With Caltech, UCLA, USC and the Claremont Colleges on the map, Greater Los Angeles has long been home to some of the best higher learning in the world. So it shouldn't be too surprising to see L.A. perched atop a new ranking of “The Best University Cities of 2017.”

L.A. tied for first place alongside London, according to the list, published by Times Higher Education. It calls L.A. “something of a higher-education super-power.”

“If you were to ask a panel of would-be students which cities they think are the best — and which have the best universities — you might expect to hear London, Los Angeles, Boston and Berlin mentioned,” according to the publication.

The top schools in town, according to the list, are Caltech, UCLA and USC. The publication's latest “World University Rankings” put Caltech in second place, UCLA in 14th and USC in 60th. Times Higher Education based its list on an Atlantic CityLab analysis that looked at top global cities and on the number of Times Higher Education's ranked universities in each.

“Los Angeles' dynamism, diversity, geography and climate combine to create an unmatched environment that draws people from around the world to live, study and visit,” UCLA director of strategic communications Tod M. Tamberg said via email. “UCLA not only benefits from this unique and vibrant metropolis, we contribute to its life in every way: through research, as an economic engine and as a cultural resource.”

The school has seen more demand from freshman hopefuls than ever, and it has been working to ensure that it better reflects the diversity of the city around it. Ditto for USC.

But the wide gap between rich and poor in this town has meant that while higher-education opportunity exists, the means to access often do not. Last year personal finance site WalletHub ranked L.A. a lowly 85th among 150 of the nation's “Most and Least Educated Cities.” That low ranking was caused, in part, by the inability of Angeleno kids to get into top-200 universities, according to that analysis.