All the London universities that feature in a new highly respected ranking of the best in the world

Anyone that’s been to university knows that there’s far more to it than sitting in lectures, writing essays and reading your way through an entire library. When you’re picking a uni, you want to know that you’ll have a decent place to live, a solid social life and exciting extracurricular opportunities, too. But the lectures, essays and reading are kind of the reason you’re there in the first place. 

So, if you want to know which universities provide the finest education not just in the UK but across the planet, look to Times Higher Education (THE), which has just unveiled its World University Ranking 2026. It ranks more than 2,000 institutions from 155 countries and territories based on five broad categories: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry and international outlook. 

Imperial College London was the highest ranked London institution and the only one included in the top 10. After dropping down to number nine in last year’s ranking, the university regained its number eight spot this year. Imperial scored 94.7 out of a possible 100 points, doing particularly well in the ‘research environment’ and ‘international outlook’ fields.

The next London-based uni on the league table was University College London (UCL), which came in at number 22. THE awarded it an overall score of 87.5 out of 100 and its best performances were also in the research quality and international outlook categories (97.6 and 97.5 out of 100 respectively).

King’s College London was the city’s third best performing uni, landing in 38th with a score of 78.7 out of 100. Just like Imperial and UCL, it’s top scores were in research quality and international outlook. It was followed by the London School of Economics and Political Science in 52nd (despite beating both Oxford and Cambridge in the Sunday Times’ recent uni ranking) and then Queen Mary University of London down in 134th place. 

London universities that feature in Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2026 

Here are all the unis in the capital that made it into THE’s guide this year, alongside their placement in the global list. 

1. Imperial College London (8)
   
2. University College London (22)
   
3. King’s College London (38)
   
4. London School of Economics and Political Science (52)
   
5. Queen Mary University of London (134)

See all the UK universities that made the Times Higher Education top 200 here.

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