6th in the UK: Complete University Guide 2025

This week, we maintained our place among the UK’s most highly regarded departments for the subject of history of art, architecture and design. The Department of History of Art ranked Xth in the UK in The Complete University Guide 2025.

Head of Department, Professor Liz Prettejohn, said, "at York we believe in the power of visual art to change the world for the better. My colleagues work tirelessly to make the experience of all our students as positive and transformative as possible. So I am delighted that their efforts have been acknowledged in The Complete University Guide 2025. We look forward to welcoming our next cohort of new students to History of Art at York!"

York’s overall position

The University of York ranked joint 17th overall in the Complete University Guide 2025. The guide ranks 130 institutions across the UK.

In total, 14 subjects at York were ranked in the UK top 10:

• Archaeology (7th)
• Biological Sciences (7th)
• Chemistry (7th)
• Drama, Dance and Cinematics (3rd)
• English (8th)
• French (4th)
• History (9th)
• History of Art, Architecture and Design (6th)
• Iberian Languages (Spanish) (6th)
• Linguistics (10th)
• Marketing (6th)
• Philosophy (10th)
• Psychology (9th)
• Social Work (3rd)

A further 10 subjects appeared in the UK top 20.

About the Complete University Guide

Published annually, The Complete University Guide league tables rank the best universities in the UK. It covers 74 separate subject areas, as well as an overall institutional ranking. Universities and subjects are ranked on entry standards, student satisfaction, research quality, graduate prospects, completion rates, student-staff ratio and spend on academic services and facilities.

The rankings are based on public domain data collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), the National Student Survey and the Research Excellence Framework 2021.