News archive 2007

King's enters world top 25

08 Nov 2007, PR 179/07

King's has now been recognised as one of the top 25 universities in the world. The Times Higher -QS World University Rankings, published today, places the College in 24th place, up from 46th last year and from 73rd in 2005. This confirms King's as a centre of global academic excellence.

The Principal Professor Rick Trainor comments: ‘This is tremendous news and confirms the growing reputation of King's College London as a global powerhouse of research and education. Our significant improvement in this very important table reflects appropriately the rapidly rising stature of the College. We take The Times Higher league table very seriously and I am extremely proud that King's is positioned so highly.'

Peer review with quantitative data

This table is a composite indicator integrating peer review and opinion with quantitative data. The rankings contain two strands of peer review: academic opinion, worth 40 per cent of the total score, and the views of active recruiters of graduates, worth 10 per cent of the possible score. More than 5,000 active academics across the world were asked to list up to 30 universities that they regarded as the leaders in the academic field they know about. QS also asked major global and national employers across the public and private sectors which universities they liked to hire from.

The quantitative data used to make up the total score includes: staff/student ratios, citations of an institution's published papers, and universities' attractiveness to staff and students which is based on the number of staff and students from overseas.

Martin Ince, editor of The Times Higher-QS World University Rankings comments: 'The core of our methodology is the belief that expert opinion is a valid way to assess the standing of top universities. We know that these tables are used in many ways by a variety of audiences – from internationally mobile staff and students to university managers.'

There are now 32 UK universities among the best 200 in the world and under a heading of ‘Olympian feats and Lilliputian resources', The Times Higher editorial proclaims: ‘If higher education were held in the same national regard as sport, the UK would be euphoric about the performance of its universities in our world rankings.'

Top ten UK universities

1 (2) Cambridge
2 (2=) Oxford
3 (5) Imperial College London
4 (9) University College London
5 (23) Edinburgh
6 (24) King's College London
7 (30) Manchester
8 (37) Bristol
9 (57) Warwick
10 (59) LSE

[The Times Higher -QS World University Ranking in is brackets]

Top five world universities

1 Harvard University
2= University of Cambridge
2= University of Oxford
2= Yale University
5 Imperial College London

For further information on the world rankings see: http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/

Notes to editors

The THES-QS World University Rankings 2007 Now in its fourth year, the research is conducted by QS Quacquarelli Symonds and the rankings compiled by and published in the Times Higher Education Supplement.

King's College London
King's College London is the fourth oldest university in England with more than 13,700 undergraduates and nearly 5,600 graduate students in nine schools of study based at five London campuses. It is a member of the Russell Group: a coalition of the UK's major research-based universities. The College has had 24 of its subject-areas awarded the highest rating of 5* and 5 for research quality, demonstrating excellence at an international level, and it has recently received an excellent result in its audit by the Quality Assurance Agency.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, international relations, medicine, nursing and the sciences, and has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe and is home to five Medical Research Council Centres – more than any other university.

King's is in the top group of UK universities for research earnings, with income from grants and contracts of more than £114 million, and has an annual income of more than £369 million.

Further information
Melanie Gardner, Senior Public Relations Officer, King's College London,Tel: 020 7848 3073; email: melanie.gardner@kcl.ac.uk

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This information is provided by the Public Relations Department
Tel: 020-7848 3202  Fax: 020-7848 3739  Email: pr@kcl.ac.uk