QS Top Universities World Rankings 2026 – Your Definitive Guide

Although there are many university ranking tables, both national and international, QS Top Universities creates one of the most trusted global university rankings. In this guide, we’ll explore the most recent global table, specifically highlighting the performance of UK universities.

Last Updated: 25th July 2025

Author: Matthew Amalfitano-Stroud

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QS Top Universities World Rankings 2026 – Your Definitive Guide

Home » General » QS Top Universities World Rankings 2026 – Your Definitive Guide

When selecting a university, many applicants look to rankings to see which universities are the best or how well-regarded their potential options are. It’s an important part of the application process, but there are many different tables to choose from.

Although national tables are helpful for home applicants, those who want to explore a wider scope of options will want to explore global university rankings as well. Of the available options, QS Top Universities is often the most trusted.

However, there is a lot to consider when exploring these ranking tables, so this guide will help you understand what to look out for, as well as detailing how UK universities perform on the latest global table.

What is QS Top Universities?

QS Top Universities is a platform operated by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a UK-based company specialising in education and study abroad services. It was first founded in 1990, though it only released its first global ranking table in 2004. This was done in partnership with Times Higher Education, which began producing tables independently in 2010.

Although the organisation is best known for its ranking tables, it also provides a variety of counselling and support services for university applicants, especially those from outside the UK. It has partnered with a number of universities from across the globe, including Imperial College London, Newcastle University, National University of Singapore and Università di Bologna.

Overall, it offers a lot more than just university rankings and has an extensive suite of tools to help you decide where you want to apply.

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QS University Ranking 2026

Each year, QS publishes a new ranking table based on its most current data. Officially, the table is classed as the 2026 admissions table, as it is designed to benefit those applying in 2025 for 2026 entry. This table covers over 1,500 universities across the world, though this is far from covering every existing university (of which there could be over 25,000 overall).

Each university on the list is given an overall score out of 100 (recorded to one decimal place), which determines its placement on the table. These scores are calculated based on the scores given in a variety of subcategories. These categories include:

Research & Discovery

Employability

Learning Experience

Sustainability

Global Engagement

Additional Metrics

These metrics are each recorded out of 100 as well, with the data being collected from academic surveys, university databases and other publicly available information.

While the best-performing universities tend to stay in similar positions on the table each year, there can sometimes be significant position changes for universities, depending on what data is collected and how it is interpreted.

As there are so many entries, we won’t be able to analyse the full table, so here is the latest ranking of the top 25 universities in the world, according to QS Top Universities:

QS World University Ranking - Top 25

(Swipe left or right for more data).

Rank	University	Overall Score	Academic Reputation	Employment Outcomes	International Student Ratio
1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	100	100	100	91.6
2	Imperial College London	99.4	99.6	95.9	98.3
3	Stanford University	98.9	100	100	73.5
4	University of Oxford	97.9	100	100	98.6
5	Harvard University	97.7	100	100	81.4
6	University of Cambridge	97.2	100	100	93.1
7	ETH Zurich	96.7	99.7	95	99.3
8	National University of Singapore (NUS)	95.9	99.9	100	96.9
9	University College London (UCL)	95.8	99.9	89.3	100
10	California Institute of Technology (Caltech)	94.3	98.3	49.1	90.7
11	The University of Hong Kong	94.2	99.3	85.3	100
12	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore)	93.7	97.1	87.7	93.1
13	University of Chicago	93	99.8	99.8	92.8
14	Peking University	92.6	99.9	97	37.3
15	University of Pennsylvania	92.5	98.9	100	76.3
16	Cornell University	91.6	99.5	99.3	75.7
17	Tsinghua University	91.2	99.9	97	31.9
17	University of California, Berkeley (UCB)	91.2	100	99.8	70.6
19	The University of Melbourne	90.8	99.7	97.4	100
20	The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney)	90.7	96.3	98.7	99.9
21	Yale University	90.4	100	99.8	72.7
22	EPFL – École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne	90.2	92.7	47.3	100
23	Technical University of Munich	90.2	92	57.3	98.9
24	Johns Hopkins University	89.7	93.2	84.1	94.2
(=)25	Princeton University	89.4	100	98.9	70
(=)25	The University of Sydney	89.4	98.9	95.8	100

So, what can we gather from this list? Firstly, we can see that the Top 25 features universities from a wide variety of countries, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland and Germany. Australia houses three of the universities in this list, while the UK has four, all of which are in the Top 10.

However, the list is dominated by North American universities, with a total of eleven universities featured. Of these, only five were Ivy League universities, with three not being featured. Harvard was the highest-ranked Ivy League institution but only placed 5th on the list, behind both MIT and Stanford.

As for UK universities, all of the entries in this list are G5 Universities, though the London School of Economics – the final member – isn’t seen until 56th on the ranking table. Imperial College London outranked both Oxbridge universities, a feat which it has also achieved in previous years and is an outcome not typically seen in national ranking tables.

When looking at the assigned scores, we can see that most of the Top 25 achieved a score of over 90. For all of these universities, Academic Outcome seems to be a consistent strength, while Employment Outcomes and International Student Ratios can be more variable. In some instances, universities like EPFL and Tsinghua University scored less than 50 on these metrics, but made up for these low scores in other areas.

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QS World University Ranking 2026

While the table covers countries from all over the world, UK universities are highly sought after by many international applicants. Only four of these universities featured in the most recent Top 25, so let’s next explore which UK universities are considered the best according to QS:

QS Top 20 UK Universities

(Swipe left or right for more data).

Rank	University	Overall Score	Academic Reputation	Employment Outcomes	International Student Ratio
2	Imperial College London	99.4	99.6	95.9	98.3
4	University of Oxford	97.9	100	100	98.6
6	University of Cambridge	97.2	100	100	93.1
9	University College London (UCL)	95.8	99.9	89.3	100
31	King’s College London	88.3	96.2	76.4	99
34	The University of Edinburgh	87.2	99.6	69.7	99.9
35	The University of Manchester	86.4	98.6	98.8	99.5
51	University of Bristol	82.5	87.3	63.1	95.7
56	The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)	80.5	80.6	99.9	100
74	The University of Warwick	75.2	82.7	75.3	99.2
76	University of Birmingham	73.8	81.1	54.7	93.4
79	University of Glasgow	73.4	88.3	44.5	99.1
86	University of Leeds	72	81.8	82.1	96.3
87	University of Southampton	71.2	62.6	58.6	98.6
92	The University of Sheffield	70.9	73	47.9	98
94	Durham University	70.1	74.1	53.6	94.5
97	University of Nottingham	69.4	75.4	53.7	78.5
110	Queen Mary University of London	66.6	63.6	40.1	99.9
113	University of St Andrews	66.4	61.5	28.9	99.7
132	University of Bath	64.2	48.9	50.7	86.8

Although this is only the Top 20 UK universities, we can see that the lowest-ranked entry on this list is all the way down at 132nd. This shows that, although UK universities are generally well respected, the UK isn’t as much of a dominant force in education when compared to the USA.

Of the universities featured here, almost all are members of the Russell Group. This group is a collection of 24 of the UK’s best universities, so it’s not a surprise that they dominate the UK’s representation on an international ranking table.

The two non-Russell Group universities featured here are right at the bottom of the Top 20: St Andrews and Bath. These are both highly respected institutions in the UK, with St Andrews often being ranked above other Scottish universities in national ranking tables.

However, when considering the fact that there are over 1,500 universities on the list, having 17 universities in the Top 100 of the ranking is still a good achievement and shows that the UK is still a strong force in global education.

QS World University Subject Ranking Tables

As well as the overall university table, QS Top Universities also produces a large number of subject-specific ranking tables.

In many ways, these tables are more helpful for the average applicant than the overall table, as they provide more specific and relevant information for those looking to study a certain subject. If a university is one of the best in the world at teaching a certain subject but is less well-regarded overall, looking at the ranking tab for said subject will reflect information that will have a greater impact on a student’s experience.

The organisation produces five lists, covering Arts/Humanities, Engineering/Technology, Life Sciences/Medicine, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences/Management. As well as these, it produces over 50 specialised lists for individual subjects.

Let’s now explore the newest lists for some of the most popular subjects taught at universities:

QS World University Medicine Ranking Table - Top 10

(Swipe left or right for more data).

Rank	University	Overall Score	Academic Reputation	Employer Reputation
1	Harvard University	98.1	100	100
2	University of Oxford	95	95.8	97.1
3	Stanford University	92.4	93.5	95.4
4	Johns Hopkins University	91.3	91.9	80.8
5	University of Cambridge	90.3	93.9	96.6
6	University of California, San Francisco	89.3	91.1	68.8
7	Imperial College London	89.1	85	87.5
8	University College London (UCL)	89	85.8	83.3
9	Karolinska Institutet	88.8	95.2	73.6
10	Yale University	88.1	88.5	88.6

QS World University Law Ranking Table - Top 10

(Swipe left or right for more data).

Rank	University	Overall Score	Academic Reputation	Employer Reputation
1	Harvard University	99.1	100	100
2	University of Oxford	97.4	99.4	96.3
3	University of Cambridge	96.7	97.7	95.8
4	Yale University	93.5	96.3	88
5	Stanford University	92.9	93.1	94.1
6	London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)	90.1	90.2	88.1
7	University of California, Berkeley (UCB)	89.1	89.8	86.6
8	Columbia University	88.5	90.1	83.2
9	New York University (NYU)	88.4	90	82.6
10	National University of Singapore (NUS)	87.5	89.2	88.2

QS World University Economics Ranking Table - Top 10

(Swipe left or right for more data).

Rank	University	Overall Score	Academic Reputation	Employer Reputation
1	Harvard University	99.1	100	100
2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	97.5	98	96.5
3	Stanford University	96.2	96.8	94.7
4	University of Chicago	94.2	95.8	80.6
5	Princeton University	93.9	97.9	82.5
6	University of California, Berkeley (UCB)	93.4	94.2	87.2
7	Yale University	92	92.4	87.9
8	London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)	91.7	94.9	84.5
9	University of Oxford	91.6	93	96.3
10	University of Cambridge	89.9	91.7	95.6

QS World University Engineering Ranking Table - Top 10

(Swipe left or right for more data).

Rank	University	Overall Score	Academic Reputation	Employer Reputation
1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	96.2	100	98.2
2	University of Oxford	93.7	91.4	97.7
3	Stanford University	93.5	96.1	95.8
4	University of Cambridge	92.9	92.8	97.1
5	ETH Zurich	92.5	95.2	91.8
6	University of California, Berkeley (UCB)	91.8	94.2	89.5
7	Tsinghua University	91.3	92.5	92.3
8	Imperial College London	90	94.8	85.8
9	Harvard University	89.9	83.1	100
10	EPFL – École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne	88.4	93.3	87.1

QS World University Mathematics Ranking Table - Top 10

(Swipe left or right for more data).

Rank	University	Overall Score	Academic Reputation	Employer Reputation
1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	95.5	100	97.7
2	Harvard University	93.2	97.7	100
3	University of Oxford	93.1	97.7	97
4	University of Cambridge	92.5	98.5	96.3
5	Stanford University	91.6	97.2	96
6	University of California, Berkeley (UCB)	90.8	10095.9	89.4
7	Princeton University	89	97.2	85.1
8	ETH Zurich	87.6	90.9	86.4
9	National University of Singapore (NUS)	86.9	86	96
10	Imperial College London	86.7	87.9	85.2

QS World University Computer Science Ranking Table - Top 10

(Swipe left or right for more data).

Rank	University	Overall Score	Academic Reputation	Employer Reputation
1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	94.2	91.7	97.9
2	Stanford University	92.1	89.2	95.8
3	Carnegie Mellon University	91.2	100	78
4	National University of Singapore (NUS)	90.6	86.7	94.9
5	University of Oxford	89.8	83.5	96.6
6	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore)	88.9	84.5	91.4
7	Harvard University	88.7	81.2	100
8	University of California, Berkeley (UCB)	88.5	85.2	88.7
9	University of Cambridge	87.3	83.3	96.1
10	ETH Zurich	86.4	82	88.8

Although these are all very different subjects, we can see that the Top 10 courses generally stay the same across all of them. These remain consistent with the overall ranking list, though Harvard took the top spot in half of the lists featured here, matching MIT.

There were a handful of universities that didn’t perform as well on the overall ranking seen in these lists, though. We’ve already discussed LSE, which ranked 6th for Law and 8th for Economics, but New York University, which ranked 9th for Law, was placed 55th overall. As well as this, Carnegie Mellon University ranked 3rd for Computer Science but just 52nd overall. Finally, Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet ranked 9th for Medicine globally but did not feature on the overall rankings at all.

Looking at Oxbridge, Oxford consistently outranked Cambridge in all of these tables, which was also the case in the main table. However, both universities were a bit weaker in Economics, where they ranked 9th and 10th.

You can find the full list of tables here, so be sure to look at the corresponding table for the course you want to apply for to see how your potential universities performed.

How Important is the QS World University Ranking?

We’ve now learnt about QS Global Ranking Tables, but it’s important to consider how these tables should be used and if they’re a reliable base for deciding your university options.

Firstly, we need to consider that ranking tables in general shouldn’t be the sole basis of your university decision. On paper, certain universities may be the best options, but there are many factors that ranking tables simply can’t quantify.

Choosing your university should be a personal decision, more so than a data-driven one, as choosing based on your preferences will ultimately improve your university experience. Attending open days and researching other aspects of the university (such as its campus, facilities and surrounding area) will provide a much clearer picture of which universities may suit you better.

But how do the QS tables compare to alternative options? THE, its former partner, is the closest comparison, as both produce global tables rather than national ones. THE operates a similar scoring system to QS, calculating a score out of 100 based on certain metrics. However, THE uses fewer individual scores in its process, instead featuring more general categories like “Teaching”, “Research Quality” and “Industry”. While a similar amount of data is used to calculate these, the actual scores aren’t broken up into subcategories.

As well as this, THE covers over 2,850 universities globally, far more than QS. This provides a wider range of entries to be included, with additional smaller universities being considered.

UK University Ranking Tables

In the UK, two of the biggest national university ranking tables are produced by Complete University Guide and The Guardian. For those looking to apply to study in the UK, these tables are far more valuable, as they cover almost every UK university, not just the major ones.

They each provide scores based on unique categories like the other tables, though the exact metrics differ slightly. One key difference between the tables and QS is that they heavily consider student feedback in their rankings by utilising data from the UK’s National Student Survey (NSS). While QS features data from academic surveys, student surveys are not included to the same degree.

So, as well as providing a broader view of the UK’s university selection, these tables also factor in topics that are generally more important to students, such as student satisfaction and employability. Plus, both tables offer a range of subject-specific tables, just like QS. If you would like to explore these tables, explore our selection of UK university ranking guides below, which explore the data from both of these national tables:

QS Top Universities World Rankings - Your Definitive Guide

Chemistry University Ranking: UK Ranking

Russell Group University Rankings 2025: Your Essential Guide

The Best Universities for History UK: University Rankings

The Best UK Universities For English: University Rankings

That concludes our look at QS Top Universities and its collection of ranking tables. The tables produced by this organisation are extremely in-depth and can be very helpful for students researching their options. However, remember that these tables are not definitive and are subject to change each year.

If you’re applying to study in the UK, be sure to look at national ranking tables as well as those produced by QS, as they can provide additional context that isn’t visible at an international level. As well as this, remember that your university choices should ultimately be made based on what you want from your education, not which universities are considered the best.

If you decide that you want to apply to one of the UK’s best universities, you’ll need to be prepared for heavy competition. Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, LSE and UCL are all highly ranked, but they also have some of the lowest acceptance rates in the country, so you should seek out any support possible to gain a competitive advantage.

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