Imperial College University of the Year 2027 — the South Kensington institution has been crowned the United Kingdom’s University of the Year, climbing three places in the national league table and overtaking both Oxford and Cambridge for the first time in the guide’s 33-year history.
The honour was announced in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2027, published on Friday. Imperial, which specialises in science, technology, engineering, maths, medicine and business, has jumped from sixth to third in the overall ranking.
It is also only the second time that Oxford and Cambridge have both fallen outside the top three in the guide’s history. The University of St Andrews took the top spot overall, followed by the London School of Economics in second place, Imperial in third, Cambridge fourth and Oxford fifth.
Why Imperial was named University of the Year 2027
Imperial’s charge up the tightly packed top ten was powered in part by topping the rankings for research quality, and by leading the table for graduate prospects for four consecutive years.
Zoe Thomas, author of The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2027, said: “The London institution dedicated to Stemmb (science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine) has outdone Oxbridge for the first time in the guide’s 33-year history.”
She added that Imperial’s rise was “powered in part by topping the rankings for research quality and also for graduate prospects which it has topped for the past four consecutive years”.
The college leads the country’s research quality rating, with 55 per cent of its work assessed as world-leading in the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021). Its international standing is underlined by its second place — tied with Stanford — in the QS World University Rankings 2027.
A win for London’s universities
The results underline London’s strength in the guide. Alongside Imperial’s University of the Year crown, the London School of Economics was named Russell Group University of the Year and finished second in the overall table. Imperial itself was highly commended in the Russell Group category.
Imperial was also named University of the Year for Graduate Employment — the sixth time it has taken that title — and Medical School of the Year. Its faculty of medicine is one of Europe’s largest in terms of staff and student numbers, with teaching bases at Charing Cross, Hammersmith, St Mary’s and Chelsea and Westminster hospitals across the capital.
Professor Hugh Brady, president of Imperial College London, said: “It has never been more important for Imperial to play its full role in addressing the UK’s growth and productivity challenge. We see our role as a catalyst for growth in London, but also across the country, as absolutely a key pillar of our strategy.”
Imperial has ranked in the top six of the league table since its inception in 1998, and counts 14 Nobel laureates among its alumni.
How the guide ranks universities
Universities in the guide are measured across seven metrics of equal weighting: teaching quality, student experience, research quality, entry standards, graduate prospects, the proportion of firsts and 2:1s, and continuation rates — plus a half-weighting for the people and planet metric, which takes sustainability into account.
The guide’s authors credited Imperial’s improved performance in the National Student Survey 2026 for its climb in the student experience and teaching quality rankings, calling it evidence that top-tier institutions can push the boundaries of research while also creating environments where teaching and learning flourish.
Elsewhere in the table, Durham University was named university of the year for 2026 in a separate judgment by the guide’s compilers, while Manchester Metropolitan took modern university of the year and the University of the Arts London was runner-up in that category.
Reporting based on Press Association and The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2027.
