The Daily Mail has published the methodology behind its Clearing Guide 2026, explaining how it ranks UK universities and subject areas ahead of the clearing season. It says the exercise is the broadest of its kind, assessing institutions across 12 indicators, with subject-level rankings covering 80 subject areas based on five separate measures relating to student satisfaction and graduate outcomes.

The rankings draw on established higher education datasets, including the National Student Survey, the Research Excellence Framework, the Graduate Outcomes Survey and bespoke data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency. Three of the core measures come from the 2026 National Student Survey, completed by more than 360,000 final-year students (a 71.8 per cent response rate), covering teaching quality, student support and overall student experience. Graduate outcome measures include the proportion of graduates in highly skilled jobs 15 months after leaving university and median salaries, benchmarked against Imperial College London's £39,000 top figure, based on Graduate Outcomes Survey data from almost 354,000 respondents.