Undergraduate university guide 2015: download the Guardian tables

Cambridge have topped the Guardian University guide and ranking for 2015, once again. But who are the biggest movers and which have fallen furthest? Get the full league table including rankings by subject

Full 2015 league table including rankings by subject
Read the methodology
Banding boundaries details (download as an xls to change the subject and performance measure when you open it as a spreadsheet)
University guide 2014

Cambridge university has topped the Guardian undergraduate university league table for the fourth year in a row. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

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Cambridge University has retained its number one spot on the Guardian undergraduate university league table for the fourth year in a row, topping 17 of the 26 subject tables that it appears in.

Oxford University, also retaining its position on the league table, takes second place. St Andrews jumps up one position from last year to be placed third as the London School of Economics (LSE) slips from third to seventh in the 2015 Guardian rankings.

Bath university has climbed three places to take fourth place, while Imperial jumps from ninth in the 2014 rankings to fifth in the 2015 list. Surrey has seen its position change for the better - up two to sixth place. Durham and Warwick have also climbed up the rankings and now take eighth and ninth place respectively. Lancaster University is back in the top ten in the latest list after having dropped out in last year's rankings when it was placed 11th.

There's not such good news for all. University College London (UCL) has dropped out of the top ten in the 2015 rankings - down six places to number 11. Rebecca Ratcliffe writes:

The Universities of Bath, Surrey and Lancaster have charged ahead of their Russell Group peers in the Guardian league table of universities, knocking University College London (UCL) out of its traditional place in the top 10.

The London School of Economics (LSE), UCL's neighbour and fellow member of the elite Russell Group of research-focused universities, has also suffered, losing its place in the top three to St Andrews.

14 of the top 25 institutions are members of the Russell Group - the same number as in last year's rankings. However, UCL dropping to eleventh place means that there are six Russell Group universities in the top 10, one fewer than in 2014 guide.

So who have been the biggest climbers and fallers on this year's league table?

Anglia Ruskin have seen the biggest drop - down 38 places from 67th place in last year's list to 105. Birmingham City has also recorded a big fall, down 27 places to 88th in the latest rankings. Bournemouth, Aberystwyth, Greenwich and Chester universities have each seen a decreases of 15 or more places in the 2015 league table.

Glyndŵr has climbed to 64^th spot having been 108^th in 2013. Student Staff Ratios (SSR) have improved from 23.2 to 20.1, but it is in Media and Film Studies that the university has really made the leap - up from 84^th to 35^th.

Derby and Falmouth both recorded impressive increases, up by 29 and 23 places respectively. Both the University of the Arts London and Manchester Metropolitan have climbed 22 places since last year. Central Lancashire and University Campus Suffolk have each seen a jump of 20 places on this year's rankings.

If we turn our attention to the ranking of specialist institutions, we'll see that St Mary's UC, Belfast has replaced the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the top. You can find the full list in the downloadable spreadsheet.

Tell me about the subject rankings

Cambridge once again dominates the subject rankings, coming top in 17of the 26 subject tables that it appears in. It also only appears outside of the top three for three subjects within the 26 subject tables it is featured in.

Oxford came top in four subjects: anthropology, economics, engineering: materials and mineral and business, management and marketing. Last year the university topped eight of the subject tables.

It might not exactly be new that Oxbridge once again dominate the majority of the subject league tables, but what is notable is the rise to the top of some of the subject tables by other universities. For example, once top for chemistry, Oxford has been trumped by Heriot-Watt university (which overall comes in at 13th place on the university guide).

St Andrews are ranked top for maths (previously held by Cambridge), politics and physics (both previously held by Oxford) while Liverpool university has overtaken Cambridge for veterinary science and have also replaced Oxford who previously held the top spot for anatomy.

The tables were compiled by independent consultancy firm Intelligent Metrix. It's based originally on information collected by Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and the National Student Survey, published by Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce). The Guardian university guide is a ranking at undergraduate level only.

The Guardian undergraduate university guide can be explored below alongside information such as spend per student, student to staff ratio and institutions' value-added score.

Click on the downloadable spreadsheet to view the individual rankings by subject. We'd love to read your comments in the thread below.

• If you want to pose any questions regarding the league table, the compiler of the tables, Matt Hiely-Rayner from Intelligent Metrix, will beonline from 12-2pm today, to answer your questions and explain the lengthy process of consultation, categorisation and number-crunching that goes into putting these figures together each year.