QS World University Rankings 2027
The world's top 100 universities
Every university on this list has a hand-checked profile: how admission actually works, the numbers that matter, deadlines for 2027 entry, what it costs and what student life is like. Figures are sourced from each university's own publications.
#1Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, United States
A hands-on science and engineering university on the Charles River where 'Mind and Hand' is the operating manual.
4.6% acceptance 11,816 students
#2Imperial College London
London, United Kingdom
A London university devoted entirely to science, engineering, medicine and business, based in South Kensington.
24% offer rate 23,920 students
#2Stanford University
Stanford, United States
A research university on an 8,000-acre campus in the heart of Silicon Valley, run on the quarter system.
3.8% acceptance 17,314 students
#4University of Oxford
Oxford, United Kingdom
The oldest university in the English-speaking world, built around colleges and small-group tutorial teaching.
16.7% offer rate 26,215 students
#5Harvard University
Cambridge, United States
The oldest college in the United States, where undergraduates live in 12 residential Houses on the Charles River.
4.2% acceptance 24,317 students
#6University of Cambridge
Cambridge, United Kingdom
A collegiate university of 31 Colleges where undergraduates are taught in small-group supervisions alongside lectures.
21.7% offer rate 24,927 students
#7California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, United States
A science and engineering institute of about 970 undergraduates that also runs NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
3.8% acceptance 2,369 students
#8University College London
London, United Kingdom
London's first university, founded in 1826, with 11 faculties spread across Bloomsbury and a newer campus at UCL East.
43.4% offer rate 51,000 students
#8ETH Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland
Switzerland's federal institute of technology, where Einstein studied, teaching science and engineering in German.
26,555 students
#10National University of Singapore
Singapore, Singapore
Singapore's flagship research university on Kent Ridge, and Asia's only top-10 entry in the QS 2027 table.
52,851 students
#11The University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Hong Kong's oldest university, teaching in English on a hillside campus above the city's western districts.
45,303 students
#12Nanyang Technological University
Singapore, Singapore
Singapore's engineering-led research university on a 200-hectare campus, ranked 12th in QS 2027 at just 45 years old.
40,739 students
#13Peking University
Beijing, China
China's first national comprehensive university, founded in 1898 and centred on the lakeside Yan Yuan campus in Beijing.
53,700 students
#14Tsinghua University
Beijing, China
China's engineering and technology powerhouse in Beijing, with a growing set of English-taught undergraduate colleges.
63,132 students
#15University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, United States
Benjamin Franklin's university, where you apply to one of four undergraduate schools, including Wharton.
4.9% acceptance 29,384 students
#16Cornell University
Ithaca, United States
An Ivy League university and New York's land-grant institution, spread across a hilltop above Cayuga Lake.
8.4% acceptance 26,561 students
#16Yale University
New Haven, United States
A liberal arts college inside a research university, organised around 14 residential colleges in New Haven.
4.7% acceptance 15,657 students
#18The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Hong Kong's only collegiate university: nine colleges on a hillside campus above Tolo Harbour in Sha Tin.
#19UNSW Sydney
Sydney, Australia
Sydney's engineering, business and tech powerhouse, ranked No. 1 in Australia in QS 2027 and built around employability.
86,235 students
#20Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, United States
America's first research university, in Baltimore, and No. 1 in the U.S. for research investment.
6.1% acceptance 29,969 students
#20University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, United States
The University of California's founding campus: a large public research university on San Francisco Bay.
10.5% acceptance 46,658 students
#22The University of Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia
Australia's top university in THE and ARWU, where you take a broad degree first and specialise at graduate level.
58,000 students
#22EPFL
Lausanne, Switzerland
Switzerland's French-speaking federal institute of technology, on the shore of Lake Geneva.
14,072 students
#24University of Chicago
Chicago, United States
A Hyde Park research university built around the Core curriculum and a culture of rigorous argument.
4.5% acceptance 16,406 students
#25Technical University of Munich
Munich, Germany
Germany's top-ranked university, built on engineering, science and medicine, with a start-up engine in Garching.
51,954 students
#26Fudan University
Shanghai, China
Shanghai's flagship comprehensive university, offering English-taught degrees in economics, fintech and medicine.
56,266 students
#27Princeton University
Princeton, United States
An undergraduate-focused research university where every student writes a senior thesis one-on-one with a faculty adviser.
4.4% acceptance 9,281 students
#28The University of Sydney
Sydney, Australia
Australia's first university (1850): a sandstone Quadrangle, 450+ courses and eight prime ministers among its alumni.
74,322 students
#29Australian National University
Canberra, Australia
Australia's national university in Canberra: research-led, compact, and strong in policy, science and Asia-Pacific.
17,380 students
#30McGill University
Montreal, Canada
Canada's top QS-ranked university, an English-language campus at the foot of Mount Royal in bilingual Montreal.
40,531 students
#31Monash University
Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne's global giant: 86,000 students, world-leading pharmacy, and ATAR guarantees published before results day.
86,000 students
#32University of Toronto
Toronto, Canada
Canada's largest research university: three campuses, a college system, and the birthplace of insulin.
103,140 students
#33The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
A young research university on a seaside hill in Clear Water Bay, strong in engineering, business and science.
20,475 students
#34Université PSL
Paris, France
Eleven Paris schools, from the École normale supérieure to Mines Paris and Dauphine, joined as one university.
17,000 students
#35The University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Scotland's capital-city university, founded in 1583, where most undergraduate degrees run for four years.
53% offer rate 48,820 students
#36Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai, China
Shanghai's engineering-led university, founded in 1896, with an English-taught Engineering Cluster via the Common App.
61,100 students
#37King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Founded in 1829, with five London campuses and leading faculties in health, law and the humanities.
42,000 students
#38Seoul National University
Seoul, South Korea
Korea's flagship national university, drawing its freshmen from the top 2.5% of the national entrance exam.
30,638 students
#39The University of Tokyo
Tokyo, Japan
Japan's first national university, where every undergraduate spends two broad years at Komaba before choosing a major.
29,230 students
#40The University of Queensland
Brisbane, Australia
Queensland's oldest and largest university: a sandstone Great Court on a river bend, and the lab behind the HPV vaccine.
57,000 students
#40The University of Manchester
Manchester, United Kingdom
A large civic research university where graphene was isolated and the modern computer was built.
44,000 students
#42Yonsei University
Seoul, South Korea
A Seoul private university dating to 1885, home to UIC, its English-taught liberal arts college.
34,157 students
#43Columbia University in the City of New York
New York City, United States
A Manhattan Ivy where every College student takes the century-old Core Curriculum while New York City serves as the extended campus.
4.9% acceptance 35,386 students
#43Institut Polytechnique de Paris
Palaiseau, France
Six French engineering grandes écoles, led by École polytechnique, sharing one campus and doctoral school in Palaiseau.
11,200 students
#45The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, Canada
A forested peninsula campus between ocean and mountains in Vancouver, with a second campus in the Okanagan Valley.
72,100 students
#45Northwestern University
Evanston, United States
A lakefront research university beside Chicago where journalism, theatre, engineering and science share one campus.
7.5% acceptance 23,312 students
#47Zhejiang University
Hangzhou, China
Hangzhou's sprawling comprehensive university, a breeding ground for tech founders from Pinduoduo to DeepSeek.
65,821 students
#48Delft University of Technology
Delft, Netherlands
The Netherlands' largest technical university, founded in 1842, with world-leading engineering and architecture.
21,410 students
#49University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, United States
A public research university in Westwood, LA, with top-ranked film, engineering and health schools and 140+ majors.
9.4% acceptance 47,432 students
#50The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Hong Kong's applied, professionally minded university in Hung Hom, with guaranteed internships and a top-50 QS rank.
32,000 students
#51University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, United States
Michigan's 1817 flagship: a 19-school public research giant in Ann Arbor with elite engineering, business and nursing.
16.4% acceptance 53,488 students
#52Korea University
Seoul, South Korea
Seoul's crimson private university, founded in 1905 on the belief that education saves the nation.
#52City University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
A fast-rising Kowloon Tong university with a veterinary college and a Daniel Libeskind-designed creative media centre.
#54National Taiwan University
Taipei, Taiwan
Taiwan's flagship comprehensive university, on a palm-lined campus in the middle of Taipei.
34,935 students
#55Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, United States
Pittsburgh's research university where the No. 1 undergraduate computer science program sits beside a conservatory-level drama school.
11.1% acceptance 16,582 students
#56Universiti Malaya
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Malaysia's oldest and top-ranked university, on a 922-acre Kuala Lumpur campus, 56th in QS 2027 (its best ever).
39,885 students
#57University of Bristol
Bristol, United Kingdom
A research-intensive city university that publishes exactly how it scores applications for each course.
31,132 students
#58New York University
New York City, United States
A research university woven into Greenwich Village, with sister degree campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai.
9.1% acceptance 57,275 students
#59KU Leuven
Leuven, Belgium
Founded in 1425, Belgium's largest university turns a small Flemish city into one big campus at low tuition.
66,306 students
#60University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, Netherlands
A city university woven into central Amsterdam, and world number one in Communication Science for nine years running.
44,000 students
#61LMU Munich
Munich, Germany
A 1472-founded, full-spectrum university in central Munich where 51 Nobel laureates studied or researched.
52,658 students
#62London School of Economics and Political Science
London, United Kingdom
A specialist social science university in central London: about 34,000 applicants for roughly 1,900 places.
12,900 students
#63King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia's English-taught STEM and business university in Dhahran, the only Arab university in the QS 2027 top 100.
#64Kyoto University
Kyoto, Japan
Japan's second imperial university, built on a tradition of academic freedom, with 11 Nobel laureates in its award-winning research.
22,300 students
#65KAIST
Daejeon, South Korea
Korea's first research-oriented science and technology university, where international undergraduates study in English on full scholarship.
12,348 students
#66Brown University
Providence, United States
The Ivy without general-education requirements: its Open Curriculum lets you design your own education.
5.6% acceptance 11,939 students
#67Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland
Auckland, New Zealand
New Zealand's top-ranked university, in central Auckland, with guaranteed-entry rank scores for NCEA, IB and Cambridge.
49,901 students
#68University of Birmingham
Birmingham, United Kingdom
England's first civic redbrick university, on a green Edgbaston campus with its own railway station.
#68University of Warwick
Coventry, United Kingdom
A 1960s campus university near Coventry, known for economics, mathematics and close links with business and industry.
26,432 students
#70Duke University
Durham, United States
A Gothic-towered research university in Durham where all first-years live together on East Campus.
5.2% acceptance 17,325 students
#71Lund University
Lund, Sweden
Sweden's top-ranked university, founded in 1666, where 13 student nations run the social life of a small cycling city.
46,000 students
#72The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, United States
Texas's flagship public research university on the Forty Acres, with top-ranked business, engineering and computing programs.
22.2% acceptance 55,172 students
#73Sorbonne University
Paris, France
A public research university in Paris's Latin Quarter joining humanities, science and medicine under one roof since the 2018 merger.
53,000 students
#74University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Urbana and Champaign, United States
Illinois' land-grant flagship, where engineering, computing and agriculture share one campus in two prairie cities.
36.6% acceptance 60,848 students
#75Trinity College Dublin
Dublin, Ireland
Ireland's oldest and highest-ranked university, founded in 1592 on a walled campus in the heart of Dublin.
20,188 students
#76Université Paris-Saclay
Orsay / Gif-sur-Yvette, France
A science-heavy university south of Paris that groups faculties, IUTs and four grandes écoles, and ranks 13th in the world in ARWU.
50,000 students
#77The University of Western Australia
Perth, Australia
Western Australia's only world top-100 university: a sandstone Perth campus with a Nobel laureate among its graduates.
28,000 students
#77University of Leeds
Leeds, United Kingdom
A large Russell Group university on a single campus a short walk from Leeds city centre, with roots in 1831 medicine.
#79Adelaide University
Adelaide, Australia
Australia's newest Group of Eight university, born from the University of Adelaide and UniSA, and already QS 79th.
#80University of Glasgow
Glasgow, United Kingdom
Scotland's second-oldest university, founded in 1451, with four-year degrees and a Gothic campus in the West End.
#81University of California San Diego
La Jolla, San Diego, United States
A 1960s research campus on the La Jolla coast, split into eight undergraduate colleges with their own GE rules.
28.6% acceptance 45,087 students
#82KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden
Sweden's largest technical university: five-year engineering degrees in Swedish, master's years in English.
15,460 students
#82University of Sheffield
Sheffield, United Kingdom
A Russell Group redbrick with a top-rated student experience, in a green, hilly city on the edge of the Peak District.
29,305 students
#84University of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Argentina's tuition-free public university: 330,000+ students, open entry through the CBC, QS top 100.
330,000 students
#85Durham University
Durham, United Kingdom
England's third-oldest university, where every student belongs to a college and the castle is a hall of residence.
21,470 students
#86Heidelberg University
Heidelberg, Germany
Germany's oldest university (1386), with an Old Town campus and a science and medicine campus across the Neckar.
32,178 students
#87Politecnico di Milano
Milan, Italy
Italy's largest technical university for engineering, architecture and design, with income-based fees under EUR 4,000.
49,395 students
#87University of Technology Sydney
Sydney, Australia
Sydney's practice-focused tech university on Broadway, top 100 in QS with a Frank Gehry building at its door.
54,403 students
#87Uppsala University
Uppsala, Sweden
The first Nordic university (1477), home of Linnaeus and Celsius, with English bachelor's degrees in Visby.
49,860 students
#90Nanjing University
Nanjing, China
A C9 League research university in the old capital of Nanjing, with a long tradition in the natural sciences.
47,911 students
#90University of Copenhagen
Copenhagen, Denmark
Denmark's oldest and highest-ranked university (1479), where Niels Bohr worked; all bachelor's are taught in Danish.
36,758 students
#92The Pennsylvania State University (University Park)
University Park (State College), United States
Pennsylvania's land-grant flagship in a valley college town, with 14 colleges, Big Ten sport and THON.
55.3% acceptance 50,570 students
#92University of Washington
Seattle, United States
Seattle's flagship public research university, with cherry-blossom quads and views of Mount Rainier.
41.7% acceptance 57,283 students
#94Boston University
Boston, United States
A large private research university stretched along Commonwealth Avenue and the Charles River, in the middle of Boston.
12.8% acceptance 36,977 students
#95The University of Osaka
Suita / Toyonaka / Minoh, Japan
A large national research university in north Osaka, strongest in immunology, engineering and languages.
23,234 students
#96University of Alberta
Edmonton, Canada
Edmonton's river-valley research university, strong in AI, health and engineering, with five campuses.
46,201 students
#97Institute of Science Tokyo
Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo Tech and Tokyo Medical and Dental University, merged in 2024 to put engineering and medicine side by side.
13,492 students
#97University of Nottingham
Nottingham, United Kingdom
A parkland campus university with sister campuses in Malaysia and China, where MRI scanning was pioneered.
35,470 students
#98Freie Universität Berlin
Berlin, Germany
A tuition-free Berlin research university founded by students in 1948, with a leafy villa campus in Dahlem.
34,900 students
#98University of Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland
Switzerland's largest university, founded by a democratic state in 1833, where Einstein earned his doctorate.
29,037 students
#100Purdue University
West Lafayette, United States
Indiana's land-grant engineering powerhouse, with tuition frozen for 14 straight years and admission by major.
43.4% acceptance 57,876 students
#100University College Dublin
Dublin, Ireland
Ireland's largest university, on a 133-hectare parkland campus at Belfield, now inside the QS global top 100.
41,089 students
Ranking positions from the QS World University Rankings 2027 (published June 2026). Tied universities share a rank.