Every year, based on several factors and indications, world universities are ranked by several organizations and publications such as Times Higher Education (THE), Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU or Shanghai Ranking), Quacquarelli Symonds (Q.S.), U.S. News and World Report (USNWR), and many more. 

The Times Higher Education (THE), a British magazine, World University Rankings 2024 publication, is based on analyzing 1,906 universities across 108 countries and regions. Employing the WUR 3.0 methodology, it evaluates institutions based on 18 performance indicators across five key areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry engagement, and international outlook.

This year’s analysis includes over 134 million citations from 16.5 million research publications and insights from 68,402 scholars worldwide, gathering 411,789 data points from over 2,673 institutions.

Key Findings:

According to THE Ranking 2024 publication, key findings regarding the top universities are as follows:

• The University of Oxford retains its top spot for the eighth consecutive year, with Stanford University climbing to second place and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ascending to third.
• Notably, Italy’s Catholic University of the Sacred Heart enters the rankings in the 301-350 bracket, signalling new representation from Asia.
• The US remains the most-represented country, with India surpassing China to become the fourth most-represented nation.
• Stanford University leads in the teaching pillar, while Oxford and Cambridge excel in a research environment. MIT tops the research quality (citations) pillar.
• The University of Sharjah in the UAE ranks highest in international outlook, while 28 institutions receive a perfect score for industry engagement.

Additional Insights:

Alongside the 1,904 ranked institutions, 769 universities are listed as “reporter” status, providing data but not meeting ranking criteria.

Readers can access an analysis of the rankings’ results below or download the digital report for further insights from the link shared at the end of this content.

Please review the universities’ overall research, teaching, citations, industry income, and international outlook in the table below.

Rank	Name Country/Region	Overall	Teaching	Research Environment	Research Quality	Industry	International Outlook
1	University of Oxford UK	98.5	96.6	100.0	99.0	98.7	97.5
2	Stanford University United States	98.0	99.0	97.8	99.6	100.0	87.0
3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States	97.9	98.6	96.2	99.7	100.0	93.8
4	Harvard University United States	97.8	97.7	99.9	99.4	84.2	90.8
5	University of Cambridge UK	97.5	95.8	100.0	98.0	87.9	97.4
6	Princeton University United States	96.9	96.3	97.9	98.8	95.1	89.1
7	California Institute of Technology United States	96.5	96.6	98.0	95.9	100.0	90.6
8	Imperial College London UK	95.1	90.9	95.5	98.6	90.9	98.3
9	University of California, Berkeley United States	94.6	87.2	98.8	99.0	99.4	86.8
10	Yale University United States	94.2	94.0	94.9	97.7	86.5	82.4
11	ETH Zurich Switzerland	93.1	87.6	96.8	95.6	82.9	95.6
12	Tsinghua University China	92.4	95.3	98.1	93.2	99.9	51.7
13	The University of Chicago United States	92.1	89.6	91.2	97.6	93.8	82.3
14	Peking University China	91.8	95.6	97.3	87.2	98.8	70.2
15	Johns Hopkins University United States	91.1	84.4	92.3	97.2	100.0	84.2
16	University of Pennsylvania United States	91.0	87.7	89.7	97.6	97.7	78.8
17	Columbia University United States	90.9	88.6	89.7	97.4	75.2	86.9
18	University of California, Los Angeles United States	90.1	85.7	91.9	96.4	92.3	74.3
19	National University of Singapore Singapore	90.0	78.8	94.0	95.4	100.0	91.1
20	Cornell University United States	89.5	85.7	88.7	97.6	69.4	86.0
21	University of Toronto Canada	88.6	77.5	94.1	92.8	96.1	90.7
22	UCL UK	88.1	78.4	86.4	98.6	75.2	97.9
23	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor United States	87.4	84.7	87.4	95.5	80.7	69.0
24	Carnegie Mellon University United States	86.3	75.0	84.6	98.9	87.3	85.5
25	University of Washington United States	85.3	78.0	83.5	98.2	77.6	73.2
26	Duke University United States	83.9	79.3	76.1	96.2	100.0	74.8
27	New York University United States	83.5	73.2	84.0	94.9	75.4	80.7
28	Northwestern University United States	83.2	72.3	78.8	97.8	99.7	75.9
29	The University of Tokyo Japan	83.1	93.9	94.2	67.8	100.0	49.7
=30	University of Edinburgh UK	82.5	70.7	77.5	96.9	71.1	97.0
=30	Technical University of Munich Germany	82.5	69.8	85.1	90.0	100.0	83.1
32	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Singapore	82.3	66.2	80.9	94.5	99.7	93.3
33	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland	81.4	74.5	73.2	90.3	99.8	95.8
34	University of California, San Diego United States	81.0	66.0	78.4	97.6	100.0	74.3
35	University of Hong Kong Hong Kong	80.3	65.6	72.3	96.4	95.2	96.8
36	Georgia Institute of Technology United States	80.0	63.4	78.9	94.1	94.6	84.8
37	University of Melbourne Australia	79.2	64.8	76.4	90.1	98.3	92.7
=38	King’s College London UK	79.0	59.8	75.1	97.7	74.2	97.5
=38	LMU Munich Germany	79.0	65.3	76.8	92.2	100.0	76.9
40	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris France	78.5	75.7	72.8	83.2	99.7	81.6
41	University of British Columbia Canada	78.0	62.5	76.6	90.5	76.7	95.0
42	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign United States	77.9	69.5	81.5	85.2	85.3	64.0
43	Shanghai Jiao Tong University China	77.7	76.6	82.5	75.4	100.0	60.6
44	Fudan University China	77.5	76.5	75.3	83.5	96.0	56.1
45	KU Leuven Belgium	77.0	60.1	74.9	91.9	100.0	79.6
46	London School of Economics and Political Science UK	76.8	59.5	73.5	95.4	55.9	94.1
47	Universität Heidelberg Germany	76.7	67.7	64.3	94.6	99.3	76.4
48	Delft University of Technology Netherlands	76.3	66.7	78.2	76.5	100.0	92.8
49	McGill University Canada	76.0	62.3	72.3	88.8	76.1	92.5
50	Karolinska Institute Sweden	75.9	58.9	67.9	95.3	96.0	85.7

Also, the publication ranking includes the number of full-time equivalency (FTE) students, the number of students per staff, international students’ combinations, and the ratio of male and female university students. Please review the table below for the World Universities Rankings 2024 details.

Rank	Name Country/Region	No. of FTE Students	No. of students per staff	International Students	Female: Male Ratio	% Interdiscip. Science Research
1	University of Oxford, United Kingdom	21,750	10.9	42%	49 : 51	23%
2	Stanford University United States	14,517	6.4	23%	47 : 53	22%
3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States	11,085	8.0	33%	41 : 59	40%
4	Harvard University United States	20,050	9.0	25%	51 : 49	12%
5	University of Cambridge United Kingdom	20,565	11.5	38%	48 : 52	27%
6	Princeton University United States	7,753	7.3	23%	47 : 53	43%
7	California Institute of Technology United States	2,240	6.1	33%	37 : 63	49%
8	Imperial College London United Kingdom	20,275	11.8	61%	42 : 58	28%
9	University of California, Berkeley United States	39,991	17.9	22%	52 : 48	36%
10	Yale University United States	11,924	5.2	21%	51 : 49	13%
11	ETH Zurich Switzerland	22,619	15.4	43%	33 : 67	43%
12	Tsinghua University China	38,518	11.2	10%	n/a	42%
13	The University of Chicago United States	15,792	6.2	36%	47 : 53	29%
14	Peking University China	33,064	10.9	14%	n/a	33%
15	Johns Hopkins University United States	15,772	4.1	28%	56 : 44	15%
16	University of Pennsylvania United States	21,312	6.2	22%	54 : 46	13%
17	Columbia University United States	25,914	5.2	35%	n/a	23%
18	University of California, Los Angeles United States	42,634	9.6	15%	56 : 44	21%
19	National University of Singapore Singapore Explore	33,334	20.0	24%	49 : 51	28%
20	Cornell University United States	23,620	10.0	24%	51 : 49	25%
21	University of Toronto Canada	79,282	25.8	27%	56 : 44	17%
22	UCL United Kingdom	41,110	11.3	61%	59 : 41	21%
23	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor United States	45,783	8.1	16%	51 : 49	22%
24	Carnegie Mellon University United States	13,562	11.9	44%	44 : 56	43%
25	University of Washington United States	49,486	10.1	16%	56 : 44	20%
26	Duke University United States	15,527	3.9	18%	52 : 48	15%
27	New York University United States	48,461	11.8	42%	58 : 42	21%
28	Northwestern University United States	18,894	13.1	18%	52 : 48	18%
29	The University of Tokyo Japan	26,345	10.3	15%	n/a	35%
=30	University of Edinburgh United Kingdom	33,940	11.5	46%	61 : 39	24%
=30	Technical University of Munich Germany Explore	35,506	44.4	39%	37 : 63	36%
32	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Singapore	25,895	16.7	27%	49 : 51	38%
33	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland	12,543	13.5	64%	30 : 70	44%
34	University of California, San Diego United States	40,596	12.0	19%	45 : 55	21%
35	University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Explore	18,103	18.3	43%	55 : 45	36%
36	Georgia Institute of Technology United States	32,079	28.0	29%	34 : 66	43%
37	University of Melbourne Australia	51,307	25.1	47%	58 : 42	18%
=38	King’s College London United Kingdom	32,835	13.9	53%	63 : 37	12%
=38	LMU Munich Germany Explore	34,622	33.5	18%	62 : 38	21%
40	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris France	16,120	15.0	22%	51 : 49	30%
41	University of British Columbia Canada	58,987	19.4	34%	55 : 45	21%
42	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign United States	50,250	19.6	23%	51 : 49	35%
43	Shanghai Jiao Tong University China	38,472	12.6	9%	37 : 63	31%
44	Fudan University China	38,101	12.6	9%	52 : 48	24%
45	KU Leuven Belgium	49,435	37.3	19%	52 : 48	23%
46	London School of Economics and Political Science United Kingdom	11,945	12.6	72%	56 : 44	15%
47	Universität Heidelberg Germany Explore	19,315	13.3	20%	55 : 45	20%
48	Delft University of Technology Netherlands	21,262	15.9	30%	31 : 69	50%
49	McGill University Canada Explore	30,821	11.9	29%	61 : 39	22%
50	Karolinska Institute Sweden	8,085	9.9	27%	70 : 30	4%

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