LSE, Imperial, and UCL make top 10 in The Guardian’s University League Table 2022

Several London unis have moved up in the rankings of The Guardian University Guide 2022.


LSE, Imperial, and UCL have been ranked fourth, seventh, and ninth respectively in The Guardian’s University League Table 2022.

The university rankings are devised from eight scores which, together, provide a total score out of 100. LSE received 91.6 points whilst Imperial scored 84.9. UCL was given 82 points.

Other London universities made the top 30, such as the Royal Holloway, KCL, and UAL which have been ranked 22nd, 23rd, and 26th, respectively.

The Guardian’s university rankings differ from many league tables by focusing on student-centred factors such as quality of teaching and job prospects above academic research.

One of the criteria that universities’ rankings depend on is student feedback, taken from the annual National Student Survey. For the 2022 rankings, The Guardian took the results from both 2020 and 2021, to create a ranking that reflected both how UK universities responded to the pandemic as well as student estimation of universities’ performance in a normal year.

The full list of factors across which universities are compared are:

• Student satisfaction with their course

• Satisfaction with teaching

• Satisfaction with feedback

• Student to staff ration

• Spending per student

• Average entry tariff

• Grade improvement (measuring academic improvement from entry qualifications to degree results)

• Percentage of students employed fifteen months after graduation

• Continuation (the proportion of students who continue into their second year at university).

LSE, Imperial, and UCL have all improved their positions from last year, with only Oxford, Cambridge, and St Andrews surpassing LSE in this year’s rankings.

The full rankings can be found here.

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