The university generates the third highest endowment income out of all UK universities "reflecting its commercially-orientated heritage."
=== Admissions ===
New students entering the university in 2015 had the 14th highest UCAS Points in the UK at 438 points (the equivalent of AAB at A Level and BB at AS Level). According to the 2017 Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, approximately 8% of Surrey's undergraduates come from independent schools.
For the 2016–17 academic year, the university has a higher proportion of female than male students with a male to female ratio of 45:55 in the population. The undergraduate student body is composed of 73% from the UK, 11% from the EU and 16% from outside of the EU. More students graduate from Surrey with a First Class Honours degree (44.4%) than with a 2:1 degree (40.9%), placing it second amongst mainstream British universities by the proportion of First Class degrees awarded.
=== Reputation and rankings ===
The university has consistently been in the top 20 of the three main ranking compilations of universities in the United Kingdom, placing it 21st in The Times and Sunday Times, 12th in The Good University Guide and the Complete University Guide, and 19th in The Guardian University Guide for 2024.
Subjects ranked in the top 20 include Hospitality & Leisure Management and Petroleum engineering. The university was ranked seventh in the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey 2018. In 2019, Surrey was ranked 161-170th in the QS World Employability Rankings, and first in the UK and 12th in the world for research partnerships with employers.
In 1991 the university was granted the Queen's Award for Export Achievement, and in 1996 was awarded a Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher & Further Education in recognition of the university's outstanding achievement in satellite engineering and communications, teaching and research by the Centre for Satellite Engineering Research and associated companies. In 1998, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd was awarded the …
