UCL Moves From Number 22 to 14 in Latest World Rankings

Photography by Sam Fearnley

Precious Adesina reports on the latest Times Higher Education rankings

UCL has moved from number 22 to 14 in the Times Higher Education World Ranking 2015 – 2016. Out of 78 UK institutions on the prestigious list, UCL came 4th, beating King’s College London and LSE, who came 27th and 23rd respectively. UCL’s strongest area of higher education excellence was in Research, coming 9th in the world. Phil Baty, editor of the THE World University Rankings, commented on UCL’s strong performance:

“The Times Higher Education World University Rankings, now in their 12th year, apply rigorous standards, using tough global benchmarks across all of a global research university’s key missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. The results are trusted by students and their families, academics, university leaders and governments. For UCL to make 14 in the world is an outstanding achievement to be celebrated.”

Dame Nicola Brewer, UCL Vice-Provost (International), said:

“It’s really pleasing that, looking across a number of recent league tables, there is a consistent pattern showing UCL in the top 15 universities in the world”.

The top 10 universities in the world were, in descending order: Caltech, Oxford, Stanford, Cambridge, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Imperial, ETH Zurich and Chicago.

American universities dominated the table, taking 63 of the top 200 places, which, although high, is still fewer than in 2013 and 2014. On the other hand, the number of European universities in the top 200 increased to 105, from 87 last year.

From the 14th October to 18th November, The 2015-16 World University Rankings will also be accompanied by six subject-specific tables which will outline the top 100 universities in the world in the fields of arts and humanities; clinical, pre-clinical and health; engineering and technology; life sciences ; physical sciences; and social sciences. These will be released online and in Times Higher Education magazine on a weekly basis.