high standards of relevance to the professions.
The university has numerous centres of research excellence and was ranked sixth in the UK and 40th globally for Media and Communications by QS World University Rankings 2018. The university was also ranked 15th for Art and Design in the UK, and 18th in the UK for Architecture. The Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2019, which lists the world's best under 50-year-old universities out of 351 universities, ranked Westminster 151–200 in the world.
The university achieved world leading and internationally excellent status for most of their work, ranking second for Communications, Cultural and Media Studies research, 6th for Art and Design research, in addition to the university performing strongly in Architecture and the Built Environment, and Geography and Environmental studies. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, almost 80 per cent of Westminster's submitted research across 20 subject areas was judged to be of international quality. In 2013, Westminster was ranked joint second in the UK by the Architects’ Journal in their "AJ Top 100" special issue.
== Student life ==
A Student Representative Council (SRC) was established at the polytechnic in 1933, to create a sense of unity and expand the social activities of its day students. The SRC was affiliated to the National Union of Students but initially restricted itself largely to social activities.
After 1945 it began to campaign on issues such as lifting a ban on religious or political activity within the Polytechnic, and establishing a formal Students’ Union. The ban was lifted in 1962 and a Union granted in 1965.
=== Students' Union ===
University of Westminster Students' Union (UWSU) was founded in 1966 as The Polytechnic Students' Union. Its first President was Owen Spencer-Thomas (1966–1967). During the 1970s the newly formed Polytechnic of Central London Students’ Union (PCLSU) engaged in a strategy of protest and direct action. Against a backdrop of general social unrest, PCLSU campaigned …
