Study Abroad: Top 10 universities and educational institutions in the world

MIT scored 100 across academic and employer reputation, international faculty, employment outcomes, and citations per faculty. (Photo: Muzammil Soorma via Unsplash)

Every year, the world of academia waits for the QS World University Rankings, an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), which is considered one of the three most-widely read university rankings in the world.

The QS World University Rankings 2023 feature over 1,500 universities from around the globe that are assessed on their performance across six indicators, including academic and employer reputation, faculty/student ratio and research citations.

This year’s ranking features two new indicators - International Research Network and Employment Outcomes - that are unweighted, which means they don’t affect the overall score or rank of a university.

Here are the Top 10 universities/educational institutions in the world:

Rank 1: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, USA). Overall score: 100

For the 11th year in a row, MIT remains the world’s No. 1 university by the QS metrics. MIT scored 100 across academic and employer reputation, international faculty, employment outcomes, citations per faculty.

Rank 2: University of Cambridge (UK). Overall score: 98.8

The University of Cambridge is the top university in the UK this year. It was ranked No. 9 in employment outcomes and No. 2 in both academic and employer reputation. Last year, this university was ranked No. 3.

Rank 3: Stanford University (USA). Overall score: 98.5

Stanford University stands steady at its previous No.3 ranking. It is ranked No. 2 in employment outcomes, No. 74 in international faculty and No. 235 in international student category.

Rank 4: University of Oxford (UK). Overall score: 98.4

Dropping from its No. 2 rank of 2022, University of Oxford scored 100 in academic and employer reputation as well as faculty student and employment outcomes.

Rank 5: Harvard University (USA). Overall score: 97.6

Though Harvard University is ranked No. 5 overall, it has edged out other universities to rank No.1 in employment opportunity, international research network, employer reputation and academic reputation.

Rank 6: California Institute of Technology (Caltech, USA). Overall score: 97.0

Caltech is tied in the sixth position with Imperial College London, scoring 98.8 in employment outcomes, 85.1 in international students and 73.0 in international research network.

Rank 6: Imperial College London (UK). Overall score: 97.0

Jumping one rank higher from 2022, Imperial College London is ranked No. 10 in employer reputation, 24th in academic reputation and 76th in employment outcomes.

Rank 8: University College London (UCL, UK). Overall score: 95.0

UCL scored a 100 in both international research network and international students. It scored 90.3 in employment outcomes and was ranked 71st in this category.

Rank 9: ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Switzerland). Overall score: 93.6

This Swiss institute dropped a spot from its previous ranking, scoring a 100 only in international faculty; its employment outcome score is 91.1 and ranked 64th in this category.

Rank 10: University of Chicago (USA). Overall score: 93.2

Maintaining its No.10 rank from 2022, the University of Chicago did not score a perfect 100 in any of the indicators. It was ranked 16th in academic reputation, 214th in international faculty, 170th in international research network and 30th in employment outcomes.

There are no new entrants in this year’s top 10. Two Chinese universities (Peking University and Tsinghua University) and two Singaporean universities (National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University) made to the Top 20 honour roll. Cornell University has climbed back into the world’s top 20, having fallen out last year. Peking University continues to climb the rankings having risen from 38th five years ago to now be ranked 12th. The much-sought after Ivy League universities - Yale and Columbia - have dropped a few notches from their 2022 ranking. So has London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) that slipped from its previous year’s rank 49 to 56 this year.

Indian Universities:

The highest ranked Indian university is Institute of Science (Bengaluru), with an overall score of 49.5 (see box for the top 10 from India). This year University of Delhi dropped 20 ranks - from 501 in 2022 to 521 in 2023; Savitribai Phule Pune University climbed 50 ranks: from 591 in 2022 to 541 in 2023. Jawaharlal Nehru University is ranked 601, O.P. Jindal Global University is grouped in universities ranked between 651 and 700 while Manipal Academy of Higher Education and University of Hyderabad fall in the 751-800 rank. Jamia Millia Islamia and Pondicherry University are in the 801-1000 rank.

Box: Indian Universities in World University Rankings 2023