Quacquarelli Symonds has unveiled the QS World Rankings 2025, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) retaining its position at the top for the 13th consecutive year. Imperial College London has risen four places to secure the second spot, while the University of Oxford and Harvard University are ranked third and fourth, respectively. The University of Cambridge rounds out the top five.
The rankings were revealed during the QS Edu Data Summit in Washington D.C.
The United States leads the rankings with 197 institutions, followed by the United Kingdom with 90, and mainland China with 71.
Here are the top 10 universities worldwide according to the QS Rankings 2025:
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, United States
2. Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
3. University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
4. Harvard University, Cambridge, United States
5. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
6. Stanford University, Stanford, United States
7. ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
8. National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore
9. UCL, London, United Kingdom
10. California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, United States
According to the official website, this year's rankings are the most comprehensive ever, featuring over 1,500 universities from 105 higher education systems. The results are based on the analysis of 17.5 million academic papers and the expert opinions of over 240,000 academic faculty and employers.