Students in the UK are advised to first decide on the direction of study and then choose the appropriate universities.

Since one application is submitted simultaneously to 5 universities, as a rule, the student chooses very similar courses at different universities.

When choosing universities the first step is often based on how the student’s current and predicted grades match the university’s requirements. It is also important to take into account the content of the course at each university (programmes with the same name can differ significantly in content). For many students, the location of the university and campus are important.

University ranking is also one of the factors that students consider: https://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2019/jun/07/university-league-tables-2020

However usually they are guided by the ranking on the subject, rather than the overall ranking. To do this, it is useful to sort the ranking by subject (select the course of interest / Pick a subject area).