Out Now: QS Higher Education System Strength Rankings 2018

Out Now: QS Higher Education System Strength Rankings 2018

Craig OCallaghan

Updated January 16, 2020 Updated January 16

The United States has been named as the strongest country in the world for higher education, according to the QS Higher Education System Strength Rankings 2018.

Released today, the HESS ranking compares higher education systems around the world and ranks them according to four indicators: System strength (how universities perform in rankings), access (how easily people in that country can gain access to higher education), flagship institution (how well the country's top university performs) and economic context (impact of national investment in higher education).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the United States achieves a perfect score in each of the four indicators. The United Kingdom is the only other country to rank in the top five for each of the four, while other countries such as Singapore and China perform particularly well in some indicators more than others (in Singapore's case, it's ranked fourth for flagship institution, while China is ranked second for economic context).

75 countries are included in this year's ranking in total, and you can learn more about how it was put together by reading our methodology.

The HESS ranking launches at the same time as the QS Best Student Cities 2018, which assesses the top cities for students around the world. To learn more about this ranking, click here.

This article was originally published in May 2018 . It was last updated in January 2020

Written by

As editor of TopUniversities.com, Craig oversees the site's editorial content and network of student contributors. He also plays a key editorial role in the publication of several guides and reports, including the QS Top Grad School Guide.

Related Articles

Most Shared

Most Read

English