Imperial has been revealed as the UK's most international university for the third year in a row by Times Higher Education.

The 2018 league table of the world's most international universities, places Imperial as 1st in the UK and 5th overall.

The rankings consider the "international outlook" of institutions, including levels of international staff, students and research co-authors, as well as universities' international reputations.

The world top ten was led by Switzerland's EPFL and ETH Zurich, followed by the University on Hong Kong, National University of Singapore, Imperial College London, Nanyang Technological University, University of Geneva, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and Australian National University.

Vice-President (International) Professor Maggie Dallman said: “We’re extremely proud to be named the UK’s most international university for the third year in a row.

"Imperial's excellence arises from attracting talented people and working with leading institutions from across the world and that is why we are passionate about keeping our doors open to all members of the global community.”

Star students

About 60 per cent Imperial’s students come from outside the UK representing 140 countries, and 38 per cent of staff are from outside the UK.

Earlier this week more than 150 top international scholars joined diplomats and academics at an event to celebrate their achievements at Imperial.

Phil Baty, Editor of the Times Higher Education World Rankings, said: "The best universities live or die by their ability to attract the brightest talent from all across the world - students, academics, researchers and managers. I believe that a university simply cannot be world class without a global outlook, a global network and a global pool of talent."

Top collaborations

Two thirds of Imperial’s research has an international co-author.

Imperial collaborates with world-leading institutions such as MIT, Stanford, ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, National University of Singapore and University of Toronto.

Imperial has also forged new collaborations in Cyprus, China, Germany and Japan to complement existing work in Singapore, the USA, throughout Africa and elsewhere.

In February Imperial announced a partnership with fellow world top ten university MIT that will give students the opportunity to spend a year at the other institution.

The new exchange builds on a longstanding undergraduate exchange in Materials, a successful undergraduate summer research exchange and the MIT-Imperial Seed Fund.

In January Imperial launched a joint mathematics laboratory with France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).

The pioneering venture will integrate leading researchers and students from both institutions to significantly advance collaboration in mathematics between France and Britain.