The university has a very high quality research profile. In the first national assessment of higher education research since the university’s founding, the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, the University of Manchester came 3rd in terms of research power after Cambridge and Oxford and 6th for grade point average quality[15] (8th when including specialist institutions).[8] Accordingly, Manchester enjoys the largest amount of research funding behind Oxbridge, UCL and Imperial[16] (these five universities being informally referred to as the 'golden diamond' of research-intensive UK institutions[17]). Historically, the university has been linked with high scientific achievement: the constituent former institutions combined have 23 Nobel Laureates among their former students and staff, the third largest number of any single university in the United Kingdom behind Oxford and Cambridge; in fact, excluding Oxbridge, Manchester has graduated more Nobel laureates than any other university in the UK.

The Times Higher World University Rankings 2009 ranked Manchester overall 26th in the world and 5th by employer reviews[18] while the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2008 published by the Institute of Higher Education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked Manchester 5th in the UK, 6th in Europe and 40th in the world.[19] After several years of steady progress Manchester fell back in 2009 to 41st in the world and 7th in Europe.[20] Excluding US universities, Manchester is ranked 13th and 11th in the world for 2009 by THES and ARWU respectively. According to the ARWU rankings the university is ranked 9th in Europe for natural sciences[21] and 4th in engineering.[22] Similarly the HEEACT 2009 rankings for scientific performance place Manchester 5th in Europe for engineering,[23] 8th for natural sciences[24] and 3rd for social sciences.[25] And finally THES ranks Manchester 6th in Europe for technology,[26] 10th for life sciences[27] and 7th for social sciences.[28]

According to High Fliers Research Limited's survey, 'The Graduate Market in 2007', University of Manchester students are being targeted by more top recruiters for 2007 graduate vacancies than any other UK university students.[29] Furthermore the university has been ranked joint 20th in the world for 2009 according to the Professional Ranking of World Universities.[30] Its main compilation criterion is the number of Chief Executive Officers (or number 1 executive equivalent) which are among the "500 leading worldwide companies" as measured by revenue who studied in each university. The ranking places the University only behind Oxford nationally. Also a further report places Manchester within the top 20 universities outside the US.[31]

While as a rule world rankings (such as the ARWU, THES and HEEACT[32]) typically place the university within the top 10 in Europe, national studies are less complementary; the Times 'Good University Guide'[33] 2009 ranked Manchester 27th of 113 Universities in the UK, as did the Independent's 'Complete University Guide'[34],while the Guardian has ranked it as low as 32nd place in the UK.[35] This apparent paradox is mainly a reflection of the different ranking methodologies employed by each listing: global rankings focus on research and international prestige, whereas national rankings are largely based on teaching and the student experience.