September 07, 2026

The Buzzy University Sexual Health Support Index 2026

Which universities are doing the best job of supporting students’ sexual health?

University is about a lot more than lectures, deadlines and discovering just how long you can make £20 last. For many students it is also a time when relationships, dating, sex and sexual health become a much bigger part of life.But how easy is it for students to actually find help when they need it?

We created the Buzzy University Sexual Health Support Index 2026 to find out.

Rather than looking at student behaviour, STI rates or making assumptions about how much sex people are having, the index focuses on something universities can actually control: how visible, accessible and useful their sexual health support is. For the expanded study, we looked across comparable universities in England with university status, rather than limiting the analysis to only the country’s biggest institutions. That means smaller universities including Hartpury University and the University of Gloucestershire are considered alongside some of the largest universities in the country.

Each university was assessed against ten equally weighted areas of sexual health support. These included how easily students could find information about contraception, STI testing, local sexual health services, consent, sexual violence support and other practical sexual wellbeing advice. The difference between universities is striking.

Among the institutions achieving a perfect 100 out of 100 in our research were City St George’s, University of London, Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Bristol and the University of Sussex. At these universities, students looking online for sexual health support are met with clear, visible and wide-ranging information rather than having to hunt through multiple pages or external websites. Further down the table, the picture becomes much more mixed. In some cases universities provide good support but make it surprisingly difficult to find. In others, information exists for certain areas such as consent or sexual violence support, but straightforward guidance around STI testing, contraception or local services is much less visible.

That matters because students are one of the age groups most affected by sexual health issues in England. There were 119,033 STI diagnoses among 15 to 24-year-olds in England during 2025, while chlamydia testing among young women fell by 9.4%. The aim of the index is not to shame universities at the bottom of the table. A lower score does not necessarily mean support is unavailable. It means we could not find the same breadth of clearly signposted online information available at the highest-scoring universities.

That distinction is important. When somebody is worried about an STI, needs emergency contraception, has questions about consent or simply wants reliable advice, they should not need to be an expert in navigating their university website to find it.

The strongest universities make that information obvious. And in something as important as sexual health, that should really be the standard everywhere.

How did we score universities?

We created ten categories worth ten points each.

1. Dedicated sexual health information

Could a student find a clear university or Students' Union page specifically addressing sexual health and sexual wellbeing?

2. Free condoms

Were free condoms clearly available or signposted through the university, Students' Union or a linked service?

3. Free STI testing

Was access to free STI screening clearly explained?

4. Home or postal STI testing

Could students clearly find a route to a free home, postal or self-testing service?

5. Routine contraception

Was access to contraception clearly explained and signposted?

6. Emergency contraception

Could a student easily find information about accessing emergency contraception?

7. Consent education or training

Did the university provide a consent module, training programme, campaign, workshop or substantial educational resource?

8. Formal reporting

Was there an obvious way of reporting sexual harassment, sexual misconduct or sexual violence?

9. Specialist sexual violence support

Was specialist support clearly available or signposted to students?

10. University-linked sexual health provision

Did students have access to a university-linked clinic, medical centre, sexual health nurse, drop-in or comparable service?

Each category was worth ten points, creating a maximum overall score of 100.

What does a low score actually mean?

This bit matters. A low score does not automatically mean a university does not provide sexual health support. Our study audits the support a student can clearly find online. We awarded points only where we could identify sufficiently clear evidence through an official university website, official Students' Union, university-linked medical service or clearly signposted NHS or local sexual health provider.

If we couldn't clearly evidence something, it received zero points. That could mean the service isn't offered. But it could also mean the university offers it and simply hasn't made it easy enough to find.

And frankly, that matters too. If a nervous fresher urgently needs emergency contraception, an STI test or help following an unwanted sexual experience, having the service somewhere in the city isn't much use if they cannot work out where to go.

What the universities at the top get right

The strongest-performing universities tend to do something refreshingly simple: They make the important stuff easy to find. They tell students where to get condoms. They explain where and how to get tested. They provide clear contraception information. They talk openly about consent. And they make it obvious where a student can turn if they experience harassment, sexual misconduct or violence.

It doesn't require an enormous technological investment. It requires good information, clear language and thinking about the journey from the perspective of the student who actually needs help.

Why this matters during Freshers

There were 2,863,180 students enrolled at UK higher education providers in the 2024/25 academic year, according to the latest HESA figures. Every autumn brings another huge intake of students learning how to navigate a new town or city, a new healthcare system and, for many, their first experience of living independently University websites contain pages explaining accommodation, finance, modules, libraries, careers, societies and campus facilities. Being able to find a condom or STI test shouldn't require detective work.

Sexual Health Week 2026

The Buzzy index is being published ahead of Sexual Health Week 2026, which runs from 14–20 September. This year's theme from sexual health charity Brook is ‘Let’s Connect’, focusing on meaningful human connection across friendships, romantic and sexual relationships, as well as communication, wellbeing, community and tackling stigma and health inequalities. Those themes feel particularly relevant to university life.

Sexual wellbeing isn't simply about preventing an infection or pregnancy. It includes knowing what you want, understanding consent, being able to communicate it and knowing there is somewhere safe to turn if something goes wrong.

Andy Barr, Head of Marketing at Buzzy, said:

“Going to university is the first time many people have complete independence over their relationships and sexual health. We wanted to know whether universities make it genuinely easy for students to find help, rather than producing another silly league table about which university supposedly has the most sex. The best universities make the basics incredibly clear: here are your free condoms, here's how you get tested, here's where you go for contraception and here's who will help you confidentially if something happens that you didn't consent to.

“At the other end of the table, we're not saying universities don't provide those things. We're saying we struggled to find clear evidence that they do. If we struggled while actively researching it, there's a fair chance a fresher might struggle too. And that's an incredibly easy thing for universities to fix.”

Our methodology

Research for the Buzzy University Sexual Health Support Index 2026 was carried out in September 2026.

The study examined 50 large English universities selected using the latest available provider-level enrolment information published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency. HESA's latest provider-level student data covers the 2024/25 academic year and was updated in January 2026. Each university could receive a maximum of 100 points across ten equally weighted categories.

We used information from:

Official university websites
Official Students' Union websites
University-linked NHS or medical centres
Sexual health providers directly signposted to students by universities

We deliberately did not use local STI diagnosis rates in the ranking. A high STI diagnosis rate can be influenced by higher levels of testing, meaning using it as a proxy for poor sexual health provision could actually penalise areas doing a good job of identifying and treating infections. The index therefore focuses on access, visibility, information and support rather than attempting to judge the sexual behaviour of students.

Have we missed something?

Universities regularly change services and web pages.

If you represent one of the institutions included in this study and believe we've missed current student sexual health provision, please send us the relevant information and we'll review the score.

Because when it comes to helping students access better sexual health support, we'd much rather update the table than be right.

Here is the full league table.

Rank	University	Score / 100
1	City St George's, University of London	100
1	Oxford Brookes University	100
1	Sheffield Hallam University	100
1	University of Bristol	100
1	University of Kent	100
1	University of Surrey	100
1	University of Sussex	100
8	Bournemouth University	90
8	Durham University	90
8	Imperial College London	90
8	London School of Economics and Political Science	90
8	Loughborough University	90
8	Nottingham Trent University	90
8	Queen Mary University of London	90
8	Royal Holloway, University of London	90
8	Teesside University	90
8	University of Chichester	90
8	University of Derby	90
8	University of Hertfordshire	90
8	University of Leeds	90
8	University of Nottingham	90
8	University of Reading	90
8	University of Salford	90
8	University of Warwick	90
8	University of York	90
26	Bath Spa University	80
26	Birkbeck, University of London	80
26	Canterbury Christ Church University	80
26	Keele University	80
26	King's College London	80
26	Liverpool Hope University	80
26	Norwich University of the Arts	80
26	University of Bath	80
26	University of Cambridge	80
26	University of Exeter	80
26	University of Lincoln	80
26	University of Manchester	80
26	University of Oxford	80
26	University of Portsmouth	80
26	University of Roehampton	80
26	University of Sheffield	80
26	University of Staffordshire	80
26	University of the Arts London	80
26	University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)	80
26	University of Westminster	80
46	Aston University	70
46	Birmingham City University	70
46	Edge Hill University	70
46	Falmouth University	70
46	Leeds Beckett University	70
46	Manchester Metropolitan University	70
46	Newcastle University	70
46	University of Brighton	70
46	University of Chester	70
46	University of East Anglia	70
46	University of Greenwich	70
46	University of West London	70
46	University of Worcester	70
46	York St John University	70
60	Arts University Plymouth	60
60	Bishop Grosseteste University	60
60	Harper Adams University	60
60	Hartpury University	60
60	Kingston University	60
60	Lancaster University	60
60	Liverpool John Moores University	60
60	London Metropolitan University	60
60	Royal Agricultural University	60
60	Southampton Solent University	60
60	St Mary's University, Twickenham	60
60	University College London (UCL)	60
60	University of Essex	60
60	University of Greater Manchester	60
60	University of Huddersfield	60
60	University of Lancashire	60
60	University of Liverpool	60
77	Arts University Bournemouth	50
77	Birmingham Newman University	50
77	Coventry University	50
77	London South Bank University	50
77	Northumbria University	50
77	Royal Veterinary College	50
77	University of Birmingham	50
77	University of Winchester	50
77	University of Wolverhampton	50
86	Buckinghamshire New University	40
86	Goldsmiths, University of London	40
86	Health Sciences University	40
86	Middlesex University	40
86	Royal Academy of Music	40
86	University of Bedfordshire	40
86	University of Cumbria	40
86	University of Gloucestershire	40
94	BPP University	30
94	Brunel University London	30
94	Courtauld Institute of Art	30
94	De Montfort University	30
94	Leeds Trinity University	30
94	Plymouth Marjon University	30
94	SOAS University of London	30
94	University College Birmingham	30
94	University for the Creative Arts	30
94	University of Bradford	30
94	University of Hull	30
94	University of Law	30
94	University of Leicester	30
94	University of Northampton	30
94	University of Plymouth	30
94	University of Suffolk	30
94	University of Sunderland	30
111	Anglia Ruskin University	20
111	Leeds Arts University	20
111	Ravensbourne University London	20
111	Regent's University London	20
111	University of Buckingham	20
111	University of East London	20
111	University of Southampton	20
118	Royal Central School of Speech and Drama	10