Key facts and stats
If our tone of voice guide communicates who we are, then our key facts and figures are proof of what we do. These are a useful addition to any copy you write and help to build a strong narrative for our origins, work and achievements.
Key facts and figures
- Over 5,700 staff
- Over 32,000 students on degree programmes, of which 22,000 are UG
- Queen Mary's income is £712m excluding capital grants (2023/24)
- Of which research income is £145m excluding capital grants(2023/24)
- With staff, students and alumni from over 170 nationalities, we are one of the most diverse higher education institutions in the world.
- Our alumni community is made up of over 240,000 members based all over the globe.
Our undergraduate students
- The profile of our domestic undergraduate students is distinctive for a Russell Group university and any research-leading university across the world:
- 94 per cent from state schools
- 73 per cent BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic)
- 45 per cent first into higher education
- 37 per cent from households where the annual income is less than £35k, qualifying them automatically for the Queen Mary University of London Bursary.
- 21 per cent eligible for free school meals
- Queen Mary has the best record of all the Russell Group universities in England for recruiting undergraduate students from state schools and from lower-income families.
- In 2022, Queen Mary won the ‘University of the Year’ award at the sixth annual UK Social Mobility Awards. This follows a 2021 report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in partnership with the Sutton Trust and Department of Education that named us as the best university for social mobility in the country, and the 2021 Sunday Times Good University Guide, which noted that “Queen Mary continues to prove that social inclusion and academic success are not mutually exclusive.”
- 18 per cent of Queen Mary domestic undergraduate students are registered as having a disability.
Our postgraduate students
- We have 9,150 postgraduate students (PGT and PGR), of whom 55 per cent are overseas.
- Of our 7,134, PGT students, 1,629 are studying via distance learning.
- Our postgraduate students represent over 170 nationalities, with the ten most common being England, China, India, Pakistan, USA, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Italy, Thailand, and Hong Kong.
- The programmes most popular with postgraduate students are in Business Management, Law, Economics and Finance, Electronic Engineering, Computer Science, and Medicine.
League tables 2025
- In the Times Higher Education rankings 2025 we maintained our excellent global position, sitting within the top 10 per cent of global universities overall at 141, and in the top one per cent for research at 24th in the world. For international outlook, we came 11th in the world.
- Queen Mary climbed 25 places in the 2025 QS World University Rankings (from 145 to 120), confirming its position as one of the world’s top universities.
- In the 2025 Times Good University Guide, Queen Mary climbed three places, from number nine to six in London, and seven places nationally, from 46 to 39. In our profile, The Times wrote: “Queen Mary continues its founding mission to improve lives through education. This Russell Group outlier in Tower Hamlets, east London, continues to do as well in our academic league (39th) as in our social inclusion table (41st). Since 1785, the university has grown from its roots in four historic colleges in the East End with a focus on social justice.”
- Queen Mary is ranked at 50 in the Complete University Guide 2025 (published 14 May 2024), climbing three places to be in the top 50.
- Queen Mary has been ranked 92nd in the world and 9th in the UK in the 2024-25 edition of the influential US News and World Report Best Global Universities rankings.
- In the Guardian 2025 league table, we moved down one place from 73 to 74.
- The Daily Mail University Guide placed us at =16 in their 2025 rankings, up one place from last year. Described as “the most socially inclusive of the research-intensive 5 Russell Group universities by some distance”, we scored highly across research income, graduate salaries and research quality. Our subject-level strengths include English Language (first in the UK), Linguistics (third in the UK) and Law (16th in the UK).
If you would like at know any pre-2025 league table information, contact content@qmul.ac.uk
Careers
- Queen Mary graduates earn an average of £31,019 five years after graduation. Queen Mary offers access to careers support from day one and for two years after graduation.
- Fifteen months after graduation, 85 per cent of Queen Mary graduates are in work or further study (Graduate Outcomes Survey 2021/22, released June 2024).
- We are among the top 20 universities in the UK targeted by leading employers (according to The Graduate Market in 2024 report), and our graduates go on to very well-paid jobs: a recent ranking from the Daily Mail placed us 12th in the UK for graduate earnings, and for this measure the Telegraph ranks two of our subjects top in the country.
Research
- For the quality of its research, the University is ranked 24th in the world according to the THE World University Ranking 2025, and joint 7th in the UK according to the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF2021).
- Across the University, 92% of Queen Mary’s research has been assessed as internationally excellent or world-leading according to the REF results.
- We have been rated 1st in the UK for Drama according to REF 2021.
- An international team of scientists, led by astronomers at Queen Mary, discovered a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System.
- Research carried out by Queen Mary's Professors Jonathan Grigg and Chris Griffiths highlighted the effects of air pollution on children and was instrumental in the introduction of the London Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).
- In 2018, a project involving Queen Mary researchers reached its goal of sequencing 100,000 whole genomes from NHS patients.
- Professor Karim Brohi and colleagues developed new treatment approaches for trauma patients with critical bleeding which reduced death rates by nearly 30% at the Royal London Hospital. The methods were adopted as national standards by the NHS in 2016.
Public engagement
- Queen Mary University improved its position in a number of areas in the 2024 Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) report, with the best results in three years.
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- For the third year running, we were placed in the top category – Very High Engagement – for ‘Research partnerships’, ‘Public and Community Engagement’, and ‘IP and Commercialisation’.
- We ranked in the second highest category for ‘Working with the Public and Third Sector’ and ‘Working with business’.
- We have also improved our position in the remaining two categories: ‘Local growth and regeneration’ and ‘CPD and grad start-ups'.
- In a 2023 report, an analysis of the economic and social impact of Queen Mary paid testament to how embedded we are at a local and national level.
- For every £1 Queen Mary spent in 2021/22, we generated £7 of economic benefit (higher than the Russell Group average).
- Queen Mary contributes a total economic impact of £4.4 billion to the UK economy and supports 13,865 FTE jobs.
- In the 2023 Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) Queen Mary was placed in the very top category (Very High Engagement) for a strong performance in areas such as Public and Community Engagement, and IP and Commercialisation. We also ranked in the second highest category for Working with the Public and Third Sector.
- A hallmark of Queen Mary’s sector-leading work in public engagement is our annual Festival of Communities, which showcases our leading research and attracts thousands of people from different East End communities.
- Working with business has led to multiple exciting knowledge exchange projects on matters of global significance. This includes Genes & Health, which is changing lives in the South Asian community and helping fight against heart disease, diabetes, poor health, and other major disease
- We were the first UK university to receive the Platinum Watermark from the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement in 2021.
- Established in 2006, the award-winning Queen Mary Legal Advice Centre has over 300 volunteer law students who provide free, accessible advice to the public on a range of legal issues and facilitate community based public legal education workshops.
- Centre of the Cell, based at the Blizard Institute, is the first science education centre in the world to be located within working biomedical research laboratories.
- Queen Mary has dedicated support for refugees, those who have been in local authority care or those who are estranged from their family or carer.
- Impact: “The gene therapy has changed my life. It is incredible to now hope that I can play with my kids, kick a ball around and climb trees well into my kids’ teenage years and beyond. At 23, I struggled to run 100m to catch a bus; now at 29, I’m walking two miles every day which I just couldn’t have done before having the gene therapy treatment.” Jake Omer, 29, who took part in a groundbreaking gene therapy trial that has brought a ‘cure’ for haemophilia one step closer following results of a groundbreaking gene therapy trial led by Queen Mary.
Social justice
- In 2022, Queen Mary won the ‘University of the Year’ award at the sixth annual UK Social Mobility Awards. The awards recognise organisations that prioritise social mobility through recruitment processes, progression programmes and outreach in the local community.
- In 2021, Queen Mary was named the country’s top university for social mobility in a report by 4 the Institute for Fiscal Studies in partnership with the Sutton Trust and Department for Education.
- In 2001, Queen Mary’s research helped to underpin the national movement for the real Living Wage campaign, and in 2006 it was the first university in the country to be Living Wage accredited.
- We were the first Russell Group institution to deliver Degree Apprenticeship programmes back in 2015, and remain at the forefront of this type of delivery.
Teaching
- In the 2024 Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), we were maintained our Silver award. Within the overall rating, the TEF panel assessed student experience as Bronze, and student outcomes as Silver.
- Queen Mary University of London’s education has been rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted across all categories for its apprenticeship provision. The University is one of only eight universities nationally to receive this top rating.
We endeavour to keep this document as current as possible. If you notice something that needs updating, or have any questions about the data and messaging, please complete our form. Last updated June 4 2025.
