The London university that is officially better than Oxford and Cambridge for 2026, according to a prestigious ranking
It's that time of year when thousands of students across the country are finishing up their A levels and looking to the future. Some may go straight into work, but many will be aiming for top grades to get into top universities. If you're wondering how your potential uni stands up to the rest of the country, the QS University Ranking will be of interest to you.
Every year, there are several reputable university ranking systems from various groups, but rarely are they quite so complete as QS. It rates every major university in the world on quality of research, teaching, student satisfaction, employability, and sustainability, giving each institution a score out of 100 then creating an overall average.
The main thing that sets QS apart is that, in reaching an overall score, it gives research output a higher weighting than the other criteria. Placing higher significance on things like 'citations per department' and 'academic output' means that it can end up with pretty different results to the other leaderboards, making it a pretty interesting one to look out for.
This year, one UK university made it almost to the top, coming in second place – just shy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – and it wasn't Oxford or Cambridge.
Imperial College London came out as the second best university in the world, and best in the UK, achieving a nearly perfect overall score of 99.4 out of 100. It wasn't the only institution in the capital to make it into the top ten: University College London (UCL) ended up in ninth place with a score of 95.8. King's College London (KCL) ended up at 31st, and, surprisingly, the London School of Economics (LSE) fell six places to 56th overall.
Here's how each of London's most respected universities fared in the 2026 QS World Rankings.
Imperial College London
Imperial maintained its position from last year, still narrowly beaten by MIT. It did, however, gain a few points, going from 98.5 in the 2025 QS list to 99.4 today. Unfortunately, that still wasn't enough to beat MIT's 100/100.
Imperial excelled at employability, with a whopping 100 out of 100 on 'employer reputation'. It also had a great staff to student ratio, coming in at 99.3 overall. All of this helped it beat Oxford and Cambridge, which came in at fourth and sixth respectively on the chart. Both of those were let down by their sustainability scores.
University College London
UCL also remained at ninth from last year's rankings, doing particularly well in 'academic reputation', where it scored 99.9, and sustainability, where it sat at 98.5. Not much has changed in UCL's QS ratings from 2025-26, although it is notable for not having slipped down as most UK universities have.
It's not surprising to see UCL get such a high score for its commitment to the environment, as it was actually named the most sustainable university on the planet by QS last year.
King's College London
King's College moved up by nearly 10 spots, jumping from 40th to 31st. This year, its overall score of 88.3 was supported by excellent global engagement, high levels of sustainability, and a great academic reputation.
London School of Economics
In the Complete University Guide's recent 2026 ranking, LSE was named the UK's third best university, so it may come as a surprise to some to see it at 56th place here – six spots lower than last year. The uni's placement likely down to a middling 'citations per faculty' score, 64, and a lacklustre 'faculty student ratio', which was at 47.2. However, LSE proved itself with its almost perfect 'employability outcomes', sitting at 99.9 overall.
LSE wasn't the only UK university to slip this year. A whopping 60 percent of UK universities fell down the QS leaderboard this year, according to the Financial Times. The newspaper reckons this is due to increasing competition from institutions in India, China, and south-east Asia.
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