Top Ten Universities

Here are listings of the top 10 universities in the world from the Times Higher Education (THE) research that's published each year in October. The list gets developed from asking for peer reviews, employer reviews, the faculty to student ratio, citations per faculty, the number of international faculty and students. Check the top universities in the world page to see the complete breakdown on weightings and the scoring system.

Top 10 Worldwide Rankings 2017

Here are the current top 10 universities in the world according to their latest research.

Top 10 Universities in the World Chart

RankUniversity NameStudentsScore Rating
1University of Oxford19,71895.0%
2California Institute of Technology2,18194.3%
3Stanford University15,65893.8%
4University of Cambridge18,60593.6%
5Massachusetts Institute of Technology11,19293.4%
6Harvard University19,89092.7%
7Princeton University7,92590.2%
8Imperial College London15,23690.0%
9ETH Zurich18,61689.3%
10=Berkeley University34,83488.9%
10=University of Chicago13,48688.9%

As you can see, the top 10 rankings are made up of universities mainly from the UK and America, with one in Switzerland. Here are further lists split by those countries.

Top 10 Universities in the USA Chart

US RankWorld RankUniversity NameStudentsScore Rating
12California Institute of Technology2,18194.3%
23Stanford University15,65893.8%
35Massachusetts Institute of Technology11,19293.4%
46Harvard University19,89092.7%
57Princeton University7,92590.2%
610=Berkeley University34,83488.9%
710=University of Chicago13,48688.9%
812Yale University11,94688.2%
913University of Pennsylvania20,36787.1%
1014Los Angeles University38,39286.6%

University Spotlight: Harvard

Harvard UniversityHarvard University is the oldest institute of higher learning in the USA founded in 1636 and named after its first benefactor, John Harvard. The main base is Cambridge Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. The campus has the largest library system in the world with 79 different types available.

Source: THE top US universities

Top 10 Universities in the UK Chart

UK RankWorld RankUniversity NameStudentsScore Rating
11University of Oxford19,71895.0%
24University of Cambridge18,60593.6%
38Imperial College London15,23690.0%
415University College London28,60286.5%
525London School of Economics9,40180.2%
627University of Edinburgh25,27979.2%
736King's College London21,98675.9%
855University of Manchester34,01569.7%
971University of Bristol18,54464.4%
1082Warwick University18,55862.0%

Source: THE best UK universities

UK Spotlight: Cambridge

University of CambridgeCambridge University is the second oldest university in the English speaking world, was founded in 1209, and based in Cambridgeshire England. The university has 31 separate colleges with over 9,000 staff teaching 18,000 students. The success rate of applicants is just 25%.