The four major world rankings — QS, Times Higher Education, ARWU (Shanghai) and U.S. News — each tell a different story. This table puts them side by side and aggregates them into one transparent consensus rank, so you can see where the systems agree and where they diverge.
| # | University | QS 2026 | THE 2026 | ARWU 2025 | U.S. News 2026 | Consensus score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology · US | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 99.9 |
| 2 | Harvard University · US | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 99.9 |
| 3 | Stanford University · US | 3 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 99.8 |
| 4 | University of Oxford · UK | 4 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 99.7 |
| 5 | University of Cambridge · UK | 6 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 99.7 |
| 6 | University of California, Berkeley · US | 17 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 99.5 |
| 7 | Princeton University · US | 25 | 4 | 7 | 16 | 99.3 |
| 8 | California Institute of Technology · US | 10 | 7 | 9 | 23 | 99.3 |
| 9 | Yale University · US | 21 | 10 | 11 | 9 | 99.2 |
| 10 | University College London · UK | 9 | 17 | 14 | 7 | 99.2 |
| 11 | University of Pennsylvania · US | 15 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 99.1 |
| 12 | University of Chicago · US | 13 | 15 | 10 | 26 | 99.1 |
| 13 | Imperial College London · UK | 2 | 8 | 26 | 11 | 99.1 |
| 14 | Tsinghua University · CN | 17 | 12 | 18 | 11 | 99 |
| 15 | Cornell University · US | 16 | 20 | 12 | 16 | 99 |
| 16 | Columbia University · US | 38 | 20 | 8 | 10 | 99 |
| 17 | Johns Hopkins University · US | 24 | 16 | 19 | 14 | 98.9 |
| 18 | Peking University · CN | 14 | 13 | 23 | 25 | 98.8 |
| 19 | ETH Zurich · CH | 7 | 11 | 22 | 35 | 98.8 |
| 20 | University of California, San Francisco · US | · | · | 21 | 16 | 98.6 |
| 21 | University of California, Los Angeles · US | 46 | 19 | 16 | 13 | 98.6 |
| 22 | University of Toronto · CA | 29 | 21 | 25 | 16 | 98.5 |
| 23 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor · US | 45 | 23 | · | 21 | 98.5 |
| 24 | University of Melbourne · AU | 19 | 37 | 38 | 30 | 98 |
| 25 | Northwestern University · US | 42 | 30 | 31 | 24 | 98 |
| 26 | National University of Singapore · SG | 8 | 17 | 56 | 20 | 98 |
| 27 | University of Washington · US | 81 | 25 | 17 | 31 | 97.9 |
| 28 | New York University · US | 55 | 26 | 28 | 32 | 97.9 |
| 29 | University of Edinburgh · UK | 34 | 29 | 37 | 39 | 97.8 |
| 30 | University of California, San Diego · US | 66 | 47 | 20 | 21 | 97.8 |
| 31 | Zhejiang University · CN | 49 | 39 | 24 | 45 | 97.7 |
| 32 | LMU Munich · DE | 58 | 34 | · | · | 97.7 |
| 33 | École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne · CH | 22 | 35 | · | 86 | 97.6 |
| 34 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University · CN | 47 | 40 | 30 | 46 | 97.6 |
| 35 | The University of Tokyo · JP | 36 | 26 | 31 | 84 | 97.4 |
| 36 | Duke University · US | 62 | 28 | 46 | 27 | 97.4 |
| 37 | Technical University of Munich · DE | 22 | 27 | 45 | 79 | 97.3 |
| 38 | Fudan University · CN | 30 | 36 | 41 | 70 | 97.3 |
| 39 | King's College London · UK | 31 | 38 | 61 | 36 | 97.2 |
| 40 | University of British Columbia · CA | 40 | 45 | 53 | 41 | 97.1 |
| 41 | Paris-Saclay University · FR | 70 | · | 13 | 78 | 97.1 |
| 42 | University of Sydney · AU | 25 | 40 | 72 | 29 | 97 |
| 43 | Universität Heidelberg · DE | 80 | 49 | · | 59 | 96.9 |
| 44 | University of Manchester · UK | 35 | 56 | 46 | 68 | 96.9 |
| 45 | The University of Hong Kong · HK | 11 | · | 67 | 44 | 96.9 |
| 46 | Nanyang Technological University · SG | 12 | 32 | 88 | 28 | 96.9 |
| 47 | PSL University · FR | 28 | · | 34 | 105 | 96.6 |
| 48 | University of Texas at Austin · US | 68 | 50 | 49 | 65 | 96.5 |
| 49 | University of Munich · DE | · | · | 42 | 57 | 96.5 |
| 50 | Monash University · AU | 36 | 51 | 76 | 38 | 96.5 |