The Top Universities in the World University Rankings 2021, Want to study at one of the world’s top 100 universities? The QS World University Rankings offers an annually updated list of top 1,029 universities worldwide. We will be revealing which of these made the top 100.
In the 2021 edition of the QS World University Rankings, just under half of the top 100 universities in the world are located in the US (which has 27 representatives) or the UK (18).
Top 200 universities in the world 2021
Click each institution to view its full World University Rankings 2021 results
World University Rank 2021 | World University Rank 2020 | University | Country/region |
1 | 5 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | United States |
2 | 4 | Stanford University | United States |
3 | 7 | Harvard University | United States |
4 | 2 | California Institute of Technology | United States |
5 | 1 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom |
6 | 3 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom |
7 | =13 | University of California, Berkeley | United States |
8 | 8 | Yale University | United States |
9 | 6 | Princeton University | United States |
10 | 9 | University of Chicago | United States |
11 | 10 | Imperial College London | United Kingdom |
12 | 12 | Johns Hopkins University | United States |
13 | 11 | University of Pennsylvania | United States |
14 | =13 | ETH Zurich | Switzerland |
15 | 17 | University of California, Los Angeles | United States |
16 | 15 | UCL | United Kingdom |
17 | 16 | Columbia University | United States |
18 | 18 | University of Toronto | Canada |
19 | 19 | Cornell University | United States |
=20 | 20 | Duke University | United States |
=20 | 23 | Tsinghua University | China |
22 | 21 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | United States |
23 | 24 | Peking University | China |
24 | 22 | Northwestern University | United States |
25 | 25 | National University of Singapore | Singapore |
26 | 29 | New York University | United States |
27 | =27 | London School of Economics and Political Science | United Kingdom |
28 | =27 | Carnegie Mellon University | United States |
29 | 26 | University of Washington | United States |
30 | 30 | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom |
31 | =32 | University of Melbourne | Australia |
32 | =32 | LMU Munich | Germany |
33 | 31 | University of California, San Diego | United States |
34 | 34 | University of British Columbia | Canada |
35 | =36 | King’s College London | United Kingdom |
=36 | 41 | Karolinska Institute | Sweden |
=36 | =36 | The University of Tokyo | Japan |
38 | =38 | Georgia Institute of Technology | United States |
39 | 35 | University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong |
40 | 42 | McGill University | Canada |
41 | 43 | Technical University of Munich | Germany |
42 | 44 | Heidelberg University | Germany |
43 | =38 | École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne | Switzerland |
44 | =38 | University of Texas at Austin | United States |
45 | =45 | KU Leuven | Belgium |
46 | =45 | Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris | France |
47 | =48 | Nanyang Technological University, Singapore | Singapore |
48 | =48 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | United States |
49 | 51 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | United States |
50 | 52 | Washington University in St Louis | United States |
=51 | =55 | University of Manchester | United Kingdom |
=51 | 60 | University of Sydney | Australia |
53 | =62 | University of Southern California | United States |
=54 | 61 | Boston University | United States |
=54 | 65 | Kyoto University | Japan |
=56 | =57 | Chinese University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong |
=56 | 47 | The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology | Hong Kong |
=56 | 54 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | United States |
59 | 50 | Australian National University | Australia |
60 | 64 | Seoul National University | South Korea |
61 | 53 | Brown University | United States |
=62 | 66 | The University of Queensland | Australia |
=62 | 59 | Wageningen University & Research | Netherlands |
=64 | =55 | University of California, Davis | United States |
=64 | =75 | Monash University | Australia |
66 | =62 | University of Amsterdam | Netherlands |
67 | 71 | UNSW Sydney | Australia |
68 | =57 | University of California, Santa Barbara | United States |
69 | 72 | McMaster University | Canada |
=70 | 109 | Fudan University | China |
=70 | =67 | Leiden University | Netherlands |
72 | 69 | Erasmus University Rotterdam | Netherlands |
=73 | 85 | University of Montreal | Canada |
=73 | 90 | University of Zurich | Switzerland |
=75 | =80 | Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin | Germany |
=75 | =75 | Utrecht University | Netherlands |
77 | 77 | University of Warwick | United Kingdom |
=78 | =67 | Delft University of Technology | Netherlands |
=78 | =91 | University of Tübingen | Germany |
=80 | 73 | University of Groningen | Netherlands |
=80 | 74 | Humboldt University of Berlin | Germany |
=80 | 70 | Ohio State University (Main campus) | United States |
83 | 86 | University of Freiburg | Germany |
84 | 101 | University of Copenhagen | Denmark |
=85 | =80 | Emory University | United States |
=85 | 79 | University of Minnesota | United States |
=87 | 93 | École Polytechnique | France |
=87 | =80 | University of Science and Technology of China | China |
=87 | =80 | Sorbonne University | France |
90 | =91 | University of Maryland, College Park | United States |
91 | 87 | University of Bristol | United Kingdom |
=92 | =94 | University of Basel | Switzerland |
=92 | =99 | University of Glasgow | United Kingdom |
=94 | 88 | Purdue University West Lafayette | United States |
=94 | =107 | Zhejiang University | China |
96 | =110 | Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) | South Korea |
97 | =120 | National Taiwan University | Taiwan |
=98 | =96 | University of California, Irvine | United States |
=98 | =96 | University of Helsinki | Finland |
100 | =157 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | China |
=101 | =94 | Dartmouth College | United States |
=101 | 89 | Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) | South Korea |
=103 | 123 | Ghent University | Belgium |
=103 | =96 | Lund University | Sweden |
105 | 84 | Michigan State University | United States |
106 | 115 | Aarhus University | Denmark |
=107 | 112 | University of Birmingham | United Kingdom |
=107 | =99 | RWTH Aachen University | Germany |
109 | =113 | University of Bern | Switzerland |
110 | =110 | Queen Mary University of London | United Kingdom |
=111 | =144 | Nanjing University | China |
=111 | =102 | Uppsala University | Sweden |
=111 | 116 | Vanderbilt University | United States |
=114 | =105 | University of Bonn | Germany |
=114 | 78 | Penn State (Main campus) | United States |
116 | 138 | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | Netherlands |
117 | =107 | University of Virginia (Main campus) | United States |
=118 | =120 | University of Adelaide | Australia |
=118 | =117 | Free University of Berlin | Germany |
120 | =102 | Georgetown University | United States |
=121 | 119 | Case Western Reserve University | United States |
=121 | 127 | Maastricht University | Netherlands |
=121 | =117 | University of Sheffield | United Kingdom |
=124 | 104 | University of Arizona | United States |
=124 | =105 | Rice University | United States |
126 | 126 | City University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong |
=127 | =131 | University of Oslo | Norway |
=127 | 122 | University of Southampton | United Kingdom |
129 | 171 | Hong Kong Polytechnic University | Hong Kong |
130 | 125 | University of Göttingen | Germany |
=131 | =136 | University of Alberta | Canada |
=131 | 124 | University of Colorado Boulder | United States |
=133 | =113 | University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus | United States |
=133 | =128 | University of York | United Kingdom |
135 | =149 | University of Hamburg | Germany |
=136 | =139 | Lancaster University | United Kingdom |
=136 | 130 | University of Paris | France |
=136 | =128 | Radboud University Nijmegen | Netherlands |
139 | =131 | The University of Western Australia | Australia |
=140 | =134 | Indiana University | United States |
=140 | =157 | University of Mannheim | Germany |
=140 | =149 | Technical University of Berlin | Germany |
=140 | =141 | Ulm University | Germany |
=140 | 163 | University of Würzburg | Germany |
=145 | =157 | University of Cologne | Germany |
=145 | =141 | University of Ottawa | Canada |
=147 | =179 | University of Auckland | New Zealand |
=147 | =173 | University of Rochester | United States |
=149 | 133 | Durham University | United Kingdom |
=149 | =144 | University of Geneva | Switzerland |
151 | =146 | Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) | South Korea |
=152 | =175 | University of Florida | United States |
=152 | 143 | Pompeu Fabra University | Spain |
=152 | =157 | TU Dresden | Germany |
=155 | =136 | University of Cape Town | South Africa |
=155 | 164 | Trinity College Dublin | Republic of Ireland |
=155 | =139 | Tufts University | United States |
=158 | =166 | Bielefeld University | Germany |
=158 | =152 | University of Nottingham | United Kingdom |
=160 | =155 | University of Leeds | United Kingdom |
=160 | =146 | University of Sussex | United Kingdom |
=160 | =194 | University of Technology Sydney | Australia |
163 | 165 | University of Liverpool | United Kingdom |
=164 | =152 | Université Catholique de Louvain | Belgium |
=164 | =134 | University of Vienna | Austria |
166 | =168 | Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey | United States |
=167 | =168 | University of Bologna | Italy |
=167 | =179 | Korea University | South Korea |
169 | 172 | University of Alabama at Birmingham | United States |
=170 | =198 | University of Antwerp | Belgium |
=170 | =166 | University of Leicester | United Kingdom |
=170 | =157 | University of Notre Dame | United States |
=170 | =149 | Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies – Pisa | Italy |
=174 | =146 | University of Exeter | United Kingdom |
=174 | =189 | Lomonosov Moscow State University | Russian Federation |
=176 | =173 | Northeastern University | United States |
=176 | 201–250 | Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) | South Korea |
=178 | =168 | University of Aberdeen | United Kingdom |
=178 | 201–250 | Newcastle University | United Kingdom |
=178 | NR | Paris-Saclay University | France |
181 | =152 | Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa | Italy |
182 | =157 | Autonomous University of Barcelona | Spain |
183 | =175 | Stockholm University | Sweden |
=184 | =155 | Arizona State University (Tempe) | United States |
=184 | 193 | University of Canberra | Australia |
186 | =179 | Queensland University of Technology | Australia |
=187 | =186 | Eindhoven University of Technology | Netherlands |
=187 | =198 | George Washington University | United States |
=187 | =184 | Technical University of Denmark | Denmark |
=187 | 197 | Yonsei University (Seoul campus) | South Korea |
=191 | =198 | Cardiff University | United Kingdom |
=191 | =186 | University of Gothenburg | Sweden |
=191 | =198 | University of Lausanne | Switzerland |
=191 | =189 | Tel Aviv University | Israel |
=195 | 201–250 | Macquarie University | Australia |
=195 | =189 | University of Münster | Germany |
197 | 178 | Texas A&M University | United States |
=198 | 201–250 | University of Barcelona | Spain |
=198 | 183 | University of Erlangen-Nuremberg | Germany |
=200 | 201–250 | University of Calgary | Canada |
=200 | 192 | University of East Anglia | United Kingdom |
=200 | 201–250 | Queen’s University Belfast | United Kingdom |
This article was originally published in June 2013. It was updated in June 2020 with the most-recent rankings data.
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