University of Plymouth Rankings 2026-27: QS, THE, ARWU & Subject Rankings

University of Plymouth Overall Rankings 2026

Across five ranking bodies, Plymouth’s sustainability-focused THE Impact score stands roughly 400 places above every other headline rank. The university’s QS, THE World, ARWU and U.S. News positions sit in the global 500-800 band, while its THE Impact rank of #84 is the single strongest world-level signal.

The gap between Plymouth’s THE Impact position (#84) and its QS slot (#691) is roughly 600 places. For Indian applicants, this gap signals that Plymouth’s international brand is tied to climate, marine and public-health work rather than overall research scale, and the sustainability credential will carry weight on CVs targeting green-economy employers.

University of Plymouth Rankings: Bottom Line for Indian Students

The ranking signals that matter for Indian applicants split into three groups: sustainability leadership, marine and health subject depth, and mid-tier overall world rank. The strongest reasons to pick Plymouth are not on its headline QS line.

The two strongest signals for an Indian student are Plymouth’s #6 Responsible Consumption position and its top-75 Marine and Ocean Engineering rank. For a student choosing Plymouth over a higher-QS UK option, the real trade-off is subject depth and sustainability credentials against headline brand recognition.

University of Plymouth QS World University Rankings 2027

University of Plymouth ranks #691 in QS World University Rankings 2027, released by QS in June 2026. QS, which rates universities on academic reputation, employer opinion, citations and faculty-to-student ratio, has placed Plymouth 78 positions below its QS 2026 band of #613.

Across five editions, Plymouth’s QS trajectory has drifted downward after a 2024 peak at #561.

Plymouth has slipped 130 positions since QS 2024 (#561), with the biggest single-year drop between 2024 and 2025. For Indian applicants, the signal is that QS is not the Plymouth story. Degree value for Plymouth graduates in Indian employer markets rests on subject-level ranks, not on this trajectory.

Key insight: Plymouth’s five-year QS average sits near #625, roughly 60 places above its 2027 position. The QS slide has not shifted the university’s UK national rank (#75 in Complete University Guide 2026), suggesting the drop reflects global peer pressure rather than institutional decline.

Collegedunia Study Abroad Rankings of University of Plymouth

Collegedunia Study Abroad places University of Plymouth firmly inside its UK top 70 and the global top 500 for 2026. The methodology weights subject strength, Indian student outcomes and admissions access for Indian applicants.

Plymouth’s Collegedunia UK rank of #68 sits about 207 global positions above its QS 2027 slot of #691. The gap reflects Collegedunia’s weighting of Indian student outcomes and subject strength, which favour Plymouth’s marine, nursing and sustainability programmes over pure research volume.

University of Plymouth Times Higher Education (THE) Rankings

University of Plymouth ranks in the #501-600 band in THE World University Rankings 2026, published by Times Higher Education. THE, which rates universities on teaching, research environment, research quality, international outlook and industry income, has held Plymouth in the same band for two consecutive editions.

Plymouth dropped a full band between THE 2024 and THE 2025, slipping from the 401-500 group it had occupied for three straight years.

The one-band drop between THE 2024 and THE 2025 was followed by a flat line in THE 2026. For Indian students, a two-year hold at #501-600 matters more than the single-year drop: it suggests the band is a stable floor, not a continuing decline, and the degree brand will not shift sharply in the next cycle.

Trend signal: Plymouth’s THE position has moved only one band in five years, which is tight stability for a mid-tier research university. The band move still leaves it well inside the global top 600 of a THE sample of over 2,000 ranked universities.

University of Plymouth THE Impact Rankings 2025

The THE Impact Rankings score universities against the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and University of Plymouth ranks #84 overall in THE Impact 2025. It sits inside the global top 10 on one SDG, inside the top 50 on three more, and inside the top 100 on seven of the ten SDGs it was scored on.

Four of Plymouth’s ten SDG ranks (#6, #40, #46, #50) sit above its overall position of #84, with the Responsible Consumption rank nearly 80 places above the overall score. For an Indian student targeting climate research, ocean science or energy policy, this means Plymouth’s sustainability brand is unusually strong relative to its headline world rank.

India-relevance: Plymouth’s SDG 14 Life Below Water rank of #46 aligns with its ARWU Marine and Ocean Engineering position of #51-75. For Indian applicants in oceanography, naval architecture or coastal engineering, this is one of the few UK universities where sustainability and subject strength point to the same conclusion.

University of Plymouth ARWU (Shanghai) Rankings

University of Plymouth ranks in the #701-800 band of ARWU 2025, published by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. ARWU, which weights Nobel laureates, highly-cited researchers and research paper counts, has pushed Plymouth two bands lower across the last five editions.

Plymouth’s ARWU trajectory shows a steady slide from the 501-600 band in 2021 to the 701-800 band held in both 2024 and 2025.

The two-band drop since ARWU 2022 reflects ARWU’s heavy weighting of research paper counts, where Plymouth sits below larger UK research universities. For Indian students, the signal is that ARWU reads Plymouth lower than subject-level rankings do, and the ARWU score should not be the primary filter when the applicant’s field matches Plymouth’s marine or nursing strength.

What it signals: Plymouth’s ARWU band move of two steps over five years contrasts with its ARWU GRAS Marine and Ocean Engineering position of #51-75. The institutional rank and the subject rank disagree sharply, which is the clearest sign that subject-level ranks matter more here than overall ARWU.

University of Plymouth U.S. News Best Global University Rankings 2025-2026

University of Plymouth ranks #809 in U.S. News Best Global Universities 2025-2026, released by U.S. News and World Report in October 2025. U.S. News uses a bibliometric formula built around research publications, citations and international collaboration.

Plymouth has dropped 268 positions across the three U.S. News editions tracked, the sharpest multi-year slide of any ranking body here. For Indian students, this rank weighs less in UK admissions and recruitment than QS or THE do, so the trend does not change the practical case for a Plymouth degree.

University of Plymouth Subject Rankings 2025-2026

Plymouth is officially ranked in nine THE subjects for 2026 and six ARWU GRAS subjects for 2025. The strongest subject signal is ARWU GRAS Marine and Ocean Engineering at #51-75, followed by Oceanography and Nursing at #76-100.

Times Higher Education Subject Rankings 2026

Nine THE subjects place Plymouth between the #251-300 and #501-600 bands, with Education Studies leading and Medical and Health at the bottom of this list.

Five THE subjects sit in the same #301-400 band, meaning Plymouth is a broad-base rather than peak-tier research university across business, computer science, engineering and life sciences. For Indian students in these fields, THE subject bands sit roughly 300 places above the overall world rank, so the degree carries more weight at subject level than at institution level.

Key insight: Education Studies at #251-300 is the only THE subject inside the global top 300 for Plymouth, roughly 250 places above the overall THE position. Indian students targeting MA Education or teacher-training routes get the sharpest subject premium here.

ARWU Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2025

Six ARWU GRAS subjects place Plymouth between #51-75 and #151-200, every one of them inside the global top 200.

Marine and Ocean Engineering at #51-75 is roughly 650 ARWU places above Plymouth’s overall slot of #701-800, the sharpest subject-vs-overall gap on this page. For Indian applicants in oceanography, naval architecture, coastal engineering or nursing, this is where the Plymouth degree earns its global brand.

University of Plymouth UK National Rankings 2026

University of Plymouth ranks #75 in the Complete University Guide 2026 and #84 in The Guardian University Guide 2026, placing it inside the UK top 85 across both major domestic ranking bodies.

The nine-position gap between CUG (#75) and Guardian (#84) is normal for mid-tier UK universities, since the Guardian weights student satisfaction and value-added scores more heavily. Collegedunia Study Abroad places Plymouth seven places higher than CUG, which is driven by the stronger weighting of subject-level outcomes relevant to Indian students.

Note: Across the three UK-focused tables Plymouth stays inside the top 85, which is a tighter spread than its global rank bands (QS 2027 #691 to THE Impact 2025 #84). The UK rank stability signals a stable UK degree-brand for Indian applicants planning the Graduate Route.

University of Plymouth Rankings: Indian Student Outlook

For Indian students, Plymouth’s ranking case rests on three specific signals: sustainability leadership, marine and nursing subject depth, and a stable UK top-85 position. The university currently hosts about 2,000 international students across its programmes.

The programmes Indian students most commonly choose at Plymouth map directly to its strongest subject ranks:

• MSc Physiotherapy and MSc Neurological Rehabilitation: backed by Plymouth’s ARWU Nursing rank of #76-100 and THE Medical and Health band of #501-600, with research anchored in applied clinical rehabilitation.
• BSc Computer Science: aligned with the THE Computer Science band of #301-400, roughly 300 places above the overall world rank.
• BEng and MEng Mechanical Engineering: supported by the THE Engineering band of #301-400 and the ARWU Marine and Ocean Engineering position of #51-75, which is the strongest engineering signal here.
• MSc International Hospitality Management: backed by the THE Business and Economics band of #301-400.