London has more world-class universities in the global top 40 than any other city, a new league table reveals.
Four of its institutions are placed in the top 40 and six in the top 200.
Mayor Boris Johnson said he hopes even more international students opt to study in the capital, adding: “The ratings testify to London’s strength in higher education and to our lengthening lead over European rivals.”
The new figures come as a growing number of UK universities open London campuses in a bid to attract some of the thousands of foreign students who flock here.
Liverpool, East Anglia and Coventry universities have already done so. Loughborough plans one on the Olympic Park site. London is so successful in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings that experts fear its universities, along with Oxford and Cambridge, are draining power from other UK regions.
They said the “golden triangle” is getting stronger — as universities elsewhere are falling down the league.
The table lists California Institute of Technology as best university in the world. Oxford ranks joint second with Harvard.
Cambridge and Imperial College London are both in the top 10, while the top 40 includes University College London, LSE and King’s College London.
The rankings’ editor Phil Baty said Britain needs to question if “we are willing to allow a great university system to be restricted to a small, privileged patch of the South-East”.
