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The World's Top 100 Universities

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).

Here's a complete rundown of the world's top 100.

Rank	University	Location
1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	United States
2	Stanford University	United States
3	Harvard University	United States
4	California Institute of Technology (Caltech)	United States
5	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
6	ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)	Switzerland
7	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
8	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
9	University of Chicago	United States
10	UCL (University College London)	United Kingdom
11	National University of Singapore (NUS)	Singapore
12	Princeton University	United States
13	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU)	Singapore
14	Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)	Switzerland
15	Tsinghua University	China
16	University of Pennsylvania	United States
18	Yale University	United States
17	Cornell University	United States
19	Columbia University	United States
20	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
21	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
22	University of Hong Kong (UKU)	Hong Kong
23	Peking University	China
24	University of Tokyo	Japan
25=	Johns Hopkins University	United States
25=	University of Toronto	Canada
27=	Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)	Hong Kong
27=	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
29	Northwestern University	United States
30	University of California, Berkeley (UCB)	United States
31=	Australian National University	Australia
31=	King's College London	United Kingdom
31=	McGill University	Canada
34	Fudan University	China
35	New York University (NYU)	United States
36	University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)	United States
37	Seoul National University	South Korea
38	Kyoto University	Japan
39	KAIST - Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology	South Korea
40	University of Sydney	Australia
41	University of Melbourne	Australia
42	Duke University	United States
43	Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)	Hong Kong
44	University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney)	Australia
45	University of British Columbia	Canada
46	University of Queensland	Australia
47	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
48	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
49	London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)	United Kingdom
50	Technical University of Munich	Germany
51	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
52	Universite PSL	France
53	Zhejiang University	China
54	University of California, San Diego (UCSD)	United States
55	Monash University	Australia
56	Tokyo Institute of Technology	Japan
57	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
58	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
59	Universiti Malaya (UM)	Malaysia
60	Brown University	United States
61	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
62	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
63	Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München	Germany
64	Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat Heidelberg	Germany
65	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
66=	National Taiwan University (NTU)	Taiwan
66=	Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA)	Argentina
68	Ecole Polytechnique	France
69=	Korea University	South Korea
69=	University of Zurich	Switzerland
71	University of Texas at Austin	United States
72=	Osaka University	Japan
72=	University of Washington	United States
74	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russia
75	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
76	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
77=	Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)	South Korea
77=	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
79	Tohoku University	Japan
80	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
81	University of Auckland	New Zealand
82	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
83	Sorbonne University	France
84	KU Leuven	Belgium
86	Durham University	United Kingdom
85	Yonsei University	South Korea
87	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
88	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
89	Rice University	United States
90	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
91	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
92	University of Western Australia	Australia
93=	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
93=	University of Science and Technology of China	China
95	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill	United States
96	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
97	Lund University	Sweden
98	KTH Royal Institute of Technology	Sweden
99	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
100	Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)	Mexico

This article was originally published in June 2013. It was updated in June 2020 with the most-recent rankings data.

Explore the QS World University Rankings 2021 in full

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Anmol G, Mariachiara P & 49 others saved this

Written by QS Staff Writer

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8 Comments

Harley M 3 months ago

It gives a clear description for students to choose their paths.

Sam S 10 months ago

I am 17 in Viet nam and I'll be leaving high school in 9 months. my gpa is around 4.0, my ielts score is 6,5, i have various certificates for various experience and i am interested in marketing/communication/business/international relations and i also do really need to apply for scholarships and financial aids. can someone give me some advices and suggestions please

Jasper V 9 months ago

Hi, sounds like the programme International Communication and Media might be something for you! It is a really cool course and fits your interest well. The university, Erasmus Rotterdam, is an amazing place which has a very diverse culture. In the city of Rotterdam you can sometimes hear more English than Dutch.

Fionnola S 11 months ago

I am 15 in Ireland, and Ill be leaving school in w years so I want to be prepared! My average scores on major tests tend to be B s, and im interested in medicine, English and art. Can someone please help me figure out what college would be best for me?

Shubh A 11 months ago

I am just year nine in New Zealand but I really want to plan my future. need suggestions and am interested in physics

Sabrina C 11 months ago

Hi Shubh, to get started you could have a look at the latest rankings by subject for physics - you can narrow the results down to show particular regions or countries you're interested in.

Raihanul I 1 year ago

I am from Bangladesh. I need a scholarship.

Sabrina C 1 year ago

Hello, we have a selection of different scholarship listings for various study destinations, subjects and student groups here.

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