This London university has been crowned one of the best in the world

There are dozens of university rankings out there. Some value student satisfaction the most, many prioritise academic excellence, others focus on the standard of facilities. Each one looks a little different but London unis always fare pretty well, if we say so ourselves. 

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) by ShanghaiRanking is the latest league table to be released. Scrutinising more than 2,500 institutions, it looks at factors like the number of alumni who’ve won Nobel Prizes, publications in top-tier journals and academic output per capita, making it one of the most prestigious and trusted rankings there is. Universities in the United States dominate the final top 20, with Harvard, Stanford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) claiming the first, second and third positions. 

Of course, Oxford and Cambridge universities both ranked highly too (fourth and sixth), but there was also one London uni that was listed among the top 20 in the world. Give it up for University College London (UCL), which landed in a very respectable 16th place. In case you were wondering, UCL has produced 30 Nobel Prize winners, mostly for medicine-related research. 

UCL is used to the acclaim. This year, it also made it onto Complete University Guide’s best unis in the UK list, the QS World University Rankings and came second on StudentCrowd’s list of the best unis in London, based on reviews by actual students. In the latter, it was applauded for its ‘exceptional resources, cultural experiences and career opportunities’. 

You can check out the ARWU’s full 2024 global ranking here.

Student life in London

Freshers 2024 is just around the corner. If you’re a first time student in the capital or coming back for another year, make sure to check out Time Out’s guides to student dos and don’ts, navigating the rental market, living a bougie lifestyle on a student budget and the most underrated nights out for undergrads. See you in September! 

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