UK Universities Drop Down World Ranking Amid Funding Concerns

UK universities will have their international reputations dented and face possible closure because of continuing funding pressures, according to an authoritative league table that named Imperial College London as second in the world.

- Richard Adams

The annual Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) university rankings saw Imperial overtake Oxford and Harvard universities to come in behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But the overall table made grim reading for UK institutions, including Cambridge dropping from second down to fifth, as 52 out of the 90 British universities received lower rankings this year.

Only 20, including Imperial, improved. University College London remained ninth overall.

Ben Sowter, QS's senior vicepresident, warned that some UK universities could be forced to close because of funding policies, while the sector was beginning to "lose its footing" in critical metrics such as staff-to-student ratios, job outcomes and academic reputation.

"The cumulative effects risk pushing UK higher education into a downward spiral towards irreversible decline," Sowter said, noting that more than 50 UK universities have recently announced job cuts.

"These cuts have been directly linked to drops in enrolment resulting from recently announced policies. It's not hard to see how this could lead to the gradual erosion of UK higher education," Sowter said.