Best universities in the world
Find the world’s top universities using the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings data.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021, released on 2 September 2020, has revealed the world’s top universities.
A UK institution has taken the top spot: the University of Oxford. There is now a new world number two, with Stanford University climbing two places from last year.
In total, 93 countries or regions are represented in the ranking and 27 of these have at least one university in the top 200.
Both in terms of the overall ranking and the highest positions, the US and the UK are well represented. Japan and China are among the best represented countries in the ranking but they fall behind other nations, such as Germany, Australia and the Netherlands, for universities in the top 200.
The results are calculated using 13 performance indicators underlying five metrics: research, teaching, research influence, industry income and international outlook.
Top 5 universities in the world
1. University of Oxford
One of the most prestigious universities in the UK has come out on top for the fifth year running.
The University of Oxford is the UK’s oldest university and one of the best known in the world.
There are more than 20,000 students at Oxford, with a roughly equal number of undergraduates and postgraduates.
About 95 per cent of Oxford graduates are employed or in postgraduate study within six months of completing their studies.
Admission is extremely competitive; on average the university receives five applications for every place.
The university employs staff from just under 100 countries and foreign citizens make up about 40 per cent of the student and academic body.
2. Stanford University
Stanford University has produced many entrepreneurs and start-ups and was partly responsible for the development of the surrounding Silicon Valley.
Many students go on to achieve great things; 17 Nobel laureates are affiliated with Stanford.
The large campus is home to 97 per cent of undergraduates and nearly 700 university buildings, alongside museums, gardens and recreational centres.
There are just under 7,000 undergraduates and 9,000 postgraduates at the university, with a 7:4 student-to-staff ratio.
Research at Stanford has a $1.22 billion budget and more than 5,000 of the projects are externally funded.
3. Harvard University
Harvard University finds itself back in the top five this year, climbing four places from number seven last year.
It is one of the most prestigious universities in the world and has topped the Times Higher Education Reputation Ranking for nine consecutive years. It is also part of the Ivy League, a group of eight private universities in the US, which are highly regarded.
Established in 1636, it is the oldest university in the country.
The institution is connected to more than 45 Nobel laureates, at least 30 heads of state and 48 Pulitzer prizewinners. Thirteen US presidents have honorary degrees from the institution; the most recent of these was awarded to John F. Kennedy in 1956.
4. California Institute of Technology
One of the most striking features of Caltech is its small size; only about 1,000 undergraduates and 1,250 postgraduates are enrolled there. The college boasts a high student-to-staff ratio.
Caltech aims to foster an interdisciplinary environment in which students learn about and tackle the most challenging and fundamental scientific or technological problems.
The institution was founded as Throop University in 1891. It assumed its current name in 1920.
There were 6,506 applicants for the entry class graduating in 2019 and 99 per cent of the students accepted across all years were in the top 10 per cent of their high school class.
More than half of Caltech students receive need-based financial support. The average financial aid package is $38,983.
Caltech’s mascot is a beaver, “nature’s engineer”.
Among the unusual features of the institution are the customary cookie break taken every Thursday by physicists and their students, and the university’s status as a distributor of olive oil.
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was founded in the mid-19th century and has always endeavoured to provide financial aid to students on a needs basis.
The first architecture classes in the US were taught at MIT. The first female student, Ellen Swallow Richards, was admitted to the chemistry department in 1871.
Just two years later, the first international student – from Canada – graduated from MIT.
The campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, includes 18 student residences, many gardens and public works of art.
Admission to the university is extremely selective; only 8 per cent of applicants won a place in the graduating class of 2019.
Graduates are employed by top companies, including Google, Amazon and Apple.
Top 200 universities in the world 2021
World University Rank 2021 | World University Rank 2020 | University | Country/region |
1 | 1 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom |
2 | 4 | Stanford University | United States |
3 | 7 | Harvard University | United States |
4 | 2 | California Institute of Technology | United States |
5 | 5 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | United States |
6 | 3 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom |
7 | =13 | University of California, Berkeley | United States |
8 | 8 | Yale University | United States |
9 | 6 | Princeton University | United States |
10 | 9 | University of Chicago | United States |
11 | 10 | Imperial College London | United Kingdom |
12 | 12 | Johns Hopkins University | United States |
13 | 11 | University of Pennsylvania | United States |
14 | =13 | ETH Zurich | Switzerland |
15 | 17 | University of California, Los Angeles | United States |
16 | 15 | UCL | United Kingdom |
17 | 16 | Columbia University | United States |
18 | 18 | University of Toronto | Canada |
19 | 19 | Cornell University | United States |
=20 | 20 | Duke University | United States |
=20 | 23 | Tsinghua University | China |
22 | 21 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | United States |
23 | 24 | Peking University | China |
24 | 22 | Northwestern University | United States |
25 | 25 | National University of Singapore | Singapore |
26 | 29 | New York University | United States |
27 | =27 | London School of Economics and Political Science | United Kingdom |
28 | =27 | Carnegie Mellon University | United States |
29 | 26 | University of Washington | United States |
30 | 30 | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom |
31 | =32 | University of Melbourne | Australia |
32 | =32 | LMU Munich | Germany |
33 | 31 | University of California, San Diego | United States |
34 | 34 | University of British Columbia | Canada |
35 | =36 | King’s College London | United Kingdom |
=36 | 41 | Karolinska Institute | Sweden |
=36 | =36 | The University of Tokyo | Japan |
38 | =38 | Georgia Institute of Technology | United States |
39 | 35 | University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong |
40 | 42 | McGill University | Canada |
41 | 43 | Technical University of Munich | Germany |
42 | 44 | Heidelberg University | Germany |
43 | =38 | École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne | Switzerland |
44 | =38 | University of Texas at Austin | United States |
45 | =45 | KU Leuven | Belgium |
46 | =45 | Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris | France |
47 | =48 | Nanyang Technological University, Singapore | Singapore |
48 | =48 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | United States |
49 | 51 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | United States |
50 | 52 | Washington University in St Louis | United States |
=51 | =55 | University of Manchester | United Kingdom |
=51 | 60 | University of Sydney | Australia |
53 | =62 | University of Southern California | United States |
=54 | 61 | Boston University | United States |
=54 | 65 | Kyoto University | Japan |
=56 | =57 | Chinese University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong |
=56 | 47 | The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology | Hong Kong |
=56 | 54 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | United States |
59 | 50 | Australian National University | Australia |
60 | 64 | Seoul National University | South Korea |
61 | 53 | Brown University | United States |
=62 | 66 | The University of Queensland | Australia |
=62 | 59 | Wageningen University & Research | Netherlands |
=64 | =55 | University of California, Davis | United States |
=64 | =75 | Monash University | Australia |
66 | =62 | University of Amsterdam | Netherlands |
67 | 71 | UNSW Sydney | Australia |
68 | =57 | University of California, Santa Barbara | United States |
69 | 72 | McMaster University | Canada |
=70 | 109 | Fudan University | China |
=70 | =67 | Leiden University | Netherlands |
72 | 69 | Erasmus University Rotterdam | Netherlands |
=73 | 85 | University of Montreal | Canada |
=73 | 90 | University of Zurich | Switzerland |
=75 | =80 | Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin | Germany |
=75 | =75 | Utrecht University | Netherlands |
77 | 77 | University of Warwick | United Kingdom |
=78 | =67 | Delft University of Technology | Netherlands |
=78 | =91 | University of Tübingen | Germany |
=80 | 73 | University of Groningen | Netherlands |
=80 | 74 | Humboldt University of Berlin | Germany |
=80 | 70 | Ohio State University (Main campus) | United States |
83 | 86 | University of Freiburg | Germany |
84 | 101 | University of Copenhagen | Denmark |
=85 | =80 | Emory University | United States |
=85 | 79 | University of Minnesota | United States |
=87 | 93 | École Polytechnique | France |
=87 | =80 | University of Science and Technology of China | China |
=87 | =80 | Sorbonne University | France |
90 | =91 | University of Maryland, College Park | United States |
91 | 87 | University of Bristol | United Kingdom |
=92 | =94 | University of Basel | Switzerland |
=92 | =99 | University of Glasgow | United Kingdom |
=94 | 88 | Purdue University West Lafayette | United States |
=94 | =107 | Zhejiang University | China |
96 | =110 | Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) | South Korea |
97 | =120 | National Taiwan University | Taiwan |
=98 | =96 | University of California, Irvine | United States |
=98 | =96 | University of Helsinki | Finland |
100 | =157 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | China |
=101 | =94 | Dartmouth College | United States |
=101 | 89 | Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) | South Korea |
=103 | 123 | Ghent University | Belgium |
=103 | =96 | Lund University | Sweden |
105 | 84 | Michigan State University | United States |
106 | 115 | Aarhus University | Denmark |
=107 | 112 | University of Birmingham | United Kingdom |
=107 | =99 | RWTH Aachen University | Germany |
109 | =113 | University of Bern | Switzerland |
110 | =110 | Queen Mary University of London | United Kingdom |
=111 | =144 | Nanjing University | China |
=111 | =102 | Uppsala University | Sweden |
=111 | 116 | Vanderbilt University | United States |
=114 | =105 | University of Bonn | Germany |
=114 | 78 | Penn State (Main campus) | United States |
116 | 138 | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | Netherlands |
117 | =107 | University of Virginia (Main campus) | United States |
=118 | =120 | University of Adelaide | Australia |
=118 | =117 | Free University of Berlin | Germany |
120 | =102 | Georgetown University | United States |
=121 | 119 | Case Western Reserve University | United States |
=121 | 127 | Maastricht University | Netherlands |
=121 | =117 | University of Sheffield | United Kingdom |
=124 | 104 | University of Arizona | United States |
=124 | =105 | Rice University | United States |
126 | 126 | City University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong |
=127 | =131 | University of Oslo | Norway |
=127 | 122 | University of Southampton | United Kingdom |
129 | 171 | Hong Kong Polytechnic University | Hong Kong |
130 | 125 | University of Göttingen | Germany |
=131 | =136 | University of Alberta | Canada |
=131 | 124 | University of Colorado Boulder | United States |
=133 | =113 | University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus | United States |
=133 | =128 | University of York | United Kingdom |
135 | =149 | University of Hamburg | Germany |
=136 | =139 | Lancaster University | United Kingdom |
=136 | 130 | University of Paris | France |
=136 | =128 | Radboud University Nijmegen | Netherlands |
139 | =131 | The University of Western Australia | Australia |
=140 | =134 | Indiana University | United States |
=140 | =157 | University of Mannheim | Germany |
=140 | =149 | Technical University of Berlin | Germany |
=140 | =141 | Ulm University | Germany |
=140 | 163 | University of Würzburg | Germany |
=145 | =157 | University of Cologne | Germany |
=145 | =141 | University of Ottawa | Canada |
=147 | =179 | University of Auckland | New Zealand |
=147 | =173 | University of Rochester | United States |
=149 | 133 | Durham University | United Kingdom |
=149 | =144 | University of Geneva | Switzerland |
151 | =146 | Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) | South Korea |
=152 | =175 | University of Florida | United States |
=152 | 143 | Pompeu Fabra University | Spain |
=152 | =157 | TU Dresden | Germany |
=155 | =136 | University of Cape Town | South Africa |
=155 | 164 | Trinity College Dublin | Republic of Ireland |
=155 | =139 | Tufts University | United States |
=158 | =166 | Bielefeld University | Germany |
=158 | =152 | University of Nottingham | United Kingdom |
=160 | =155 | University of Leeds | United Kingdom |
=160 | =146 | University of Sussex | United Kingdom |
=160 | =194 | University of Technology Sydney | Australia |
163 | 165 | University of Liverpool | United Kingdom |
=164 | =152 | Université Catholique de Louvain | Belgium |
=164 | =134 | University of Vienna | Austria |
166 | =168 | Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey | United States |
=167 | =168 | University of Bologna | Italy |
=167 | =179 | Korea University | South Korea |
169 | 172 | University of Alabama at Birmingham | United States |
=170 | =198 | University of Antwerp | Belgium |
=170 | =166 | University of Leicester | United Kingdom |
=170 | =157 | University of Notre Dame | United States |
=170 | =149 | Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies – Pisa | Italy |
=174 | =146 | University of Exeter | United Kingdom |
=174 | =189 | Lomonosov Moscow State University | Russian Federation |
=176 | =173 | Northeastern University | United States |
=176 | 201–250 | Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) | South Korea |
=178 | =168 | University of Aberdeen | United Kingdom |
=178 | 201–250 | Newcastle University | United Kingdom |
=178 | NR | Paris-Saclay University | France |
181 | =152 | Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa | Italy |
182 | =157 | Autonomous University of Barcelona | Spain |
183 | =175 | Stockholm University | Sweden |
=184 | =155 | Arizona State University (Tempe) | United States |
=184 | 193 | University of Canberra | Australia |
186 | =179 | Queensland University of Technology | Australia |
=187 | =186 | Eindhoven University of Technology | Netherlands |
=187 | =198 | George Washington University | United States |
=187 | =184 | Technical University of Denmark | Denmark |
=187 | 197 | Yonsei University (Seoul campus) | South Korea |
=191 | =198 | Cardiff University | United Kingdom |
=191 | =186 | University of Gothenburg | Sweden |
=191 | =198 | University of Lausanne | Switzerland |
=191 | =189 | Tel Aviv University | Israel |
=195 | 201–250 | Macquarie University | Australia |
=195 | =189 | University of Münster | Germany |
197 | 178 | Texas A&M University | United States |
=198 | 201–250 | University of Barcelona | Spain |
=198 | 183 | University of Erlangen-Nuremberg | Germany |
=200 | 201–250 | University of Calgary | Canada |
=200 | 192 | University of East Anglia | United Kingdom |
=200 | 201–250 | Queen’s University Belfast | United Kingdom |
Source: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/best-universities-world