Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025 released

• Oxford overtakes California Institute of Technology and Harvard’s records in the number one spot as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has become the highest-ranked US university for the first time overtaking Stanford University.  
• The reputation of UK and US universities have both significantly declined this year. 
• The number of countries in the top 200 increased by three to 30 this year. They are: Brazil, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
• Seven countries are ranked for the first time: Bahrain, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mongolia, Paraguay, Rwanda, Syria and Uzbekistan.
• The 21st year of the ranking has a record 2,092 universities ranked – up from 1,907 last year – from 115 countries and regions.  
• The US has the most institutions ranked with 174, followed by Japan with 119, and joint third are UK and India with 107 each.

Oxford University enjoys record-breaking year at the top, but US and UK sectors face drops in reputation 

The University of Oxford takes the top spot for a record-breaking ninth consecutive year in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2025, released today. Oxford has beaten Harvard University’s previous record of eight consecutive years at the number one spot from 2004 to 2011. 

However, the reputation of the UK higher education sector is increasingly fragile as its top universities have declined for the second year in a row as the sector faces a severe financial crisis. The UK recorded the worst year-on-year decline in research reputation among large countries (with at least 50 ranked institutions). UK universities received 19 per cent of votes (for teaching and research combined) in the survey in 2016, compared with 15 per cent today. 

US universities dominate the top 10 taking seven spots. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is now the highest-ranked US university in second place, its best-ever performance, while Stanford University dropped from second to sixth. The country has 23 universities in the top 50, 38 in the top 100 and 55 in the top 200 – more than any other country. 

But the global reputation of US universities is at a record low. American universities received 47 per cent of the votes (for teaching and research combined) in THE’s 2016 reputation survey and this dropped sharply to 38 per cent this year - the steepest long-term decline of any country.   

THE’s top 10 universities in the world    

After two years of decreasing participation, the number of Chinese mainland universities surged back up to 94 this year and of those 26 improved on last year’s positions and six fell – a net change of +20; an improvement rate of 21 per cent. Chinese mainland had the second-highest improvement rate of all countries in the ranking, coming behind only Sweden, which saw seven universities improve and three drop down – an improvement rate of 31 per cent.  

In 2021, the US had 59 universities in the top 200; this has now dropped to 55. The UK’s top 200 has also decreased since 2021, from 29 to 25, and Germany’s from 21 to 20. Chinese mainland and Japan are the only countries to increase their representation in the top 200 by more than one during this time, by six and three respectively. Chinese mainland now has 13 and Japan has five.  

While the UK’s total has remained largely stable since 2021, the number of Indian institutions has risen rapidly in the past two years – jumping up to 107 in the 2025 edition from 75 in the 2023 edition. Turkey has also experienced fast growth, increasing from 43 in the 2021 edition to 91 in the 2025 edition. 

Over the past five years, Asia has contributed the most new entrants to the ranking. Of the 211 universities that joined the ranking for the first time since the 2021 edition, 60 per cent are from Asia, 17 per cent from Europe, 10 per cent from Africa, and 10 per cent from South America. 

Egypt saw the highest increase in the number of universities, adding seven new institutions since last year. Nigeria followed with an increase of six universities. In Europe, France experienced the largest growth with six additional universities. In South America, both Brazil and Argentina added five universities each. 

Arab countries are doing exceptionally well with universities from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates entering the top 200. Sub-Saharan Africa has seen participation increase by 26 per cent year-on-year with ranked universities increasing from 42 last year to 53 this year. The highest-ranked university in Africa is University of Cape Town in joint 180th. 

The Latin America region sees a university enter the top 200 this year with Brazilian institution University of São Paulo at joint 199th – its best performance for more than a decade. A record 166 universities from 13 countries are ranked from the region.  

The 21st edition of the ranking has 2,092 universities ranked – up from 1,907 last year – from 115 countries and regions. This marks an increase of 9.7 per cent since last year, making it the biggest rise in the past five years and comparing to a 6 per cent growth last year.   

The THE World University Rankings 2025 are the most comprehensive, rigorous and balanced global ranking assessing research-intensive universities across 18 performance indicators, which are divided into five pillars, covering their core missions of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and internationalisation.   

Phil Baty, Times Higher Education’s chief global affairs officer, said: “Oxford University’s achievement of being ranked first in the world for a record nine years, in a row, in Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings, is just an unbelievably phenomenal achievement. 

“It is all the more impressive given the ever-increasing competition in our ranking as more and more universities participate each year with more than 2,000 assessed this year. 

“I want to make a special point of congratulating every ranked university - simply being included in the ranking is something to celebrate as we focus on a couple of thousand global research universities among the tens of thousands of higher education institutions worldwide. 

“Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings is the world’s gold-standard for ranking research-intensive universities. 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.” 

This year 2,860 institutions submitted data, up six per cent on last year (last year it was 2,674) from 133 countries and territories. The World University Rankings 2025 has 2,092 ranked universities meaning 768 institutions gained “reporter” status, which means, 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. 

View the full World University Rankings 2025 results and see World University Rankings 2025 methodology.