QS World University Rankings 2025: Top global universities

In 2025, the QS World University Rankings presented an updated list of the world's best universities, reaffirming the leadership of several institutions and highlighting the dynamic development of others.

Top 100 Universities in the World according to QS 2025:

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) — United States
2. Imperial College London — United Kingdom
3. University of Oxford — United Kingdom
4. Harvard University — United States
5. University of Cambridge — United Kingdom
6. Stanford University — United States
7. ETH Zürich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology — Switzerland
8. National University of Singapore (NUS) — Singapore
9. University College London (UCL) — United Kingdom
10. California Institute of Technology (Caltech) — United States
11. University of Pennsylvania (Penn) — United States
12. University of California, Berkeley (UCB) — United States
13. The University of Melbourne (UniMelb) — Australia
14. Peking University (PKU) — China
15. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU) — Singapore
16. Cornell University — United States
17. The University of Hong Kong (HKU) — Hong Kong
18. The University of Sydney (USyd) — Australia
19. The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) — Australia
20. Tsinghua University — China
21. University of Chicago — United States
22. Princeton University — United States
23. Yale University — United States
24. Université PSL — France
25. University of Toronto (U of T) — Canada
26. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) — Switzerland
27. The University of Edinburgh (UoE) — United Kingdom
28. Technical University of Munich (TUM) — Germany
29. McGill University — Canada
30. Australian National University (ANU) — Australia
31. Seoul National University (SNU) — South Korea
32. Johns Hopkins University (JHU) — United States
33. The University of Tokyo (UTokyo) — Japan
34. Columbia University — United States
35. The University of Manchester (UoM) — United Kingdom
36. The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) — Hong Kong
37. Monash University — Australia
38. University of British Columbia (UBC) — Canada
39. Fudan University — China
40. King's College London (KCL) — United Kingdom
41. The University of Queensland (UQ) — Australia
42. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) — United States
43. New York University (NYU) — United States
44. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor — United States
45. Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) — China
46. Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris) — France
47. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) — Hong Kong
48. Zhejiang University (ZJU) — China
49. Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) — Netherlands
50. Kyoto University — Japan
51. Northwestern University — United States
52. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) — United Kingdom
53. KAIST - Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology — South Korea
54. University of Bristol — United Kingdom
55. University of Amsterdam (UvA) — Netherlands
56. Yonsei University — South Korea
57. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) — Hong Kong
58. Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) — United States
59. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) — Germany
60. Universiti Malaya (UM) — Malaysia
61. Duke University — United States
62. City University of Hong Kong (CityU) — Hong Kong
63. KU Leuven — Belgium
64. Sorbonne University — France
65. The University of Auckland — New Zealand
66. University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) — United States
67. Korea University — South Korea
68. National Taiwan University (NTU) — Taiwan
69. The University of Warwick — United Kingdom
70. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — United States
71. Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) — Argentina
72. University of California, San Diego (UCSD) — United States
73. Université Paris-Saclay — France
74. KTH Royal Institute of Technology — Sweden
75. Lund University — Sweden
76. University of Washington — United States
77. The University of Western Australia (UWA) — Australia
78. University of Glasgow — United Kingdom
79. Brown University — United States
80. University of Birmingham — United Kingdom
81. University of Southampton — United Kingdom
82. The University of Adelaide — Australia
83. University of Leeds — United Kingdom
84. Universität Heidelberg — Germany
85. Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) — Japan
86. Osaka University — Japan
87. Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin — Ireland
88. University of Technology Sydney (UTS) — Australia
89. Durham University — United Kingdom
90. Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) — United States
91. Purdue University — United States
92. Universidade de São Paulo (USP) — Brazil
93. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC) — Chile
94. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) — Russia
95. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) — Mexico
96. University of Alberta — Canada
97. Freie Universitaet Berlin — Germany
98. Pohang University of Science And Technology (POSTECH) — South Korea
99. RWTH Aachen University — Germany
100. University of Copenhagen — Denmark

Source: QS World University Rankings 2025

The new QS World University Rankings 2025 vividly demonstrates the dominance of universities from the United States, the United Kingdom, and China on the global educational stage. The U.S. leads with 197 institutions in the ranking, followed by the United Kingdom with 90 universities, and China, solidifying its position, with 71.

For the 13th consecutive year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) remains the top-ranked institution. Imperial College London climbed four positions to secure second place, followed by the University of Oxford in third, Harvard University in fourth, and the University of Cambridge rounding out the top five. Notably, the top 10 also includes ETH Zurich from Switzerland and the National University of Singapore, showcasing the global reach of the ranking.

The QS World University Rankings is based on multiple factors, including academic reputation, employer feedback, research citation impact, faculty-to-student ratio, the proportion of international students and staff, international collaboration, and the sustainability of universities. For 2025, the analysis encompassed data from 17.5 million research papers and the opinions of over 240,000 academics and employers worldwide.

Asian universities continue to rise impressively. Peking University climbed to 14th place, Nanyang Technological University reached 15th, and the University of Hong Kong advanced to 17th. Tsinghua University also entered the top 20, reflecting the growing importance of Asia in global higher education.

Among the top English-speaking countries (U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada), Australia stands out for its academic reputation and international collaboration. The U.K. leads in graduate employability, while Canada excels in employment outcomes. The U.S. maintains its lead in the faculty-to-student ratio.

The 2025 ranking not only highlights the traditional strengths of the world's leading universities but also demonstrates how rapidly developing regions, especially Asia, continue to strengthen their positions on the global educational map.