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Imperial College beats Oxford and Cambridge in major university rankings for first time ever – as 52 British colleges slipped down the rankings

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Imperial College has beaten the powerful Oxbridge duopoly in the major university rankings for the first time ever.

The renowned science-based university in London is now ranked second in the world, while Cambridge dropped from second to fifth and Oxford remained in third place.

The respected Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings said it is the first time since its inception that Imperial has beaten Oxbridge.

Meanwhile, the scoreboard also shows that the overall performance of UK universities is declining, with 52 universities falling and only 20 rising.

The remaining 18 of the 90 British universities managed to retain their positions from last year.

Imperial College has beaten the powerful Oxbridge duopoly in the major university rankings for the first time ever

Imperial College has beaten the powerful Oxbridge duopoly in the major university rankings for the first time ever

Oxford remained third in the rankings. Pictured: Radcliffe Camera and All Souls College at the University of Oxford

Oxford remained third in the rankings. Pictured: Radcliffe Camera and All Souls College at the University of Oxford

Cambridge dropped from second to fifth place. Pictured: King's College, Cambridge

Cambridge dropped from second to fifth place. Pictured: King’s College, Cambridge

Furthermore, the rankings showed that our universities are particularly behind in terms of research influence – measured by how often faculty members are cited.

No UK university is in the global top 50 for faculty-adjusted research impact, and the national leader, Imperial, ranks only 54th.

Mainland China is the leader in this regard, followed by Australia and the US, India, Hong Kong and South Korea.

QS suggested that British universities may struggle to compete internationally in the future due to budget issues and fewer applications.

Chief executive Jessica Turner said: ‘This year’s results suggest that UK higher education has limited capacity to continue to excel in the face of funding shortfalls, falling student applications and uncertainty over the status of international students.’

Chris McGovern of the Campaign for Real Education said: ‘Higher education spending is spread too thinly.

“More should go to our best universities, but those cheap Mickey Mouse courses should be turned back into employment-oriented colleges.”

QS, a higher education analyst, first created its rankings 20 years ago, assessing universities on research, employability and other measures.

Imperial already climbed to number two in 2014, but this place was shared with Cambridge.

This year marks the first time it has held the British top spot alone.

The rise from sixth to second place is attributed by QS to exceptional research performance, employability scores and commitment to sustainability.

No UK university is in the global top 50 for faculty-adjusted research impact, and the national leader, Imperial, ranks only 54th.

No UK university is in the global top 50 for faculty-adjusted research impact, and the national leader, Imperial, ranks only 54th.

Professor Hugh Brady, President of Imperial, said: “Imperial’s ranking is a testament to the quality and dedication of our entire community.

“It is inspiring to see how our students, staff and partners come together every day to interrogate the forces shaping our world and tackle the challenges facing humanity and our planet.”

Unlike many of its fellow Russell Group universities, Imperial specializes in science and mathematics, and does not offer degrees in subjects such as English Literature.

It is one of the largest recruiters of foreign students; 60 percent of the inflow comes from outside Great Britain, of which 20 percent comes from other European countries.

Famous alumni of Imperial include Queen guitarist Brian May and War of the Worlds author HG Wells.

This year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US claimed the top spot in the rankings, which it has held consistently since 2012.

Meanwhile, University College London (UCL) was the only other British university in the top ten, retaining ninth position.

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Ranking 2025

  1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
  2. Imperial College London, UK
  3. University of Oxford, UK
  4. Harvard University, USA
  5. University of Cambridge, UK
  6. Stanford University, USA
  7. ETH Zurich, Switzerland
  8. National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore
  9. UCL, UK
  10. California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA
  11. University of Pennsylvania, USA
  12. University of California, Berkeley (UCB), USA
  13. The University of Melbourne, Australia
  14. Beijing University, China
  15. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  16. Cornell University, USA
  17. The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  18. The University of Sydney, Australia
  19. The University of New South Wales, Australia
  20. Tsinghua University, China
  21. University of Chicago, USA
  22. Princeton University, USA
  23. Yale University, USA
  24. Université PSL, France
  25. University of Toronto, Canada
  26. EPFL – École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
  27. The University of Edinburgh, UK
  28. Technical University of Munich, Germany
  29. McGill University, Canada
  30. Australian National University (ANU), Australia
  31. Seoul National University Seoul, South Korea
  32. Johns Hopkins University, USA
  33. The University of Tokyo, Japan
  34. Columbia University, USA
  35. The University of Manchester, UK
  36. The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)
  37. Monash University, Australia
  38. University of British Columbia, Canada
  39. Fudan University, China
  40. King’s College London, UK
  41. The University of Queensland, Australia
  42. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA
  43. New York University (NYU), USA
  44. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, USA
  45. Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
  46. Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France
  47. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
  48. Zhejiang University, China
  49. Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
  50. Kyoto University, Japan
  51. Northwestern University, USA
  52. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK
  53. KAIST – Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, South Korea
  54. University of Bristol, UK
  55. University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
  56. Yonsei University, South Korea
  57. the Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  58. Carnegie Mellon University, USA
  59. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany
  60. Universiti Malaya (UM), Malaysia
  61. Duke University, USA
  62. Hong Kong City University
  63. KU Leuven, Belgium
  64. Sorbonne University, France
  65. The University of Auckland, New Zealand
  66. University of Texas at Austin, USA
  67. Korea University, South Korea
  68. National Taiwan University (NTU), Taiwan
  69. The University of Warwick, UK
  70. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
  71. Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina
  72. University of California, San Diego (UCSD), USA
  73. Université Paris-Saclay, France
  74. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
  75. Lund University, Sweden
  76. University of Washington, USA
  77. The University of Western Australia, Australia
  78. University of Glasgow, UK
  79. Brown University, USA
  80. University of Birmingham, UK
  81. University of Southampton, UK
  82. The University of Adelaide, Australia
  83. University of Leeds, UK
  84. University of Heidelberg, Germany
  85. Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Japan
  86. Osaka University, Japan
  87. Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
  88. Sydney University of Technology, Australia
  89. University of Durham, UK
  90. Pennsylvania State University, USA
  91. Purdue University, USA
  92. Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
  93. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC), Chile
  94. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
  95. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico
  96. University of Alberta, Canada
  97. Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
  98. Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea
  99. RWTH University of Aachen, Germany
  100. University of Copenhagen, Denmark

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