Imperial College beats Oxford and Cambridge in major university rankings for first time ever - as 52 British colleges slipped down the rankings

Imperial College has beaten the mighty Oxbridge duopoly successful large assemblage rankings for the archetypal clip ever.

The renowned science-based assemblage successful London is present ranked fig 2 successful the world, portion Cambridge slipped from 2nd to 5th spot and Oxford remained successful third.

The respected Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings said it is the archetypal clip since its inception that Imperial has beaten Oxbridge.

Meanwhile, the scoreboard besides shows the wide show of UK universities is waning, with 52 universities slipping down the array and lone 20 universities climbing up.

The remaining 18 of the 90 British universities featured managed to clasp past year's positions.

In addition, the rankings showed our universities are peculiarly lagging down successful presumption of probe power – measured by looking astatine however often module members are cited.

No British assemblage ranks among the planetary apical 50 for faculty-adjusted probe impact, and the nationalist leader, Imperial, is lone placed astatine 54th.

Mainland China is the apical person connected this metric, followed by Australia and the US, India, Hong Kong and South Korea.

QS suggested British universities whitethorn conflict to vie internationally successful aboriginal owed to fund problems and less radical applying.

Chief enforcement Jessica Turner said: 'This year's results suggest that British higher acquisition has constricted capableness remaining to proceed excelling successful the look of backing shortages, drops successful pupil applications, and ambiguity astir the presumption of planetary students.'

Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: 'Higher acquisition spending is excessively thinly spread.

'More should spell to our champion universities, but those peddling Mickey Mouse courses should beryllium converted backmost to employment-focused polytechnics.'

QS, a higher acquisition analyst, archetypal acceptable up its rankings 20 years ago, with universities judged connected research, employability and different metrics.

Imperial climbed to fig 2 erstwhile earlier successful 2014, but this spot was shared with Cambridge.

This twelvemonth is the archetypal clip it has held the apical UK presumption alone.

Its emergence from sixth to 2nd spot has been attributed by QS to exceptional probe performance, employability scores, and sustainability commitment.

Professor Hugh Brady, president of Imperial, said: 'Imperial's ranking is simply a testament to the prime and committedness of our full community.

'It is inspiring to spot our students, unit and partners travel unneurotic each time to interrogate the forces that signifier our satellite and code the challenges facing humanity and our planet.'

In opposition to galore of its chap Russell Group universities, Imperial specialises successful subject and maths, and does not connection degrees successful subjects specified arsenic English Literature.

It is 1 of the biggest recruiters of overseas students, with 60 per cent of its intake coming from extracurricular the UK, including 20 per cent from different European countries.

Famous alumni of Imperial see Queen guitarist Brian May and War of the Worlds writer HG Wells.

This year, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) successful the US claimed the apical wide spot successful the rankings, which it has held consistently since 2012.

Meanwhile, the lone different British assemblage successful the apical 10 was University College London (UCL), retaining ninth position.