The Mayor of London credits his time at London Met with changing his life, as a major new report highlights the university's community impact, civic partnerships and research strength.
Date: 22 July 2026
London Metropolitan University features prominently in a major new report from London Higher, the membership body representing the capital's universities, specialist colleges, conservatoires and research institutes.
The report, entitled ‘London: The Higher Education Capital of the World’, makes the case for London as the higher education capital of the world, setting out the scale, diversity and impact of its higher education sector through data, case studies and institutional profiles from across more than 140 institutions. It includes a foreword from Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan.
Mayor credits London Met with changing his life
In his foreword for the report, Sir Sadiq draws directly on his own experience at London Met. "As someone who grew up on a council estate in Tooting and went on to study law at London Metropolitan University, I know first-hand how transformative the opportunity of higher education can be," he writes. "Higher education in this city changed my life."
Community impact and civic partnerships
The report highlights the London Met Lab: Empowering London as a standout example of how universities serve their local communities. Working with more than 600 partner organisations, the Lab runs academic research projects alongside practical support to co-design solutions to social challenges affecting the communities the university serves. It runs five low-cost and pro bono clinics for the local community, and students can take community work placement modules as part of their degrees.
London Met is also recognised alongside King's College London, the University of East London and Goldsmiths as one of the London institutions with formal civic agreements with their borough councils, reflecting grassroots involvement in interfaith dialogue, supply chains, community festivals and policy advice.
The university's institutional profile in the report highlights its strong mission around widening participation, its emphasis on practical skills and employability, and its research and teaching credentials. In the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021), 60% of its research was rated world-leading or internationally excellent, while it was awarded an overall silver rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF 2023), including gold for student experience.
London's higher education sector in numbers
The wider report presents London's higher education sector as a bigger employer than Sainsbury's, Marks and Spencer or Barclays nationwide, worth £60.9bn a year to the economy, and home to more students and institutions than New York City, Boston or Singapore.
