UCL rises to eighth place in QS World University Rankings

The university is one of only two institutions in the top ten to buck a UK-wide trend which saw many major UK institutions slip down the table.

The success follows news earlier this week that UCL has also risen two places to sixth in the NTU World Ranking, which is a performance ranking of scientific papers for world universities, placing UCL ahead of the University of Cambridge and one place below the University of Oxford.

UCL President and Provost, Professor Michael Arthur, said: "I’m very pleased to see that UCL’s continued success on the global stage has been recognised in the latest QS World University Rankings. It is testament to the hard work of all our staff, students and partners, both in the UK and internationally, who constantly push the frontiers of knowledge to make a positive, real-world impact.

“By combining our research excellence and outstanding teaching, the UCL community continues to make significant positive impact on the UK, Europe and globally through our research, expertise and innovations. We’re proud to be ranked as the top university in London and continue to strive to make a tangible difference to people, economy, communities and culture in our city and beyond.”

In February this year, the UCL Institute of Education maintained its No 1 spot globally for 'education' for the 6th year running and the Bartlett became No 1 for 'architecture & the built environment' in the QS World University subject rankings.

A further eight subjects at UCL are ranked in the world top 10 including archaeology (3rd), anatomy & physiology (5th), anthropology (5th), pharmacy & pharmacology (7th), geography (7th), medicine (9th), psychology (10th) and life sciences & medicine (10th).

The new university rankings show that UCL performs among the top 0.7% of 1,620 institutions globally based on parameters such as academic and employer reputation, student to staff ratio, citations per faculty member and the proportion of its international community.

Professor David Price, UCL Vice-Provost (Research), said: “While league tables must always be regarded with a healthy degree of scepticism, we're delighted to see UCL's strengths acknowledged once again. We’ve performed consistently across the six indicators, from its outstanding reputation among global academics and employers to its low student-to-faculty ratio and highly international character. Only by attracting the brightest minds from across the world and combining our strength across all areas of research can we address the biggest challenges facing humanity today.”

Links

• 2020 QS World University Rankings
• NTU Rankings
• UCL Research