Top 50 List: World University Rankings 2016-2017

World University Rankings 2016-2017

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2016-2017 list the 980 top universities in the world, making it our biggest international league table to date. It is the only global university performance table to judge world class universities across all of their core missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

The top universities rankings use 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available, which are trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments. The calculation of the rankings for 2016-2017  has been subject to independent audit by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

View the World University Rankings 2016-2017 methodology

For the first time this year, more than half a million books and book chapters have been included in the analysis of 11.9 million research outputs, meaning that arts and humanities research is better represented than ever before. This year’s ranking, which includes institutions from 79 countries, represents an elite 5 per cent of the world’s higher education institutions.

This year’s list of the best universities in the world is led by a UK university for the first time in the 12-year history of the table; the University of Oxford is the world’s number one university, knocking five-time champion the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) into second place. It is the first time a US institution does not take the top spot. However, the North American powerhouse still dominates the list with 148 universities in the top 980 and 63 in the top 200. The rest of the top five is filled by Stanford University in third, the university of Cambridge in fourth, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in fifth.

Elsewhere in the West, Switzerland’s ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, has cemented its position in the top 10, landing at ninth for the second year in a row; last year the institution became the first non-Anglo-American institution to make the world rankings top 10 for a decade. Germany has also performed well in the table thanks to its institutions producing highly influential research, with 41 institutions overall, 22 of which make the top 200 and nine of which make the top 100, up from seven. Meanwhile, the Netherlands’ 13 leading research-intensive universities have all made the top 200; it is the first time they have all made this elite group.

But institutions in France, Italy and Spain and many parts of central and eastern Europe are losing ground as Asia continues its ascent; the world university rankings prove that Asia’s improvement in higher education is real and growing. Overall, 289 Asian universities from 24 countries make the ranking and an elite 19 land in the top 200, up from 15 last year. China’s Peking University joins the top 30 in 29th place (up from 42nd last year), while Tsinghua University joins the top 40 in 35th place (up from joint 47th). Five of Hong Kong’s six representatives make the top 200 – more than any other Asian region – while South Korea has also made great strides. And the National University of Singapore (NUS), Asia’s top university, is at 24th – its highest ever rank.
(full List details follow https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2017/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats)

 Top 50 List:

1    University of Oxford
United Kingdom
19,718    10.9    35%    46 : 54

2    California Institute of Technology
United States
2,181    6.7    27%    31 : 69

3    Stanford University
United States
15,658    7.7    22%    42 : 58

4    University of Cambridge
United Kingdom
18,605    11.3    35%    45 : 55

5    Massachusetts Institute of Technology
United States
11,192    8.8    33%    37 : 63

6    Harvard University
United States
19,890    8.8    25%    n/a

7    Princeton University
United States
7,925    8.4    23%    45 : 55

8    Imperial College London
United Kingdom
15,236    11.3    52%    37 : 63

9    ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Switzerland
18,616    14.9    37%    31 : 69

=10    University of California, Berkeley
United States
34,834    12.0    16%    52 : 48

=10    University of Chicago
United States
13,486    6.2    24%    42 : 58

12    Yale University
United States
11,946    4.4    21%    49 : 51

13    University of Pennsylvania
United States
20,367    6.5    20%    51 : 49

14    University of California, Los Angeles
United States
38,392    9.9    16%    53 : 47

15    UCL
United Kingdom
28,602    10.6    47%    56 : 44

16    Columbia University
United States
25,659    6.0    30%    n/a

17    Johns Hopkins University
United States
15,303    3.5    24%    51 : 49

18    Duke University
United States
15,204    4.8    17%    49 : 51

19    Cornell University
United States
21,593    9.9    19%    49 : 51

20    Northwestern University
United States
18,570    14.0    16%    48 : 52

21    University of Michigan
United States
41,912    8.8    16%    48 : 52

22    University of Toronto
Canada
68,093    18.8    16%    n/a

23    Carnegie Mellon University
United States
12,311    13.2    38%    38 : 62

24    National University of Singapore
Singapore
31,111    16.7    32%    50 : 50

25    London School of Economics and Political Science
United Kingdom
9,401    11.8    70%    53 : 47

25    University of Washington
United States
45,162    11.9    15%    53 : 47

27    University of Edinburgh
United Kingdom
25,279    12.6    37%    59 : 41

28    Karolinska Institute
Sweden
7,723    11.3    23%    69 : 31

29    Peking University
China
42,977    8.8    15%    48 : 52

=30    LMU Munich
Germany
36,180    15.7    14%    61 : 39

=30    École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Switzerland
9,750    11.2    54%    27 : 73

32    New York University
United States
43,021    6.6    25%    55 : 45

=33    Georgia Institute of Technology
United States
19,847    19.8    26%    31 : 69

=33    University of Melbourne
Australia
42,273    24.8    37%    55 : 45

35    Tsinghua University
China
41,537    14.1    10%    32 : 68

=36    University of British Columbia
Canada
51,889    18.2    29%    54 : 46

=36    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
United States
43,202    18.3    22%    46 : 54

=36    King’s College London
United Kingdom
21,986    11.3    38%    61 : 39

39    University of Tokyo
Japan
26,080    7.0    10%    n/a

40    KU Leuven
Belgium
46,381    41.9    16%    49 : 51

41    University of California, San Diego
United States
28,416    6.6    14%    47 : 53

42    McGill University
Canada
30,911    13.5    24%    57 : 43

=43    Heidelberg University
Germany
29,527    24.9    17%    55 : 45

=43    University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
20,095    17.8    39%    51 : 49

45    University of Wisconsin-Madison
United States
40,048    11.0    12%    51 : 49

46    Technical University of Munich
Germany
36,929    51.9    22%    33 : 67

47    Australian National University
Australia
15,402    19.9    35%    52 : 48

48    University of California, Santa Barbara
United States
22,267    27.4    12%    51 : 49

49    Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Hong Kong
11,960    27.3    38%    n/a

50    University of Texas at Austin
United States
48,689    17.2    10%    51 : 49

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