Two years ago. Because today, London is supreme. Most international rankings (QS, THE etc.) and all national rankings are of little value. Student satisfaction are the domains of St. Andrews and Aberystwyth. Oxbridge have the tourist brands.
But let's look at research excellence. REF overall rankings here:
https://intranet.royalholloway.ac.uk/studyhere/documents/pdf/refoverallrankingsofinstitutionsbythe.pdf1) LSE
- It is leaps and bounds ahead of both Cambridge and Oxford in terms of the quality of its papers.
- LSE graduates earn lots more money according to almost every single survey.
- LSE, taking its size into account, has produced way more heads of states or international organisations.
2) UCL
- It ranks higher than every other university for total research power - leaps and bounds ahead of both Ox and Bridge.
- It received significantly
more UK government funding than every other uni for the past 2 years. It is the UK government's #1 university of choice.
- UCL has even received much more
COVID-19 related funding because of its best research proposals.
- According to a ranking of universities produced by SCImago Research Group,
UCL is ranked 1st in Europe in terms of total research output.- According to a 10-year analysis released in July 2008 by ISI Web of Knowledge,
UCL is the most-cited university of Europe.- UCL is ranked 3rd in the world (1st in Europe) in the 2019/20 University Ranking by
Academic Performance.- UCL is ranked 6th in the world (2nd in Europe) in the 2019 National Taiwan University Performance
Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities.UCL is expanding rapidly and Oxbridge will soon have to rely heavily on their touristy value to be able to compete (even more than they already do). The most important thing is that Oxbridge graduates are only still earning a good amount because their graduates are in positions of power - There were hardly any universities a few decades ago - But now that that's a thing of the past, these Oxbridges will be hard pressed to attract the best. They are second class.
I'm not a historian, but Oxbridge were mainly a celibate schools / centres of christian "knowledge" till the 19th century and that's about it. They had nothing to do with education.