King’s College London (KCL) has risen five places to 19th place in the latest version of The Times‘ annual university league table, released on 19 September 2025. However, KCL still lags behind several of its London counterparts.
The rankings judge each university based on the following criteria: teaching quality, student experience, research quality, entry standards, graduate prospects, degree outcomes, continuation rates, student-staff ratios, and their impact on people and the planet. They are then given a total out of 1000. For KCL, this was 748.
The London School of Economics (LSE), the University of St Andrews and Durham University made up the top three. It is the first time that neither the University of Cambridge nor the University of Oxford has appeared in the top three. They ranked in joint fourth place.
How did KCL fare?
Despite its rise, KCL still trails its key rivals. The LSE and Imperial College London remain in 1st and 6th place, respectively. University College London (UCL) dropped from 7th to 9th place.
KCL scored 81.1% in teaching quality and 78.5% in student experience, up from 77.3% and 73.3% last year. Despite this, KCL ranked only 118th for teaching quality and 100th for student experience. The Good University Guide uses Data from the National Student Survey (NSS) to form its teaching quality and student experience scores.
KCL improved in the 2025 NSS, although there has been increased frustration among students over KCL’s administration. There have been reports from students of a lack of Personalised Access Arrangements, an unsupportive administrative system and receiving grades late.
KCL’s research quality and graduate prospects scores continue to be 64.2% and 85.1%, respectively. Despite this, they are still KCL’s strongest metrics. KCL ranked 8th in research quality and 12th in graduate prospects.
KCL’s entry standards were, on average, 164 UCAS points. 84.7% of King’s students achieved a 2:1 or a First at the end of their degree and 94.5% of students continued from first to second year.
KCL’s ‘People and Planet’ score was 66.4%. The Good University Guide describes this as a “sustainability metric” which acts to “keep up with the contemporary concerns of climate change”. Although KCL was narrowly beaten by London rivals UCL (67.2%) and LSE (68.1%) on this metric, it significantly outperformed other higher-ranking universities. This included Sheffield with 46.1%, Cambridge with 37.2% and St Andrew’s with 38%.
How did KCL do in other league tables?
In the QS World University ranking, KCL placed 31st, rising from 40th. This is the first time KCL has risen in these rankings since 2021. KCL’s highest placement in this league table was 16th, in 2015.
In the Guardian’s 2026 UK league table, KCL placed 21st, an improvement from last year’s 28th place.
These improvements are a positive sign for KCL, which has experienced a decline in the league tables over the past decade, as reported by Roar.
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