambridgeshire out of 22,710 =7. University of Oxford – 5.9 per cent 1,595 students from Oxfordshire out of 27,160 6. University of Bristol – 4.0 per cent 1,300 students from Bristol out of 32,145 5. University of Nottingham – 3.9 per cent 1,420 students from Nottinghamshire out of 36,180 4. University of York – 3.4 per cent 770 students from York out of 22,445 3. University of Warwick – 3.2 per cent 935 students from Warwickshire out of 29,435 2. University of Southampton – 3.0 per cent 775 students from Southampton out of 25,995 1. Durham University – 2.9 per cent 635 students from County Durham out of 21,750 For more news about UK universities, like The Tab on Facebook.