AT BUSH HOUSE in central London, formerly the home of the BBC’s World Service, the finishing touches are being applied to King’s College London’s swanky new campus, which will open in September. The building’s Portland stone exterior and marble interior, capped by a rooftop café with a fabulous view, make it a grand home for KCL, and a possible, partial solution to a problem from which all of London’s better universities suffer: students don’t much enjoy attending them. In terms of student satisfaction, London’s top universities underperform (see chart). The International Student Barometer, which measures the views of students around the world studying outside their home country, finds that international students in London would be significantly less likely to recommend their university than would those in Britain’s other cities.

That is, no doubt, in part the consequence of their location, for big cities tend to be unfriendly and pricey. Yet New York’s top universities compare better with their compatriots than London’s do with theirs. Indeed, Columbia, one of America’s best, also has one of its highest student ratings. So what’s the problem in London?

In part, it is the teaching. Imperial is the only one of London’s top universities to get a gold award in the government’s Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF); the London School of Economics got a bronze, the lowest level of award. The TEF is an odd measure, bundling data on teaching with other measures such as whether an institution’s graduates get jobs and what they are paid. But students echo its conclusions, especially in big disciplines like economics.

Saira, an LSE geography and economics graduate, says that the teaching in economics was “a bit hit and miss. Some were brilliant, some didn’t engage at all…I don’t think some of the economics tutors knew who we were.” Alex, a third-year philosophy and economics student at University College London, says: “I have no relationship with my economics tutors. I have four tutorials a term, and I get new tutors every term.” Students tend to feel better cared for in smaller disciplines.

Poor teaching may be related to the high ranking of some London universities. It is research excellence that wins an institution a top spot in the three global rankings that matter—Times Higher Education, QS and Shanghai—and a focus on research sometimes comes at the expense of teaching. Ed Byrne, principal of KCL, acknowledges that “students haven’t been happy with feedback and assessment. They’re entitled to feedback, not just to a mark.” Things are, he says, improving.

Social factors are at work, too. Creating a feeling of community is particularly hard for KCL, which has five campuses and 160 buildings around the city. “We’re increasingly aware of the isolation that’s a problem for first-year students,” says Mr Byrne. The hope is that Bush House will provide a focus for university life. LSE, too, is spending heavily on its campus: a £350m ($460m) revamp will open next year.

The high proportion of foreign students may contribute to the problem. At LSE, half of undergraduates and nearly three-quarters of the whole student body are from overseas. Being a foreign student can be tough. Momin Saqib, now president of KCL’s student union, could not afford to return home to Pakistan over his first Christmas break, and found himself alone and friendless. Large groups of foreign students may also lead to social fragmentation. “The Asian students stay with the Asian students,” says Alex, from south London. “Then there’s the rich international crowd that went to British boarding schools.”

The universities try to mitigate the effects of big-city living. But “if you’ve got to spend an hour getting across London to see your counsellor, it’s difficult,” says Mr Byrne. The student unions also make efforts to help people through difficult times. KCL’s persuaded the university to stay open over Christmas; LSE’s has run a “De-Stress Week”, including a petting zoo. But the demand for help sometimes overwhelms supply. A UCL student says that he and his three housemates all suffered from depression and were told there was a six-month waiting list for counselling.

Yet for most London university students, the positives outweigh the negatives. Most would recommend their institution; most of those interviewed for this article were, on balance, satisfied with their choices. Even Ajay, a third-year maths, statistics and business student who has not enjoyed his time at university, says he does not regret his decision to study in London: “The job prospects outweigh three years of misery.”