World University Rankings 2023: the opportunities and threats ahead

World University Rankings 2023: results announced

Browse the full results of the World University Rankings 2023

Download a copy of the World University Rankings 2023 report

In the 1990s British newspapers published “magic eye” pictures – diagrams made up of thousands of small dots from which, if you squinted, 3D images would emerge. Comprehensive datasets offer something similar: when sliced in the right way, millions of datapoints reveal trends and insights. That is what we aim to do with the World University Rankings: our 13 metrics, grouped into five pillars, combine data on 1,799 universities from 104 countries and regions. It is a goldmine of revealing trends.

This year, the data show that many countries are in strong positions when it comes to higher education, but they also suggest that America’s crown is slipping.

China, Saudi Arabia and UAE all continue to climb, although cracks may be starting to appear in the Chinese system.

Africa is showing a marked improvement, with the largest increment in universities ranked, up from 71 to 97. Five countries entered the rankings for the first time ever, all of them African: Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Although things are looking bright, the ranking data are only just beginning to reflect the chaos of the pandemic. And beyond Covid-19, war was started in Europe and other geopolitical tensions are bubbling.

The higher education landscape is certainly changing. So, what are the biggest opportunities and threats facing universities? We asked leaders from top institutions across the world to answer this question, in respect to four areas the World University Rankings measure: research, teaching, knowledge sharing and internationalisation.

We’ve heard from Brian Schmidt, vice-chancellor of the Australian National University and Nobel prizewinner, who fears that prioritising applied research over basic will hamstring progress. He believes the modern world treats entrepreneurs as kings, but it is academics who hold the keys to solving humanity’s problems.

Meric Gertler of the University of Toronto is positive that research will be boosted by the steady rise in international collaboration, the power of which was made apparent during the pandemic. He is deeply concerned about rising geopolitical tensions, however, saying the effects on international research collaboration of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are already being felt.

Rianne Letschert, president of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, sees getting internationalisation right as the greatest challenge in the coming years, but is clear that the motive should not be revenue.

We also interviewed four vice-chancellors of top universities who happen to be stepping down imminently (a decision they made unrelated to their interviews with THE!). You can hear what Louise Richardson of the University of Oxford, Stephen Toope of the University of Cambridge, Andrew Hamilton of New York University, and Alice Gast of Imperial College London all think of the challenges ahead.

Change is certainly afoot for global higher education, but armed with data, hopefully we can stay one step ahead of the trends.

Countries/regions represented