THE world university rankings 2025

What aspects do you take into account while selecting which institutions to apply to? Do you make decisions based on the university's global ranking?

You can use the world university rankings to learn more about your university and its reputation, even if it shouldn't be the sole determining factor.

In this article, you’ll find the most recent Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

What is Times Higher Education Ranking?
Times Higher Education World University Rankings – Overview
Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025
What is important to remember regarding the rankings list?

What is Times Higher Education Ranking?

The Times Higher Education magazine publishes the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE), a list of universities ranked annually. Since its implementation in 2010, the current approach for the rankings has been more rigorous, transparent, and resilient.

The process is founded on input gathered from specialists in the study abroad sector and expert consultations. It consists of a survey, an analysis of research papers, and their citations. The rankings for THE are among the world's most esteemed ranking lists.

Times Higher Education World University Rankings – Overview

1,904 institutions are ranked in 104 countries and regions by the 2025 THE Rankings. It presents itself as the most comprehensive and varied university rankings available.
The University of Oxford, Stanford University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are the top three universities.
The USA makes up the bulk of universities.
India is now the fourth most-represented nation on the list with 91 institutions.
Based on THE’s recently developed WUR 3.0 approach, the table evaluates an institution's performance in five areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and worldwide outlook. It does so by utilising eighteen carefully calibrated performance indicators.
Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 comprised survey responses from 68,402 researchers worldwide and analysed over 134 million citations from 16.5 million scholarly papers. They received data submissions from over 2,673 institutions, totalling 411,789 data points.

Also read: Universities with High Acceptance rate

Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025

Rank	University	Country
1	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
3	Harvard University	United States
4	Princeton University	United States
5	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
6	Stanford University	United States
7	California Institute of Technology	United States
8	University of California, Berkeley	United States
9	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
10	Yale University	United States
11	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
12	Tsinghua University	China
13	Peking University	China
14	The University of Chicago	United States
15	University of Pennsylvania	United States
16	Johns Hopkins University	United States
17	National University of Singapore	Singapore
18	Columbia University	United States
19	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
20	Cornell University	United States
21	University of Toronto	Canada
22	UCL	United Kingdom
23	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
24	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
25	University of Washington	United States
26	Technical University of Munich	Germany
27	Duke University	United States
28	The University of Tokyo	Japan
29	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
30	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore
31	Northwestern University	United States
32	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland
33	New York University	United States
34	University of California, San Diego	United States
35	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
36	Fudan University	China
37	King’s College London	United Kingdom
38	LMU Munich	Germany
39	University of Melbourne	Australia
40	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
41	University of British Columbia	Canada
42	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
43	KU Leuven	Belgium
44	The Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
45	McGill University	Canada
46	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
47	Universität Heidelberg	Germany
48	Zhejiang University	China
49	Karolinska Institute	Sweden
50	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
51	University of Texas at Austin	United States
52	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
53	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
54	University of Science and Technology of China	China
55	Kyoto University	Japan
56	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
57	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
58	Brown University	United States
59	Monash University	Australia
60	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
61	The University of Sydney	Australia
62	Seoul National University	South Korea
63	University of California, Davis	United States
64	Université Paris-Saclay	France
65	Nanjing University	China
66	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
67	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
68	Wageningen University & Research	Netherlands
69	Washington University in St Louis	United States
70	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
71	Institut Polytechnique de Paris	France
72	University of Southern California	United States
73	Australian National University	Australia
74	Leiden University	Netherlands
75	Boston University	United States
76	Sorbonne University	France
77	The University of Queensland	Australia
78	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
79	Purdue University West Lafayette	United States
80	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
81	University of Groningen	Netherlands
82	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)	South Korea
83	UNSW Sydney	Australia
84	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
85	The Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
86	University of Massachusetts	United States
87	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
88	University of Minnesota	United States
89	University of Bonn	Germany
90	University of California, Irvine	United States
91	Vanderbilt University	United States
92	RWTH Aachen University	Germany
93	Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin	Germany
94	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
95	KTH Royal Institute of Technology	Sweden
96	Lund University	Sweden
97	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
98	Emory University	United States
99	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
100	Penn State (Main campus)	United States

What is important to remember regarding the rankings list?

Before choosing to utilise the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 to direct your study abroad experience, keep the following points in mind:

It is possible that the top-ranked schools aren't the best for all courses or evaluation standards. Seek the best universities in your chosen field of study.
Choosing a university shouldn't be based solely on rankings.
If you have been paying careful attention to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, you must be aware that the majority of the top 10 positions are consistently held by the same universities.

Not every institution is able to reach the top of the ranking. However, this does not imply that other universities are inferior.

Also Read: Top 100 Universities in the world | Top 10 Universities in the World

Times Higher Education World University Rankings provide a thorough picture of institutional performance and academic quality around the world. Use these rankings to find colleges that fit your academic objectives and aspirations as you start your educational journey.

Explore diverse study options and prestigious institutions with Edvoy, a trusted partner in connecting students with top-ranked universities worldwide. Take the next step towards your academic success and discover the world of opportunities awaiting you.