A published reference supporting this structure of the Golden Triangle
Imperial College, King?s College, the LSE and UCL are all in the small group of leading universities in the UK and with Cambridge and Oxford are sometimes referred to as ?the Golden Triangle".
The future of the University of London: a discussion paper from the Provost of UCL by Malcolm Grant, President and Provost, UCL. (p.6)[1]
Reputation
The institutions of the 'Golden Triangle' not only receive a large section of the research budget in the United Kingdom, but also enjoy a worldwide reputation for excellence in their own right, hence the term 'golden'. However, the term has gained currency in recent years as a way to denote unrest amongst the nation's premier universities as well as their lobbying efforts to bring about favourable legislation in the British Parliament. All of the universities are currently pressing to charge greater fees for access by European Union nationals, asserting that they do not have the assets to compete on even ground with many of the world?s other leading research universities (the majority of which are private, or if public such as the University of California, Berkeley and UCSB charge higher fees to foreign and out of state students for attendance).
Funding for the year 2007-08
Higher Education Funding Council for England has published its research funding for the year 2007-08 for the universities in England[2]. Top 10 Universities are illustrated in the following table with Golden Triangle institutions in bold form. LSE is the only Golden Triangle institution that failed to make it top ten because of its predominantly social science based research work but it topped amongst the social science based universities with a total research funding of £18,118,000.
Higher Education Research Funding for England (2007-08)