The best university in London for 2026

Now that we’ve hit mid-September, London uni campuses are beginning to fill up with a new batch of freshers. Thousands of students are moving to the Big Smoke for the first time, armed with IKEA kitchen utensils, fancy dress costumes for every occasion and a stash of their alcopop of choice. Obviously, they’re here to learn and become the leaders of tomorrow, too. 

Next year, that could be you. And as freshers week 2025 kicks off, the Guardian has released its ranking of UK universities to help next year’s students pick the best destinations. The paper looked at eight measures of performance for its ranking, covering every stage of a student’s time at uni, from entry requirements, to teaching satisfaction to graduate prospects. 

After evaluating around 40 of the unis here in the capital city, the Guardian named London School of Economics (LSE) the best university in London for 2025. It landed fourth on the overall ranking with a total score of 93.8 out of 100. 

The uni earned 89.4 out of 100 from final-year students for quality of teaching and 76.2 for the quality of feedback and assessment. It performed particularly well in the ‘continuation’ category (the percentage of first year students continuing to second year) with 96.4 percent and in the ‘career after 15 months’ category, with 93 percent of grads in jobs or further study. 

When it comes to specific subjects, LSE ranked first in the UK for law, accounting and finance, and sociology and social policy. 

Imperial College, University of the Arts London and UCL were the only other unis in the capital to make it into the top 20. Oxford was the UK’s best institution overall, followed by St Andrews, then Cambridge. 

Time Out’s guide to freshers in London. 

The best (and worst) universities in London have been named by the Daily Mail. 

The London university that is officially better than Oxford and Cambridge for 2026, according to a prestigious ranking.

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