This London university beat Oxbridge to come second in QS World Rankings 2026

The prestigious QS World University rankings are finally here, and for the second year in a row, Oxford and Cambridge have fallen short of the UK’s top spot.

This year, the iconic duo lost out to the capital’s best: Imperial College London.

Imperial scored an impressive 99.4 out of a possible 100 points, defending its second-place position with a 0.9 point increase from last year. Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the only university in the world to score higher, scoring a perfect 100 points for the 14th consecutive year.

In the individual ranking criteria, Imperial achieved perfect scores of 100 in four categories, with its lowest score being 95 in citations per faculty – a score which still would have placed it in the top 10 overall.

In an Instagram post, Imperial attributed its high ranking to its academic excellence, graduate employability, strong international communities and sector-leading approach to sustainability.

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A post shared by Imperial College London (@imperialcollege)

California’s Stanford University rose from sixth place to third, pushing Oxford down to fourth to make Imperial the only UK university in the global top three. Cambridge dropped from fifth to sixth despite a 0.5 point increase.

The remaining two spots in the UK top five were also grabbed by London universities. UCL students can rest easy knowing that they can still brag about being ninth in the world, with the uni defending its position despite a massive jump from 91.6 points to 95.8.

One of the most impressive moves in the table came from King’s College London, jumping over Manchester and Edinburgh to claim the UK’s number five spot . Its score of 88.3 points, an 8.1 point increase from last year, marks the first time King’s has climbed up the rankings in five years.

Imperial via Pexels

LSE achieved a score of 76, falling out of the top 50 to 56th. Despite three perfect scores in the criteria rankings, plus two scores of 99+, it fell down in faculty student ratio, scoring just 47.2 points.

A further 11 UK universities made it into the top 100, with the next highest ranking London university being QMUL at 110th, placing it at 18th in the UK.