The Times and The Sunday Times name Northumbria ‘Modern University of the Year’

Northumbria University has once again been recognised as one of the top universities in the UK after being awarded the title of Modern University of the Year 2025 by The Times and The Sunday Times.

The announcement was made today (Friday 20 September) in the latest edition of the Good University Guide.

It marks an impressive and sustained run of national recognition for Northumbria University in recent years.

In 2022 Northumbria was crowned Times Higher Education’s University of the Year, the most prestigious accolade in the UK higher education sector, in recognition of its transformation over more than a decade into a research-intensive university with social mobility at its heart.

Earlier that year, Northumbria had recorded the biggest rise in research power of any UK university for the second time in a row in the national assessment of research excellence in universities, known as the Research Excellence Framework. A ranking of 23rd in the UK for research power – a measure of the quality and scale of research – confirmed Northumbria’s status as a research-intensive university.

In 2023 the Daily Mail launched its first ever university guide and awarded Northumbria the titles of both Research University of the Year and Modern University of the Year in recognition of its research performance and its deep-seated all-round excellence.

This most recent accolade from The Times and Sunday Times has been awarded following their analysis of Northumbria’s performance in their research quality index, increasing student satisfaction and the University’s overall rise in the table – Northumbria is ranked 43rd overall in the Good University Guide 2025, an improvement of six places from last year – as well as its leading work to improve social mobility and create opportunities in the North East.

The editors noted that Northumbria is “a leading light among the UK’s modern universities” saying that “Northumbria continues to drive social mobility and provide a higher education bedrock to the northeast’s talent pipeline.”

The Good University Guide also noted recent advances in the University’s research capacity, including the £9 million award to create a centre for doctoral training in citizen-centred artificial intelligence, £11.5 million to extend the ReNU centre for renewable energy research and the £50 million North East Space Skills and Technology centre, known as NESST.

Professor Andy Long, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Northumbria University, said: “Northumbria’s achievements in recent years have been truly remarkable and this award marks another exciting chapter in our success story.

“Our aim is to attract students from all backgrounds with the ability and potential to succeed, and currently almost 40% of our students come from areas with low rates of participation in higher education. This is the highest percentage of any research-intensive university, so we know we are distinctive, and we know we are making a real difference. Our vision for the future is to take this University even further and make an even greater contribution to economic growth and social transformation both regionally and nationally.

“It is the achievements of our staff, students, graduates and partners that make Northumbria the distinctive university it is today, and I know they will share in my pride at being recognised as one of the best in the country yet again. I hope they are all recognise the important part they have played in making it happen.”

The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025 is now available online at www.thetimes.com/gooduniversityguide and in a 96-page supplement being published in The Sunday Times on 22 September.

Anyone interested in finding out more about studying at Northumbria can attend the University’s forthcoming open days on Saturday 28 September, Saturday 26 October and Saturday 16 November.

Visit www.northumbria.ac.uk/openday to register interest and book a place.