Best universities in the world 2025

Find the world’s top universities using the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings data

September 27 2021

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.

Resources: applying to universities overseas

Applying to university overseas: what to consider
How to apply to university in Canada
7 tips for applying to top universities in England and the United States
A guide to UK tuition fees and student visas: Preparing for university as an international student
A guide to university rankings for international students
Applying through Ucas as an international student
How to choose where to study abroad
How to choose a UK university
Hoping to apply to a US university as a foreign student?
A guide for international students choosing a university in Australia
THE World University Rankings explained
How to use the rankings: frequently asked questions
The best ways to prepare for studying abroad

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. The full methodology can be found here.

Best universities worldwide

Best universities in France
Best universities in Germany
Best universities in the UK
Best universities in the United States
Best universities in Australia
Best universities in Canada
Best universities in China

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.

Dispelling the myths around elite universities

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.

The 10 most beautiful universities in the US

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.

Vlogging a day at Harvard University

Have you considered these countries?

Best universities in Poland
Best universities in Italy
Best universities in Taiwan
Best universities in Denmark
Best universities in New Zealand
Best universities in India
Explore more countries

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.

Caltech: ‘uniquely difficult but a wonderful place to study’

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.

Women in STEM: stories from MIT students

Best universities by region

Best universities in Asia
Best universities in South America
Best universities in Africa
Best universities in Latin America
Best universities in Europe
Best universities in the Arab World

Top 200 universities in the world 2021

Click each institution to view its full World University Rankings 2021 results

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