Admissions ===
In 2024, UEA had the joint forty-eighth highest average entry qualification for undergraduates of any UK university, along with Royal Holloway and City St George's. New students entering the university that year had an average of 139 UCAS points (the equivalent of ABBb at A-Level). In 2024, the ratio of applications to acceptances was 4.10 to 1. In 2020/21, 8% of UEA's undergraduates were privately educated. In 2022/23, the student body was 58% female and 42% male. Additionally, in that academic year 84% of UEA students had come from the UK, 4% of students from the EU, and 12% of students were from outside the UK or EU.
=== Grade distribution and inflation ===
Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) showed that UEA has one of the highest proportions of First Class and Upper Second Class degrees achieved by students with more than Oxford and Cambridge. Only three universities in the United Kingdom have been awarded a higher proportion of First Class degrees than UEA between the academic years 2014/15 and 2017/18. There is a concern about grade inflation with the degrees awarded by English universities, with the University of East Anglia awarding 35.7% First Class degrees, 52.1% Upper Seconds (2:1), 11.2% Lower Seconds (2:2) and 1% Third Class degrees in 2016/17.
=== Rankings and reputation ===
The results of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, published on 12 May 2022, showed that over 91% of the university's research activity was deemed to be "world leading" or "internationally excellent" with more than 47% having the highest category of 4* of World Leading Research, significantly higher than the national average of 41%. UEA was ranked thirteenth in the UK for the quality of its research outputs and twentieth overall amongst all mainstream British institutions – a rise of nine places since the last assessment in 2014. The university ranks in the Top 1% worldwide according to the Times Higher Education world rankings, and within the world Top 100 for research excellence in …
