The World’s Best Universities 2025: Oxford Again Tops Times Higher Education Ranking

For a record-breaking ninth consecutive year, the University of Oxford takes the top spot in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2025, beating Harvard University’s previous record of eight consecutive years as the #1.

For this 21st year, the THE ranking ranks a record 2,092 universities – up from 1,907 last year – from 115 countries and regions.

With seven spots, U.S. universities dominate the top 10. In second place, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is now the highest-ranked US university – its best-ever performance, followed by Harvard University at #3 while Stanford University dropped from second to sixth.

ForbesThe 2024 Best World Universities, Oxford At The Top, Ranked By Times Higher EducationBy Cecilia Rodriguez

Princeton University appears at #4, California Institute of Technology #7, University of California, Berkeley, #8, Yale University #10, the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania share #14, Johns Hopkins University #16 , Columbia University and University of California, Los Angeles, share #18 and Cornell University #20.

The U.S. numbers 23 universities in the top 50, 38 in the top 100 and 55 in the top 200 – more than any other single country.

Two British universities, Oxford at #1 and Cambridge at #5, made it to the top 10. The Imperial College of London is the next European university to appear in the ranking, at #9, while the public research university ETH Zurich (Federal Institute of Technology) in Switzerland is #11, University College of London UCL is #22, Germany’s Technical University of Munich is #26 and the University of Edinburgh in the U.K. is #29.

After two years of decreasing participation, the number of Chinese mainland universities surged with the second-highest improvement rate of all countries in the ranking, coming behind only Sweden, which saw seven universities improve.

Chinese mainland now has 13 and Japan has five among the top 200.

Six Asian universities made it to the top 30 ranks: Tsinghua University, China at #12, Peking University, China, #13, National University of Singapore #17, the University of Tokyo, Japan, #28 and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, #30.

Other Conclusions

• With 174 on the list, The U.S. has the most ranked institutions, followed by Japan with 119, while the UK and India shared third with 107 each.
• The number of Indian institutions in the ranking has been rising over the past two years, jumping to 107 from 75 in 2023. Turkey as well has experienced an increase, from 43 in the 2021 edition to 91 now.
• The number of countries in the top 200 has grown to 30 this year with three new additions: Brazil, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
• Seven countries are ranked for the first timer: Bahrain, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mongolia, Paraguay, Rwanda, Syria and Uzbekistan.
• Of the 211 universities that joined the ranking for the first time since the 2021 edition, 60% are from Asia, 17% from Europe, 10% from Africa and 10% from South America.

U.S. and U.K.: Reputation Down

The analysis of the data has also concluded that the reputations of both U.S. and U.K. higher education sectors are increasingly fragile.

“The global reputation of U.S. universities is at a record low,” the study notes. “American universities received 47% of the votes in the THE’s 2016 reputation survey (for teaching and research combined) and has dropped to 38% this year – the steepest long-term decline of any country.”

In the U.K., according to the study, “the top universities have declined for the second year in a row as the sector faces a severe financial crisis. The U.K. recorded the worst year-on-year decline in research reputation among large countries (with at least 50 ranked institutions). U.K. universities received 19% of votes (for teaching and research combined) in the 2016 survey compared with 15% today.”

In 2021, the U.S. had 59 universities amog the top 200; this year the number has dropped to 55. The U.K.’s top 200 has also decreased since 2021, from 29 to 25.

The THE World University Rankings 2025 “are the most comprehensive, rigorous and balanced global ranking assessing research-intensive universities across 18 performance indicators divided into five pillars, covering teaching, research, knowledge transfer and internationalisation,” the organizers write.

This year 2,860 institutions submitted data, up 6% on last year (2,674) from 133 countries and territories. The World University Rankings 2025 has 2,092 ranked universities with 768 institutions gaining “reporter” status, which means that although they submitted data, they did not meet THE’s eligibility criteria to receive a ranking.

The THE World University Rankings started with 200 universities and now has more than 2,000 “making it the most global and inclusive ranking in the world.”

“Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings is the world’s gold-standard for ranking research-intensive universities,” explained Phil Baty, Times Higher Education’s chief global affairs officer. “It’s unparalleled in participation, rigour and is the most trusted and respected ranking of its kind – where we have taken 21 years to carefully build up its reputation and prestige.”

Here is the list of the top 20:

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

View the full World University Rankings 2025 results

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