9th in the UK: Complete University Guide 2025
History at York is ranked 9th in the UK according to the latest release of the Complete University Guide league tables (2025).
This week, we maintained our place among the UK’s most highly regarded departments for the subject of history. The Department of History ranked 9th in the UK in The Complete University Guide 2025.
York also ranked highly in the subjects of French (4th), history of art, architecture and design (6th) and philosophy (10th), highlighting the quality of our joint degrees with the Departments of Language and Linguistic Science, History of Art and Philosophy.
Head of Department, Professor Laura Stewart said, “this is a fantastic result. It belongs not only to our academic and support staff, but also to our wonderful students: their enthusiasm and commitment is what inspires us. York History is a real community and that’s why we remain a great choice for students, wherever they’ve come from”.
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.