Best universities in the world 2022

Top 10 universities in the world

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

World University Rank 2022	World University Rank 2021	University	Country/region
1	1	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
=2	4	California Institute of Technology	United States
=2	3	Harvard University	United States
4	2	Stanford University	United States
=5	6	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
=5	5	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
7	9	Princeton University	United States
8	7	University of California, Berkeley	United States
9	8	Yale University	United States
10	10	The University of Chicago	United States

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022, released on 2 September 2021, has revealed the world’s top universities. 

A UK institution, the University of Oxford, has taken the top spot for the sixth year running. The California Institute of Technology and Harvard University are in joint second position. 

In total, 99 countries or regions are represented in the ranking and 27 of these have at least one university in the top 200.  A further 452 universities are listed with “reporter” status, meaning that they provided data but did not meet our eligibility criteria to receive a rank.

---

Applying to university overseas: what to consider
A guide to university rankings for international students
THE World University Rankings explained
How to use the rankings: frequently asked questions
The best ways to prepare for studying abroad

---

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 but they fall behind other nations, such as Germany, Australia and the Netherlands, for universities 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.

---

Best universities in France
Best universities in Germany
Best universities in the UK
Best universities in the United States 
Best universities in Australia 
Best universities in Canada
Best universities in China

---

Top 5 universities in the world

=5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

- The first architecture classes in the US were taught at the 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 university was founded in the mid-19th century and has always endeavoured to provide financial aid to students on a needs basis.

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

Admission to the university 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

=5. University of Cambridge

- The University of Cambridge climbs back into the top five this year, going 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. 

The journey from Gaza to Oxbridge

4. Stanford University

- Many students 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 the projects are externally funded.

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

---

Best universities in Poland
Best universities in Italy
Best universities in Taiwan
Best universities in Denmark
Best universities in New Zealand
Best universities in India
Explore more countries

---

=2. California Institute of Technology

- The California Institute of Technology has a high staff-to-student ratio.
- The institution was founded as Throop University in 1891 and assumed its current name in 1920.

One of the most striking features of the California Institute of Technology or Caltech is its small size; only about 1,000 undergraduates and 1,250 postgraduates are enrolled there.

Caltech has six academic divisions with a strong emphasis on science and technology teaching and research. The university has a competitive admissions process ensuring that only a small number of the most gifted students are admitted.

Caltech’s mascot is a beaver, “nature’s engineer”.

Among the unusual features of the institution are the customary cookie break taken every Thursday by physicists and their students, and the university’s status as a distributor of olive oil.

Caltech: ‘uniquely difficult but a wonderful place to study’

=2. Harvard University

- Established in 1636, Harvard University the oldest university in the US. 
- It is part of the Ivy League, a group of eight highly regarded private universities in the US. 

Harvard University is one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

The institution 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 sixth 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

---

Best universities in Asia
Best universities in South America
Best universities in Africa
Best universities in Latin America
Best universities in Europe
Best universities in the Arab World

---

Top 200 universities in the world 2022

Click each institution to view its full World University Rankings 2022 results

World University Rank 2022	World University Rank 2021	University	Country/region
1	1	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
=2	4	California Institute of Technology	United States
=2	3	Harvard University	United States
4	2	Stanford University	United States
=5	6	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
=5	5	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
7	9	Princeton University	United States
8	7	University of California, Berkeley	United States
9	8	Yale University	United States
10	10	The University of Chicago	United States
11	17	Columbia University	United States
12	11	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
=13	12	Johns Hopkins University	United States
=13	13	University of Pennsylvania	United States
15	14	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
=16	23	Peking University	China
=16	=20	Tsinghua University	China
=18	18	University of Toronto	Canada
=18	16	UCL	United Kingdom
20	15	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
21	25	National University of Singapore	Singapore
22	19	Cornell University	United States
23	=20	Duke University	United States
=24	22	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
=24	24	Northwestern University	United States
26	26	New York University	United States
27	27	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
28	28	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
29	29	University of Washington	United States
=30	30	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
=30	39	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
32	32	LMU Munich	Germany
33	31	University of Melbourne	Australia
34	33	University of California, San Diego	United States
=35	35	King’s College London	United Kingdom
=35	=36	The University of Tokyo	Japan
37	34	University of British Columbia	Canada
38	41	Technical University of Munich	Germany
39	=36	Karolinska Institute	Sweden
=40	43	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland
=40	46	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
=42	42	Heidelberg University	Germany
=42	45	KU Leuven	Belgium
44	40	McGill University	Canada
45	38	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
46	47	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
47	44	University of Texas at Austin	United States
48	48	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
49	=56	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
50	=51	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
51	50	Washington University in St Louis	United States
52	=56	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
53	=62	Wageningen University & Research	Netherlands
=54	59	Australian National University	Australia
=54	=62	The University of Queensland	Australia
=54	60	Seoul National University	South Korea
57	=64	Monash University	Australia
=58	=51	University of Sydney	Australia
=58	49	University of Wisconsin -Madison	United States
60	=70	Fudan University	China
61	=54	Kyoto University	Japan
62	=54	Boston University	United States
63	53	University of Southern California	United States
64	61	Brown University	United States
65	66	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
66	=56	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
67	=64	University of California, Davis	United States
68	68	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
69	=75	Utrecht University	Netherlands
70	67	UNSW Sydney	Australia
71	=70	Leiden University	Netherlands
72	72	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
73	=75	Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin	Germany
74	=80	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
=75	=78	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
=75	=94	Zhejiang University	China
=75	=73	University of Zurich	Switzerland
=78	=78	University of Tübingen	Germany
=78	77	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
=80	=80	University of Groningen	Netherlands
=80	69	McMaster University	Canada
82	=85	Emory University	United States
83	=118	Free University of Berlin	Germany
84	100	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
85	=80	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
=86	=92	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
=86	=85	University of Minnesota	United States
=88	=73	University of Montreal	Canada
=88	=87	University of Science and Technology of China	China
=88	=87	Sorbonne University	France
91	129	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
92	91	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
=93	90	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
=93	105	Michigan State University	United States
95	NR	Institut Polytechnique de Paris	France
=96	84	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
=96	=103	Ghent University	Belgium
98	=98	University of California, Irvine	United States
=99	=101	Dartmouth College	United States
=99	96	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)	South Korea
=101	109	University of Bern	Switzerland
=101	=98	University of Helsinki	Finland
103	=92	University of Basel	Switzerland
104	106	Aarhus University	Denmark
=105	=107	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
=105	=111	Nanjing University	China
=105	=94	Purdue University West Lafayette	United States
=108	83	University of Freiburg	Germany
=108	=107	RWTH Aachen University	Germany
110	=121	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
111	=118	University of Adelaide	Australia
112	=114	University of Bonn	Germany
=113	97	National Taiwan University (NTU)	Taiwan
=113	=111	Vanderbilt University	United States
115	116	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
116	=103	Lund University	Sweden
=117	NR	Université Paris-Saclay	France
=117	110	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
=119	130	University of Göttingen	Germany
=119	=127	University of Oslo	Norway
=119	=114	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
=122	=136	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
=122	=101	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
124	=127	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
125	=131	University of Alberta	Canada
126	=121	Case Western Reserve University	United States
=127	=160	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
=127	=121	Maastricht University	Netherlands
=127	117	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
130	120	Georgetown University	United States
131	=111	Uppsala University	Sweden
=132	=184	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
=132	135	University of Hamburg	Germany
=132	=136	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
=132	139	The University of Western Australia	Australia
136	=124	Rice University	United States
=137	=147	University of Auckland	New Zealand
=137	=164	University of Vienna	Austria
139	=140	Technical University of Berlin	Germany
140	=133	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
141	=158	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
142	=147	University of Rochester	United States
=143	=170	University of Antwerp	Belgium
=143	=174	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
=143	=160	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
=146	=140	University of Mannheim	Germany
=146	=178	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
=146	=155	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
=146	=140	Ulm University	Germany
150	=124	University of Arizona	United States
=151	126	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=151	=160	University of Sussex	United Kingdom
=151	=187	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea
154	=152	University of Florida	United States
155	=136	Université de Paris	France
156	=152	Pompeu Fabra University	Spain
157	301–350	Wuhan University	China
=158	=178	University of Aberdeen	United Kingdom
=158	=131	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
=158	=174	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation
=158	=164	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
=162	=149	Durham University	United Kingdom
=162	=145	University of Ottawa	Canada
=162	251–300	Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech)	China
165	=140	University of Würzburg	Germany
166	=158	Bielefeld University	Germany
167	=140	Indiana University	United States
168	=176	Northeastern University	United States
169	=133	University of York	United Kingdom
=170	182	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
=170	=184	University of Canberra	Australia
=172	=167	University of Bologna	Italy
=172	=145	University of Cologne	Germany
=172	=152	TU Dresden	Germany
=172	=155	Tufts University	United States
=176	=191	University of Lausanne	Switzerland
=176	183	Stockholm University	Sweden
=178	163	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
=178	=176	Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)	South Korea
180	201–250	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	Germany
181	301–350	Huazhong University of Science and Technology	China
182	=200	University of East Anglia	United Kingdom
=183	=155	University of Cape Town	South Africa
=183	=170	University of Notre Dame	United States
=185	=191	University of Gothenburg	Sweden
=185	=170	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
=185	151	Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)	South Korea
=185	=187	Technical University of Denmark	Denmark
189	=191	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
=190	201–250	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
=190	166	Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey	United States
192	=195	Macquarie University	Australia
=193	=198	University of Barcelona	Spain
=193	186	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
=193	197	Texas A&M University	United States
196	201–250	Medical University of Graz	Austria
=197	=198	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
=197	=149	University of Geneva	Switzerland
=197	201–250	University of Hohenheim	Germany
=197	201–250	Sapienza University of Rome	Italy
=197	181	Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa	Italy