ENGLAND’S BEST UNIVERSITIES FOR SEXUAL HEALTH SUPPORT REVEALED
As part of Sexual Health Week 2026 (14-20 Sept) and the start of the UK Freshers week, a new set of research examines how easy universities make it for students to find advice on contraception, STI testing, consent and sexual health services
A new England-wide study has revealed major differences in the sexual health information and support universities make available to their students.
The Buzzy University Sexual Health Support Index 2026 examined publicly available student support information across 118 comparable universities in England, assessing how clearly institutions signpost services and advice covering areas including contraception, STI testing, consent, sexual violence and sexual wellbeing.
Among the universities achieving a perfect 100 out of 100 in the research were City St George’s, University of London, Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Bristol and the University of Sussex, Oxford Brookes, University of Kent, andy University of Surrey.
The eight lowest ranking universities in England for sexual health support were, Anglia Ruskin University, Leeds Arts University, Ravensbourne University London, Regent’s University London, University of Buckingham, University of East London and University of Southampton.
The full index of all Universities in England is here.
The study was created by online sexual wellbeing retailer Buzzy.co.uk and has now been expanded beyond its original analysis of England’s 50 largest universities to include smaller institutions that can be meaningfully compared.
The expanded approach means universities including Hartpury University and the University of Gloucestershire are assessed alongside much larger institutions, creating a broader picture of the sexual health information available to students across England.
Researchers scored universities against ten equally weighted criteria, awarding a maximum of ten points in each category and an overall possible score of 100.
The research assessed how easily students could find relevant information through university websites and publicly accessible student support pages. It did not examine students’ sexual behaviour or attempt to rank universities according to STI prevalence.
The findings come against a significant sexual health backdrop for younger people in England.
There were 119,033 STI diagnoses among people aged 15 to 24 in England in 2025, while chlamydia testing among young women fell by 9.4%.
Buzzy.co.uk Head of marketing, Andy Barr said:
“University is often the first time young people are living independently and making all of their own decisions around relationships, sex and sexual health.
“What really stood out from the research was not simply whether support existed, but how easy universities made it to find.
“The best-performing institutions put clear information around contraception, testing, consent and local services where students can actually access it. At others, you can find yourself clicking through page after page before getting anywhere useful.
“We also wanted to broaden the research beyond the biggest universities. A student at a smaller university should be able to expect the same standard of accessible sexual health information as somebody studying at one of the country’s biggest institutions.
“This isn't about embarrassing universities towards the bottom of a league table. In many cases services may exist but are poorly signposted online. That is also one of the easiest problems to fix.”
The researchers stressed that a lower score does not necessarily indicate that a university provides poor sexual health services.
Instead, the index measures the breadth and visibility of information that a student could reasonably expect to find online, meaning universities may provide additional services that were not clearly signposted through their publicly accessible websites.
The study also excludes or treats separately institutions where a direct comparison would be misleading, including predominantly postgraduate, distance-learning and some highly specialist providers.
The full Buzzy University Sexual Health Support Index 2026 ranking is available at https://buzzy.co.uk/blogs/news/university-sexual-health-index
Please email hello@buzzy.co.uk for any data questions or suggested data amends.
ENDS
About Buzzy.co.uk
Buzzy.co.uk is a UK online sexual wellbeing retailer offering a broad range of adult products, including sex toys, lubricants, lingerie and sexual wellness products. The brand focuses on accessible, judgement-free advice, discreet delivery and making sexual wellbeing easier to understand and shop for.
About the Buzzy University Sexual Health Support Index 2026
The index assesses how clearly universities in England signpost publicly available sexual health information and support through their websites and student support pages. Universities were scored against ten equally weighted criteria, with a maximum possible score of 100.
The research looks at the visibility and accessibility of information covering areas including contraception, STI testing, local sexual health services, consent, sexual violence support and wider sexual wellbeing.
A lower score does not necessarily mean that a university provides poor sexual health services. It indicates that the same breadth of information was not as easy to find through publicly accessible university websites at the time of the research.
The index does not assess student sexual behaviour, individual STI rates or the quality of students’ sex lives.
The expanded 2026 study includes 118 comparable universities in England, with predominantly postgraduate, distance-learning and some highly specialist institutions excluded where a direct comparison would be misleading.
