Imperial College has dropped down to sixth place in The Times UK university rankings for 2025, down from fifth place in 2024. The College also won the University of the Year for Graduate Employment, with 95.9% of graduates in “high-skilled full-time jobs or further education”.  

Imperial holds the highest paying degree according to the ranking, with Computing graduates earning an average of £65,000 15 months after graduating. 

This year’s rankings saw Oxford and Cambridge drop down to third and fourth place respectively, the lowest positions that the two institutions have held since the rankings began, and the first time Cambridge has not been in the top three.  

The London School of Economics (LSE) took the top spot due to its graduate prospects, coming second only to Imperial College. “Improving rates of student satisfaction, expressed in successive National Student Surveys (NSS), have been key to LSE taking the No 1 spot,” reported The Times in a feature on LSE’s success this year.  

LSE President and Vice-Chancellor Larry Kramer said: “A few years ago LSE performed badly on surveys of that measure, and we have made efforts to fix that, and the results have been spectacular.”  

The newspaper changed their ranking system to account for student concerns. Helen Davies, editor of The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide said: “This year we have tweaked our method- ology to keep up with contemporary concerns, boosting the weighting of graduate prospects and adding a sustainability metric.” 

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