Google Trends Study: Top Most Sought-After UK Universities Globally

We are used to reading various articles with data such as top-ranked universities, universities with the most foreign students, or with the best study facilities, but have you ever wondered which universities from the UK are the most globally searched on the internet?

Our team at Erudera, has conducted research on this matter and has come up with a list of the most internet-searched UK universities worldwide.

A total of 2.75 million students chose the United Kingdom as their favorite destination to pursue their studies, of which more than 605,000 are internationals.

In addition, there are over 150 higher education institutions in the UK.

Data scientists from Erudera have collected and analyzed data on the number of searches performed on the internet regarding each higher education institution in the UK, thus coming up with a list of the top most searched universities.

According to reviews and ratings on the higher education information site Erudera, these are the top most internet-searched UK universities:

1. The University of Oxford is on top of the list with 236,000 monthly searches, which mainly come from India, the Philippines, Botswana, Jamaica, the United Kingdom, and St. Helena.  

Google searched in a total of 66 regions. 

2. The University of Edinburgh is ranked second with a total of 186,000 monthly searches, which searches came mainly from China, the United Kingdom, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Qatar. 

Google searched in a total of 51 regions. 

3. Coventry University has a total of 181,000 searches monthly. Searches come from countries like the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ghana, and Sri Lanka. 

Google searched in a total of 41 regions.

4. The University of Cambridge is listed fourth in Erudera’s list, with 156,000 monthly searches, which searches come mainly from Ghana, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, the United Kingdom, and China. 

Google searched in a total of 61 regions.

5. The University of Glasgow is the next one on the list, with a sum of 134,000 searches, that mainly come from countries such as the UK, Nigeria, Cyprus, China, and St. Helena. 

Google searched in a total of 53 regions.

6. The University of Manchester is the sixth one, with up to 130,000 searches every month, and the countries that most require this university is also similar to the mentioned overhead. 

Google searched in a total of 53 regions.

7. Kingson University with 127,000 searches, with a volume of searches from Jamaica, the UK, China, Cyprus, and St. Helena. 

Google searched in a total of 44 regions.

8. Northumbria University & the University of Birmingham has a count of 122,000 monthly searches each, with a combination of searches from St. Helena, Zimbabwe, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and Nigeria. 

Google searched in a total of 35 & 48 regions.

9. The University of Leeds searched especially in countries such as St.Helena, the UK, Malawi, China, and Ghana, and Durham University demanding searches in the UK, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Pakistan, stand in a tie of results, 120,000 searches each.

Google searched in a total of 54 & 41 regions.

10. Last but not least, Loughborough University stands with 117,000 internet searches every month, with a volume of searches from countries similar to those mentioned above, the UK, St. Helena, China, Sri Lanka, and Nigeria.

Google searched in a total of 37 regions.   

“The UK is the second most popular study destination in the world, right after the US, counting 605,130 international students by the last academic year, the highest it ever had. The reputation of universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, and the UK higher education system continues to engross ambitious people who want to be part of some of the world’s most renowned universities,” – a spokesperson from Erudera stated.

Methodology

Our main aim with this research was to gather and analyze information on which universities are the most searched online and how many monthly searches each one has. 

We manually researched and reviewed over 150 universities in the UK, separately, after that, we searched for the monthly searches for each university in Ahrefs, which is a Search engine optimization software suite that amongst others is used to conduct keyword research for search engines, including here Google.

Thenceforth, after filtering the universities with the highest search figures we have also compared them with the searches in Google Trends, to come to a conclusion with the total global regions searching these universities in the last 30 days.