Best universities in the world 2023

The top 10 universities in the world

Scroll down for the full list of best universities in the world

World University Rank 2023	World University Rank 2022	University	Country/region
1	1	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
2	=2	Harvard University	United States
=3	=5	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
=3	4	Stanford University	United States
5	=5	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
6	=2	California Institute of Technology	United States
7	7	Princeton University	United States
8	8	University of California, Berkeley	United States
9	9	Yale University	United States
10	12	Imperial College London	United Kingdom

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023, released on 12 October 2023, has revealed the world’s top universities. 

A UK institution, the University of Oxford, has taken the top spot for the seventh year running. Harvard University has taken the second position.

In total, 1,799 universities across 104 countries or regions are represented in the ranking and 27 of these have at least one university in the top 200.  A further 526 universities are listed with “reporter” status, meaning that they provided data but did not meet our eligibility criteria to receive a rank.

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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. Other countries such as Germany, Australia and the Netherlands are well represented 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.

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Top 5 universities in the world

5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT is organised into six separate schools: architecture and planning; engineering; humanities, arts and social sciences; management; science; and computing.

The first architecture classes in the US were taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The university was founded in the mid-19th century and has always endeavoured to provide financial aid to students on a needs basis.

Its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, includes 18 student residences, many gardens and public works of art.

Admission is extremely selective. The university lays claim to 85 Nobel Laureates, 58 National Medal of Science winners, 29 National Medal of Technology and Innovation winners and 45 MacArthur Fellows. Among its alumni is Kofi Annan, former secretary general of the United Nations.

Women in STEM: stories from MIT students

=3. Stanford University

Many graduates go on to achieve great things; 17 Nobel laureates are affiliated with Stanford University.

There are just under 7,000 undergraduates and 9,000 postgraduates at the university, with a 7:4 student-to-staff ratio.

Stanford University has produced many entrepreneurs and start-ups and was partly responsible for the development of the surrounding Silicon Valley.

The large campus is home to 97 per cent of undergraduates and nearly 700 university buildings, museums, gardens and recreational centres.

Research at Stanford has a $1.22 billion budget and more than 5,000 of its projects are externally funded.

Video: how I got into Stanford University as a low-income international student

=3. University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge climbs back into the top five this year, moving up one place from last year’s number six.

In total, 92 affiliates of the university have been awarded Nobel Prizes, covering every category. 

Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is a collegiate public research institution. Its 800-year history makes it the fourth oldest university in the world and the second oldest university in the English-speaking world.

The university is split into 31 colleges, where students receive small group teaching sessions known as supervisions. 

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2. Harvard University

Established in 1636, Harvard University is the oldest university in the US. 

Harvard University is one of the most prestigious institutions in the world. It is part of the Ivy League, a group of eight highly regarded private universities in the US.

Harvard 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

1. University of Oxford

One of the most prestigious universities in the UK has come out on top for the seventh consecutive year.

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.

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.

Tips for acing your University of Oxford interview

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Top 200 universities in the world 2023

Click each institution to view its full World University Rankings 2023 results

World University Rank 2023	World University Rank 2022	University	Country/region
1	1	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
2	=2	Harvard University	United States
=3	=5	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
=3	4	Stanford University	United States
5	=5	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
6	=2	California Institute of Technology	United States
7	7	Princeton University	United States
8	8	University of California, Berkeley	United States
9	9	Yale University	United States
10	12	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
=11	11	Columbia University	United States
=11	15	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
13	10	The University of Chicago	United States
14	=13	University of Pennsylvania	United States
15	=13	Johns Hopkins University	United States
16	=16	Tsinghua University	China
17	=16	Peking University	China
18	=18	University of Toronto	Canada
19	21	National University of Singapore	Singapore
20	22	Cornell University	United States
21	20	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
22	=18	UCL	United Kingdom
23	=24	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
24	26	New York University	United States
25	23	Duke University	United States
=26	=24	Northwestern University	United States
=26	29	University of Washington	United States
28	28	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
29	=30	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
30	38	Technical University of Munich	Germany
31	=30	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
32	34	University of California, San Diego	United States
33	32	LMU Munich	Germany
34	33	University of Melbourne	Australia
35	=35	King’s College London	United Kingdom
36	46	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
37	27	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
38	45	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
39	=35	The University of Tokyo	Japan
40	37	University of British Columbia	Canada
41	=40	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland
42	=42	KU Leuven	Belgium
43	=42	Heidelberg University	Germany
44	57	Monash University	Australia
45	49	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
46	44	McGill University	Canada
47	=40	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
48	48	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
49	39	Karolinska Institute	Sweden
50	47	University of Texas at Austin	United States
51	60	Fudan University	China
52	84	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
53	=54	The University of Queensland	Australia
=54	50	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
=54	=58	University of Sydney	Australia
56	=54	Seoul National University	South Korea
57	51	Washington University in St Louis	United States
58	66	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
59	53	Wageningen University & Research	Netherlands
60	65	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
61	64	Brown University	United States
62	=54	Australian National University	Australia
63	67	University of California, Davis	United States
64	68	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
65	63	University of Southern California	United States
66	69	Utrecht University	Netherlands
67	=75	Zhejiang University	China
68	61	Kyoto University	Japan
69	52	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
70	=75	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
=71	62	Boston University	United States
=71	70	UNSW Sydney	Australia
73	73	Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin	Germany
74	=88	University of Science and Technology of China	China
75	=80	University of Groningen	Netherlands
76	92	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
77	71	Leiden University	Netherlands
78	=151	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea
79	91	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
80	72	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
81	=58	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
=82	82	Emory University	United States
=82	=86	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
=82	=75	University of Zurich	Switzerland
85	=80	McMaster University	Canada
=86	74	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
=86	=78	University of Tübingen	Germany
88	111	University of Adelaide	Australia
89	112	University of Bonn	Germany
90	=88	Sorbonne University	France
=91	83	Free University of Berlin	Germany
=91	=99	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)	South Korea
93	=117	Université Paris-Saclay	France
94	=101	University of Bern	Switzerland
=95	98	University of California, Irvine	United States
=95	91	Institut Polytechnique de Paris	France
=95	=105	Nanjing University	China
98	=113	Vanderbilt University	United States
=99	=151	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=99	=108	RWTH Aachen University	Germany
=101	103	University of Basel	Switzerland
=101	=190	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
=101	=86	University of Minnesota	United States
=104	=93	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
=104	=78	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
106	=93	Michigan State University	United States
107	=96	Ghent University	Belgium
=108	=105	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
=108	124	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
110	=101	University of Helsinki	Finland
111	=88	University of Montreal	Canada
112	85	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
113	=108	University of Freiburg	Germany
=114	=96	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
=114	155	Université Paris Cité	France
=114	110	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
117	104	Aarhus University	Denmark
118	125	University of Alberta	Canada
=119	=119	University of Göttingen	Germany
=119	116	Lund University	Sweden
121	115	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
122	=122	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
123	=99	Dartmouth College	United States
=124	=117	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
=124	=137	University of Vienna	Austria
126	=119	University of Oslo	Norway
127	=105	Purdue University West Lafayette	United States
=128	=132	University of Hamburg	Germany
=128	=127	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
130	141	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
=131	=143	University of Antwerp	Belgium
=131	=132	The University of Western Australia	Australia
133	=143	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
134	126	Case Western Reserve University	United States
135	=176	University of Lausanne	Switzerland
136	130	Georgetown University	United States
=137	=143	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
=137	=162	University of Ottawa	Canada
=139	=137	University of Auckland	New Zealand
=139	=146	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
=139	139	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
=139	165	University of Würzburg	Germany
=139	169	University of York	United Kingdom
144	140	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
145	=127	Maastricht University	Netherlands
146	=172	University of Cologne	Germany
147	136	Rice University	United States
=148	=158	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
=148	=146	Ulm University	Germany
=148	131	Uppsala University	Sweden
=151	154	University of Florida	United States
=151	=119	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
=151	=172	Tufts University	United States
154	142	University of Rochester	United States
155	201–250	KTH Royal Institute of Technology	Sweden
=156	=132	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
=156	139	Technical University of Berlin	Germany
=156	=172	TU Dresden	Germany
=156	=127	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
160	=183	University of Cape Town	South Africa
=161	=172	University of Bologna	Italy
=161	=146	Trinity College Dublin	Ireland
=163	=185	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
=163	=185	Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)	South Korea
=166	=162	Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech)	China
=166	=185	Technical University of Denmark	Denmark
=168	196	Medical University of Graz	Austria
=168	168	Northeastern University	United States
=170	167	Indiana University	United States
=170	=158	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
=170	=122	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
173	157	Wuhan University	China
174	=178	Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)	South Korea
175	192	Macquarie University	Australia
=176	181	Huazhong University of Science and Technology	China
=176	=178	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
=176	=176	Stockholm University	Sweden
179	=146	University of Mannheim	Germany
180	150	University of Arizona	United States
181	=193	Texas A&M University	United States
182	=193	University of Barcelona	Spain
=183	=170	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
=183	=197	Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa	Italy
185	201–250	University of Münster	Germany
186	156	Pompeu Fabra University	Spain
=187	189	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
=187	=113	National Taiwan University (NTU)	Taiwan
=189	201–250	Friedrich Schiller University Jena	Germany
=189	180	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	Germany
191	201–250	University of Massachusetts	United States
=192	=158	University of Aberdeen	United Kingdom
=192	201–250	University of California, Santa Cruz	United States
=194	201–250	Medical University of Vienna	Austria
=194	201–250	University of Miami	United States
=196	=197	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
=196	401–500	Sichuan University	China
=198	=162	Durham University	United Kingdom
=198	201–250	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
=198	201–250	University of Reading	United Kingdom

 

Editors note: As part of our THE statement on Ukraine published on 2 March 2022, Russian universities have been given less prominence in our rankings. Russian universities that met the criteria for this ranking are not displayed in the table above.