The 2016-17 edition of the QS World University Rankings® will be published on 6 September 2016 – expanded to feature over 900 universities this year. Now approaching its thirteenth installation, the ranking provides an annual league table of the world’s leading higher education institutions, currently topped by the US’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
While primarily created with the aim of aiding prospective international students, the ranking is also consulted by institutions, governments and other organizations with an interest in international higher education – providing a useful tool for benchmarking, comparison and goal-setting.
The ranking considers universities’ performance across six indicators, selected to reflect research impact, commitment to high-quality teaching, internationalization, and global reputation amongst both academics and employers.
Competitors for the top spot
The 2015-16 edition of the QS World University Rankings saw MIT retain its place at the top for the fourth consecutive year, having stolen the lead from the UK’s University of Cambridge in 2012-13. The only other institution to have led the list is Harvard University, currently second, which held the top spot between 2004 and 2009.
These three leading institutions are currently joined in the global top 10 by Stanford University (joint third with Cambridge), California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of Oxford, UCL (University College London), Imperial College London, ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and the University of Chicago.
Though the top of the table remains largely dominated by universities in the US and UK, there is increasing diversity of representation – with rapidly rising Asian universities in particular proving that it is possible to climb the ladder. In the latest edition, the National University of Singapore and its country-mate Nanyang Technological University are both within the top 15, while China’s Tsinghua University is 25th.
Of the 82 countries represented in the last edition, however, the lion’s share is still claimed by the US (154 ranked universities), followed by the UK (71), Germany (43) and France (41). Other well-represented nations include Japan (38), Australia (33), China (30), Canada and Italy (26 each), Brazil (22) and Russia (21).
Could this year be time for a change at the top? Be the first to get the new results by signing up receive email updates, following us on Twitter, or downloading the free rankings app – available for iPhone and Android.
