World University Rankings 2024: the 20th edition

Browse the full results of the World University Rankings 2024

Welcome to the 20th edition of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

Our first table in 2004 included only 200 institutions from 29 territories. This year, we have ranked 1,904 institutions across 108 territories, with a further 769 universities listed as reporters.

Our original methodology was exceptionally simple, based on only five performance indicators. Our new WUR 3.0 methodology, introduced this year, has 18 performance indicators across five pillars, making it our most robust and comprehensive assessment of global higher education to date.

World University Rankings 2024: results announced

We still capture the teaching and research reputations of universities, through our international, invitation-only academic reputation survey, to calculate two of the metrics. But this has expanded too. In 2004, our reputation data was drawn from 1,300 responses from 88 countries; this year, we’re using over 68,400 responses from 166 countries.

Overall, for this year’s league table, THE has been working with more than 411,000 data values, while our bibliometric data supplier Elsevier has analysed 16.5 million research papers and 134 million citations.

In short, the numbers and growth of the rankings over the past two decades are significant. But data only tells part of the story.

That’s why, alongside our tables and charts, we have extensive analysis from our journalists, commentary from academics and higher education experts and insights from leaders of some of the top universities in Australia, Hong Kong, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Sweden and the US. All relate to at least one of the five areas the World University Rankings measure – the teaching environment, the research environment, research quality, knowledge transfer and internationalisation – and reflect the fact that the higher education sector has, like our rankings, become substantially more global and more inclusive over the past two decades.

Gary May, chancellor of the University of California, Davis – the only black leader in the UC system – shares his advice on attracting minority students, as well as his view of the challenges to progress, while the Vanderbilt University chancellor Daniel Diermeier defends his philosophy of “institutional neutrality” in an increasingly polarised US political landscape.

Cheryl de la Rey, vice-chancellor of the University of Canterbury, reveals what it’s like to lead a university after local tragedies – in her institution’s case, an earthquake and two mosque shootings, all of which were deadly.

Folasade Ogunsola, vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos, discusses her country’s battle with brain drain and the search for creative ways to combat funding shortfalls – both issues facing universities all over the world. Meanwhile, David Garza, president of Monterrey Institute of Technology, explains how his institution is investing in hiring international scholars in a bid to make Mexico a top choice for foreign academic talent.

It’s been fascinating to observe the trends in global higher education over the past 20 years. We look forward to providing data, analysis and commentary for the next 20 and beyond.

ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com

Countries/regions represented in the top 200