Golden triangle (universities)

The **Golden Triangle** is an unofficial name for a set of leading universities in the southern English cities of Oxford, Cambridge and London.

The University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge ('Oxbridge') form two corners of the triangle. The third is London: Imperial College, University College London, King's College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). The last three are independent colleges of the University of London.  The universities within the triangle (with the exception of the LSE) attract the highest research incomes of all British universities.

However, it has been argued that it should be replaced by a term like "Brilliant Diamond", to include the University of Manchester. The figures below suggest that both the universities of Manchester and Edinburgh belong in the same class, and might better reflect the geographical spectrum of the UK higher education.

Oxford, Cambridge and some of the London institutions collaborate in research. The Global Medical Excellence Cluster (GMEC) for biomedical research was formed by Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College, University College London, King's College London and Queen Mary University of London.

### World

|University|_ARWU_ (2014)|_QS_ (2014/15)|_THES_ (2013/14)|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|University of Cambridge|5|2|7|
|University of Oxford|9|5|2|
|Imperial College London|22|2|10|
|University College London|20|5|21|
|King's College London|59|16|38|
|London School of Economics|19|34|39|

### Domestic

|University|_Complete_ (2013)|_Guardian_ (2013)|_The Sunday Times_ (2013)|_The Times_ (2013)|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|University of Cambridge|1|1|1|2|
|University of Oxford|3|2|2|1|
|University College London|8|6|13|7|
|Imperial College London|4|13|8|4|
|King's College London|18|31|30|22|
|London School of Economics|2|3|6|3|

## Research income

|style="width:50px; "||style="width:210px; "|**University**|style="width:100px; "|**Research income (£,000)**|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|style="width:50px; "|**1**|style="width:210px; "|University of Oxford|style="width:100px; "|**436,800**|
|style="width:50px; "|**2**|style="width:210px; "|University College London|style="width:100px; "|**334,733** <sup>a</sup>|
|style="width:50px; "|**3**|style="width:210px; "|University of Cambridge|style="width:100px; "|**331,800**|
|style="width:50px; "|**4**|style="width:210px; "|Imperial College London|style="width:100px; "|**329,500**|
|style="width:50px; "|5|style="width:210px; "|University of Edinburgh|style="width:100px; "|200,123|
|style="width:50px; "|6|style="width:210px; "|University of Manchester|style="width:100px; "|199,622|
|style="width:50px; "|**7**|style="width:210px; "|King's College London|style="width:100px; "|**164,025**|
|style="width:50px; "|8|style="width:210px; "|University of Leeds|style="width:100px; "|128,554|
|style="width:50px; "|9|style="width:210px; "|University of Glasgow|style="width:100px; "|128,090|
|style="width:50px; "|10|style="width:210px; "|University of Liverpool|style="width:100px; "|124,600|
|style="width:50px; "||style="width:210px; "|London School of Economics|style="width:100px; "|023,731 <sup>b</sup>|
<small>**Note:**</small>

<sup>a</sup> <Small>Excludes the School of Pharmacy, which merged with UCL in January 2012; the School of Pharmacy had a research income of £8,130,000 in the period.</small>

<sup>b</sup><small>The LSE has a much lower research income, perhaps explained by its concentration on social science research</small>.