QS World University Rankings 2021

QS Quacquarelli Symonds, global higher education analysts, released the seventeenth edition of the QS World University Rankings – the world’s most-consulted, most-covered source of comparative information about university performance.[1] 26 Asian universities place among the global top-100 – the highest number ever.

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology is named the world’s best university for a record-breaking ninth consecutive year;
  • The top three institutions remain American: MIT is followed by Stanford University (2nd) and Harvard University (3rd);
  • Britain’s top institution is the University of Oxford, which falls to fifth. Its compatriot competitor, the University of Cambridge, remains 7th;
  • 112 of America’s 153 ranked universities fall, with only 34 recording improvements. This is primarily due to collective relative decline in QS’s measures of academic standing and research impact;
  • Continental Europe’s best university is ETH Zurich (6th no-change);
  • Asia’s top university is the National University of Singapore (11th);
  • China’s Tsinghua University reaches a new all-time high (15th);
  • Latin America’s leader is the Universidad de Buenos Aires (66th, up 8 places). Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (100th) becomes the first Mexican university ever to achieve a top-100 place;
  • Universities in Russia and Malaysia continue to rise: Lomonosov Moscow State University (74th) and Universiti Malaya (59th) reach record highs.

Ben Sowter, QS Director of Research, said: “The American higher education hegemony continues to diminish in the face of increasing competitiveness across the world: a competitiveness driven by strategic funding, internationalization efforts, and strong links between education and industry.”

QS World University Rankings 2021: Global Top 20

2021

2020

1

1

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

USA

2

2

Stanford University

USA

3

3

Harvard University

USA

4

5

California Institute of Technology

USA

5

4

University of Oxford

UK

6

6

ETH Zurich

Switzerland

7

7

University of Cambridge

UK

8

9

Imperial College London

UK

9

10

University of Chicago

USA

10

8

University College London

UK

11

 11=

National University of Singapore

Singapore

12

13

Princeton University

USA

13

 11=

Nanyang Technological University (NTU)

Singapore

14

 18=

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Switzerland

15

16

Tsinghua University

China (Mainland)

16

15

University of Pennsylvania

USA

17

17

Yale University

USA

18

14

Cornell University

USA

19

 18=

Columbia University

USA

20

20

University of Edinburgh

UK

© QS Quacquarelli Symonds  www.TopUniversities.com

Methodological details can be found here.  To view the full rankings: www.TopUniversities.com

[1] ‘Most-consulted according to data from  independent monitoring platforms, including Google Analytics, SimilarWeb, Meltwater, and Alexa.

SOURCE QS Quacquarelli Symonds