Golden Triangle (UK universities)

The "golden triangle" is an unofficial grouping of elite universities located in the English cities of Cambridge, London and Oxford, as listed below:

The corners of the triangle are formed by the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and, to the south-east, Imperial College London, University College London and typically King's College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Occasionally other universities in London will also be included, such as the London Business School and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The institutions typically considered members of the triangle have among the highest research incomes of all British universities and collaborate closely through initiatives such as the G5,Global Medical Cluster (GMEC),MedCity, and SES.

Golden triangle universities possess some of the largest UK university financial endowments; endowment sizes range from UCL's £101 million (2016) to Oxford's £5.07 billion (including colleges) Further, each university receives millions of pounds in research fundings and other grants from the UK government, criticised by leaders of some other universities as disproportionate and not in the best interests of the country as a whole.

Golden triangle universities generally do well on International rankings, which strongly reflect research performance. The LSE has, however, expressed concerns about a bias in rankings against smaller institutions and in favour of universities with large science, technology, engineering and mathematics programmes. Some global rankings, such as those produced by Times Higher Education (THE) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), correct for the sizes of institutions in calculating their results but others, such as the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), make no such adjustment.

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