My son says LSE is a top university....but it's ranked low?

TSR,
My son is doing economics and has told me LSE is amongst the best universities in the world for economics and one of the most prestigious in general too.

However, I have looked at many different world rankings and LSE is not anywhere near the top for any of them? In fact UCL is higher but he tells me LSE is the "IT" university for economics and UCL or any other UK universities except Oxbridge cannot compare.

Please advice me on this, how can LSE be one of the top universities in the world if its ranked lower than many other UK unis, including Kings?

Reply 1

Anonymous #2

do you have any idea what these rankings are based upon? you need to think about the relevance of these rankings

Reply 2

Anonymous #3

Yea screw LSE it sucks 😞

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

Original post by Anonymous

do you have any idea what these rankings are based upon? you need to think about the relevance of these rankings

No I'm not sure, am I looking at the wrong rankings?

Reply 4

Anonymous #4

According to international rankings and prestige/reputation, LSE ranks very high in the UK for - these consider teaching and post grad research
However, UK rankings also consider student satisfaction, this can be affected by things such as cost of living, student accommodation, organisation of the unis, meaning it would rank lower

Reply 5

Anonymous #4

Original post by Anonymous

TSR,
My son is doing economics and has told me LSE is amongst the best universities in the world for economics and one of the most prestigious in general too.
However, I have looked at many different world rankings and LSE is not anywhere near the top for any of them? In fact UCL is higher but he tells me LSE is the "IT" university for economics and UCL or any other UK universities except Oxbridge cannot compare.
Please advice me on this, how can LSE be one of the top universities in the world if its ranked lower than many other UK unis, including Kings?

Many big investment firms will only recruit students from Oxbridge, Imperial and LSE, so LSE is definitely the it uni

Reply 6

BreadForce

Many foreign newspapers regularly report on LSE academics and their reports. I am not saying that UCL is not brilliant but more overseas people have heard of LSE than UCL.

Reply 7

random_matt

QS rankings is based on research output and citations. If an institution does well on the first metric then they will rank highly. KCL is a good example, but their UK ranking sucks as teaching standards take a back seat. QS rankings are **** and whoever spouts them loudly are suffering from the confirmation bias to simply stroke their ego and narcissism. However, the very same can be said for one's screaming UK rankings, although, for undergraduate courses the latter is far more important.

Reply 8

Picnicl

There are 4 reasons:

1) Although LSE's research quality for all subjects on average is 88%, tied for second with Cambridge and Bristol, (Imperial is 1st on 91%), 8 others of the Russell Group are only within 2% less which brings LSE down because:

2) LSE has few students (and therefore few staff) compared to all other Russell Group universities. In fact, the second lowest UK university in the Russell Group for student numbers, Imperial College, still has more than double the students of LSE. As a result, LSE has fewer staff who can conduct research.

3) Only 65% of the staff there conduct high quality research (www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk). This is more than Warwick and Glasgow but Warwick and Glasgow have far more staff and students. So, in my opinion, LSE are either coasting on their name to some extent, particularly with international students who just want to study somewhere fairly high ranking in London, or LSE simply can't or don't want to attract more top researchers away from other universities.

4) For general prestige, some people will happily not consider going to LSE because, even though they will be studying an art / social science, there is a buzz and prestige about attending a university that does more of the sciences and engineering as well. It improves the diversity of atmosphere of a place and the accolades and discoveries that a university makes.

All that said, LSE is still regarded as 45th in the world according to QS Rankings 2024. And 7th in the world for Economics, above Oxford on 9th and Cambridge on 10th. In The Complete University Guide, Cambridge ranks above Oxford for it largely it seems because of greater research quality and greater entry requirements (at A Level anyway, Oxford are known for taking GCSE results more in to account than Cambridge do), with LSE below both largely because of entry requirements it seems as LSE's research quality for Economics is first.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 9

Anonymous #5

LSE only specialises in Economics and Social Sciences. Since it isn’t a university that does everything, it isn’t ranked as highly in the general rankings as somewhere like UCL which is fairly good at every subject.

Whereas, if you look at specific economics rankings, and filter the rankings by subject, eg. the QS World Rankings, then LSE is 6th in the entire world for Economics, ahead of Oxbridge at 12th and UCL at 15th, and hence the best university in the UK specifically for Economics.

Your son is correct in the fact that it is the ‘it’ university for economics. The main targets for Investment Banks are Oxbridge, LSE, Imperial, UCL and Warwick and getting into LSE (although near impossible with acceptance rates lower than Oxbridge), will propel your future massively.

Reply 10

greentiger

Original post by Anonymous

TSR,
My son is doing economics and has told me LSE is amongst the best universities in the world for economics and one of the most prestigious in general too.
However, I have looked at many different world rankings and LSE is not anywhere near the top for any of them? In fact UCL is higher but he tells me LSE is the "IT" university for economics and UCL or any other UK universities except Oxbridge cannot compare.
Please advice me on this, how can LSE be one of the top universities in the world if its ranked lower than many other UK unis, including Kings?

LSE is third in the UK, as seen on The Complete University Guide, ranked 4th by The Guardian and 7th by Times Higher Education, I think it’s safe to say it’s a VERY good university. It is also 46th in the world (QS World University Rankings).

Reply 11

Anonymous #5

It's only 46th in the world and not much higher because it specialises in social sciences, compared to other top unis who provide a wide range of subjects. It's safe to say it's an outstanding university.

Reply 12

mnot

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by Anonymous

TSR,
My son is doing economics and has told me LSE is amongst the best universities in the world for economics and one of the most prestigious in general too.
However, I have looked at many different world rankings and LSE is not anywhere near the top for any of them? In fact UCL is higher but he tells me LSE is the "IT" university for economics and UCL or any other UK universities except Oxbridge cannot compare.
Please advice me on this, how can LSE be one of the top universities in the world if its ranked lower than many other UK unis, including Kings?

I smell troll bait

Reply 13

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by Anonymous

TSR,
My son is doing economics and has told me LSE is amongst the best universities in the world for economics and one of the most prestigious in general too.
However, I have looked at many different world rankings and LSE is not anywhere near the top for any of them? In fact UCL is higher but he tells me LSE is the "IT" university for economics and UCL or any other UK universities except Oxbridge cannot compare.
Please advice me on this, how can LSE be one of the top universities in the world if its ranked lower than many other UK unis, including Kings?

Your son is correct. League Tables sell newspapers and advertising space - you need to research more deeply. What is the academic profile of the world's top economists? What is the output of LSE graduates into high paying careers? Where do the authors of influential books and papers on economics come from?

Reply 14

Anonymous #1

Thank you everyone, he has firmed LSE and I now understand more about the university process.

Reply 15

Anonymous #6

Original post by Anonymous

TSR,
My son is doing economics and has told me LSE is amongst the best universities in the world for economics and one of the most prestigious in general too.
However, I have looked at many different world rankings and LSE is not anywhere near the top for any of them? In fact UCL is higher but he tells me LSE is the "IT" university for economics and UCL or any other UK universities except Oxbridge cannot compare.
Please advice me on this, how can LSE be one of the top universities in the world if its ranked lower than many other UK unis, including Kings?

Check the ranking by subject. You will see that for most of the programs LSE ranked top 10. Weird right? Not so much, because the overall ranking system uses irrelevant metrics to teaching quality and educational outcome. So, yeah, look at ranking by subject.