The QS World University Rankings 2025 are now live!
Being the first of its kind to incorporate both employability and sustainability factors into the methodology, the QS World University Rankings provides the higher education sector, governments and students a reliable rankings system that identifies the world’s leading universities in a range of performance metrics.
This year’s ranking is the largest – featuring 1,500 universities from 106 countries and territories across the globe. For the thirteenth consecutive year Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US has placed first.
Who are the top ten universities in the QS World University Rankings 2025?
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US
2. Imperial College London, UK
3. University of Oxford, UK
4. Harvard University, US
5. University of Cambridge, UK
6. Stanford University, US
7. ETH Zürich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland
8. National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore
9. University College London, UK
10. California Institute of Technology (Caltech), US
Notably, Imperial College London has moved up four places – the biggest improvement among the top ten. Their progress is attributed to several factors, including their improvement in the ‘Sustainability’ category, (scoring 99.7 out of 100 overall) and in various research metrics including ‘Citations per faculty’, which they earned 86.5 last year, compared to a total of 93.9 this year, for example.
New entrants
There are 21 newly ranked institutions in the QS World University Rankings 2025, with the highest debutant being the American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK) in the United Arab Emirates, with a ranking of 485th – the University scored 100 in indicators ‘International students’ and ‘International faculty’.
Global highlights of the QS World University Rankings 2025
China and India’s universities have seen the biggest upward movements for both the number of institutions increasing their ranking position and for the number of significant moves (defined as 10 places or more) in the QS World University Rankings 2025.
Other highlights in institutional performance globally are:
UK
The UK’s strongest performance is in the ‘International Student Ratio’ indicator. It achieves the world’s second-highest average score among countries with ten or more ranked universities, behind only Saudi Arabia – underscoring the global appeal of UK higher education institutions and their ability to attract a diverse student body.
US
The US continues to boast one of the world’s most renowned higher education systems for their reputation, according to employers and academics – this is clear in the ranking as four of the top ten universities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley (UCB) earn 100 in the ‘Academic reputation’ indicator.
Canada
Canadian universities are performing exceptionally in ‘Sustainability’, with two universities among the world’s top five, including the world’s most sustainable institution, the University of Toronto.
Australia
Three Australian institutions are in the world’s top 20 – with the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney each climbing one position to 13th and 18th respectively. Australia also dominates in ‘International research’ in the Asia-Pacific region, claiming nine of the top 10 positions.
Africa
South Africa holds the African continent’s top four positions in the rankings – with the University of Cape Town (ranked 171st) being the continent’s highest-ranked institution, an improvement of two places from the previous year. Cairo University (Egypt) completed the top five in Africa, ranking 350th globally.
Latin America
Latin America has four representatives in the top 100, one from each of its four largest economies: Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) in Argentina (71st); Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil (92nd); Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC) in Chile (93rd); and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico (94th).