00:00London's Imperial College has been ranked second in a global ranking of universities.
00:08The Quattarelli-Simmons, also known as the QS World University ranking, cited Imperial as the top UK university,
00:17outperforming both Oxford and Cambridge for the second year in a row.
00:23Only the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT in the US, which secured the top spot in the rankings, outperformed Imperial College London.
00:37This success for what is considered as one of the capital's main colleges comes as universities across the UK struggled.
00:4854 UK universities dropped in global rankings. This includes the London School of Economics,
00:55while Oxford fell from third to fourth place and Cambridge fell from fifth to sixth in the global rankings for 2026.
01:06In response to the overall disappointing results for British universities,
01:12Jessica Turner, the chief executive of QS, said the UK government is seeking to slash capital funding in a higher education system that has already sustained financial pressure.
01:26But, she added, the UK has until now been one of the countries to dominate the QS World University rankings.
01:35But, institutions in the country are facing heightened competition internationally.
