Research quality was judged second-best in the U.K. (behind only Cambridge) and an assessment of graduate prospects put LSE in the top three.

The guide also measured universities on entry standards, student satisfaction, student-staff ratio, services and facilities spending, completion rates and the proportion of good honors.  Results in all categories were combined to provide an overall ranking – topped by Oxford. LSE’s fourth place is the position it has held for the past five years.

The School is also highly rated in many individual subject areas – for example, it is judged best for social policy and second for accounting and finance, anthropology and economics.

The guide’s rankings were also combined by the Times Higher Education Supplement with recent surveys by the Guardian and the Independent to produce a “table of tables” in which LSE ranks third overall.