Four London unis make top 40 in Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022

Imperial, UCL, LSE, and Kings are all considered some of the best unis in the world


Imperial, UCL, LSE, and Kings are among the top 40 universities in the world according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE) 2022.

The four universities were ranked 12th, 18th, 27th and 35th respectively.

Over 1,600 universities located in 99 different territories have been included in this year’s THE World University Rankings making it the biggest and most diverse ranking published so far.

Imperial College London

Imperial College London

Imperial and UCL both made it into the top 20 universities. Imperial ranked 12th with an overall score of 89.1 out of 100 whilst UCL scored a total of 87.2 and ranked joint 18th with the University of Toronto.

LSE and Kings made it into the top 40. LSE was given 27th place with an overall score of 80.8 whilst Kings was ranked joint 35th with The University of Tokyo with an overall score of 76.0.

THE ranked each university according to 13 performance indicators, which contributed to five separate categories: teaching, research, citations, industry income, and international outlook. Teaching, research, and citations were each weighted at 30 per cent, industry income at 2.5 per cent, and international outlook at 7.5 per cent.

The four London universities received the following scores out of 100 for each of the five categories:

• Imperial: 80.8 (teaching), 88.4 (research), 97.6 (citations), 70.8 (industry income) and 97.5 (international outlook)

• UCL: 76.8 (teaching), 88.9 (research), 96.9 (citations), 44.7 (industry income) and 96.7 (international outlook)

• LSE: 68.0 (teaching), 80.8 (research), 94.4 (citations), 35.8 (industry income) and 92.7 (international outlook)

• Kings: 57.6 (teaching), 71.2 (research), 96.9 (citations), 43.7 (industry income) and 95.9 (international outlook)

THE collected and analysed more than 108 million citations across more than 14.4 million research publications as well as survey responses from nearly 22,000 scholars around the world.

In total, 2,114 institutions provided data to THE. However, only 1,662 universities have been included in the rankings as the remaining universities didn’t meet the ranking eligibility criteria.

To see the full rankings table, click here. For more information on this year’s rankings methodology, click here.

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