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London

United Kingdom · Europe

Europe's biggest finance and legal centre, with a creative and media industry to match.

Who this suits, and who it doesn’t

Suits you if you are aiming at finance, law, media or the creative industries and have a funded route in. Look elsewhere if you are paying your own way from a modest income. Continental Europe delivers a comparable degree for a fraction of the outlay.

The catch, and the way in

The catch

The most expensive city on this list by a distance, and post-study visa rules move with politics. Check the current rule, not last year's.

The way in

Scholarships are the realistic door: Chevening for master's study, and a few universities with substantial need-based aid for undergraduates.

Living there

What living here is actually like

Enormous, and it is a collection of neighbourhoods rather than one city. Where you live changes your life more than in any other place on this list. Public transport is excellent and correspondingly expensive; commutes of an hour each way are normal and are the price of affordable rent. Grey, wet winters, and an international population so large that being foreign is unremarkable.

How the money works

The most expensive city here by a distance, and rent is the reason. It eats a share of junior salaries that people from elsewhere find hard to believe. Undergraduate international tuition is high and, unlike the US, most universities don't offer large need-based aid, which is why scholarships rather than aid are the realistic door. Three-year degrees do genuinely reduce the total.Described in shape rather than figures on purpose: rents and salaries move every year and we cannot keep numbers true, but what is expensive and what quietly eats income stays true for far longer.

The language you actually need

English throughout, which removes the largest single barrier of most European options. What replaces it is cost, and a competitive graduate job market where accent and networks matter more than anyone admits.

The work that clusters here

The kinds of work London is a route into, each with what it actually involves, and what the catch is.

Who is named here

Not a ranking and not in order of merit. These are the places a subject is actually studied and taught at in this city, so you have something to search for.

  • Imperial College London

    • Engineering
    • Computer Science
    • Medicine & Health
    • Natural Sciences

    Degrees taught in English

  • London School of Economics and Political Science

    • Business & Economics
    • Law
    • Humanities & Social Sciences

    Degrees taught in English

  • University College London

    • Humanities & Social Sciences
    • Medicine & Health
    • Engineering
    • Arts & Design

    Degrees taught in English

Language of teaching moves within a cycle, so check it on the university’s own page for your own entry year.