Education and Learning, London

Home to a range of universities, colleges and schools, London has a student population of about 378,000 and is a centre of research and development.  Most primary and secondary schools in London follow the same system as the rest of England - comprehensive schooling.  With 125,000 students, the University of London is the largest contact teaching university in the United Kingdom and in Europe.  It comprises 20 colleges as well as several smaller institutes each with a high degree of autonomy.  Constituent colleges have their own admissions procedures, and are effectively universities in their own right, although most degrees are awarded by the University of London rather than the individual colleges.  Its constituents include multi-disciplinary colleges such as Royal Holloway, Birkbeck, UCL, King's, Goldsmiths, Queen Mary and more specialised institutions such as the London School of Economics, SOAS, the Royal Academy of Music, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Institute of Education.  University College London and Imperial College London have been ranked among the top ten universities in the world by Times Higher Education: in 2009 UCL was ranked the 4th best and Imperial the 5th best university in the world.  In addition, the London School of Economics is the world‘s leading social science institution for teaching and research, plus has the most international student body of any university in the world today.

A number of colleges are dedicated to the fine arts, including the Royal College of Music, Royal College of Art, and Guildhall School of Music and Drama.  London's other universities, such as Brunel University, City University, London Metropolitan University, Middlesex University, University of East London, University of the Arts London, University of Westminster, Kingston University and London South Bank University are not part of the University of London but are still leaders in their field and popular choices among students, both nationally and internationally.  Some were polytechnics until they were granted university status in 1992.  Imperial College London left the federal University of London in 2007.  Since the merger of University of North London and London Guildhall University in 2003, London Metropolitan University is the largest unitary university in the capital, with over 34,000 students from 155 countries.  London is also known globally for its business education, with the London Business School (ranked 1st in Europe - Business Week) and Cass Business School (Europe's largest finance school) both being top world-rated business schools.  In addition there are three international universities: Schiller International University, Richmond University and Regent's College.