OXFORD has been beaten to the top of a prestigious UK universities league table by Cambridge, for the eighth year in a row.

The Complete University Guide 2019 is one of a number of well-regarded league tables, but has not ranked Oxford on top since 2011.

The Times Higher Education ranking labelled Oxford the country’s best university last year.

The Complete University Guide ranks universities on 10 measures, including student satisfaction, research, entry standards, the proportion of good honours degrees awarded, graduate prospects and completion rates.

Oxford came out on top in research quality, academic services spending and the number of good honours degrees awarded, but was beaten by Cambridge on all the other measures.

The top university is given 1,000 points, with Oxford coming in on 997. In third place, behind the Oxbridge pair, was the London School of Economics and Political Science on 935.

Imperial College London was fourth with 930, with the University of St Andrews rounding off the top five on 928.

Dr Bernard Kingston, chairman of thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk, said: "It is a fact that Cambridge and Oxford have usually topped the table.

But some 20 British universities could be regarded as top world-class institutions - some ancient like Cambridge and Oxford, and some modern like Warwick and Lancaster.

All are able to attract faculty and research funding globally. "This clearly influences the quality of their undergraduate teaching and enables them to recruit high-quality students.

All universities strive for continual improvement, and it is conceivable that in the future others may pose a challenge to Cambridge and Oxford."

The authors note that across the UK, the proportion of graduates gaining a first or 2.1 has increased year-on-year since the table was first created.

Durham was in sixth position, followed by Loughborough, who swapped places with University College London for tenth spot, while Lancaster and Warwick and came in eighth and ninth.

The rankings, which cover 131 institutions, also show that the biggest climber was Staffordshire University, which moves up 32 places to joint 73rd.