The QS World University Rankings were released earlier this week, and after getting its worst ever score last year, King’s College London has improved its ranking.
Last year, King’s tied for 33rd best university worldwide, but has risen to 31st this year. Once again it is tied, but this time with two different universities: The Australian National University and McGill University. However, this is still a low ranking in comparison with previous years, as King’s achieved its highest placement of 16th in 2015.
Once again, King’s ranks as the seventh best university in the United Kingdom. This classification plays a very important role for both prospective students and employers when looking at the university.
When looking at graduate employability, King’s ranks 68th; the same as last year. This is the lowest score that the university has achieved since graduate employability was first tracked.
Furthermore, there are many departments which have fallen in the ranking compared to last year. The Dentistry department previously ranked first in the world but has now dropped to fifth, losing its place to the University of Gothenburg. Philosophy has also dropped in the rankings, from 8th position to 9th. Nevertheless, King’s has been able to remain 2nd in the world for Nursing for the fourth year in a row and has also improved in other subjects. Modern languages has risen from 35th place to 29th and Natural Sciences has also climbed to 145th from 158th.
Some departments fell significantly, as seen with Religious Studies, which dropped from 17th in the world in 2020 to 36th in 2021. Not all departmental scores can be considered strictly accurate, using varied categories and some including different names in each subject. This means that they do not perfectly represent King’s performance as different elements might be valued by the College and the ranking differently. In fact, the rankings’ methodology has previously been doubted.
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