Despite these pressures, four British universities have retained their spots in the top 10 of more than 1,000 institutions ranked by QS, a benchmark ranking alongside the Times and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Imperial College London has made a notable leap, moving from sixth to second place and surpassing the historically dominant Oxford and Cambridge, which ranked third and fifth, respectively. However, the overall picture is less rosy, with more than half (52) of the UK’s universities downgraded out of the 90 included in the rankings.
“This year’s results suggest that British higher education has limited capacity remaining to continue excelling in the face of funding shortages, drops in student applications,” and restrictions affecting the intake of international students, said Jessica Turner, head of QS.
