Which university is ranked number one in the world in 2026?

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States) tops the 2026 World Higher Education Index world university ranking with an overall score of 99.1 out of 100.

How are the world university rankings calculated?

Each institution is scored on six weighted indicators — Outcomes (30%), Salary (20%), Faculty (15%), Selectivity (15%), Employers (10%), Network (10%) — normalised and combined into an overall score out of 100. The full method is published in our methodology.

How often are the college and university rankings updated?

A new edition is published every year on 30 September, covering the following academic year, with every indicator re-collected for that edition.

2026 edition — the global table

World University Rankings

The World Higher Education Index scores institutions across every major higher-education system on a single comparable composite, so a research university in Zurich can be read against one in Boston, Beijing or Melbourne on the same terms.

View the world table All rankings How we score

World top ten

1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
United States
99.1
2
University of Oxford
United Kingdom
98.3
3
Harvard University
United States
98.0
4
Stanford University
United States
97.6
5
London School of Economics
United Kingdom
96.0
6
University of Cambridge
United Kingdom
95.8
7
Imperial College London
United Kingdom
95.5
8
ETH Zurich
Switzerland
95.3
9
National University of Singapore
Singapore
94.6
10
California Institute of Technology
United States
93.7

National rankings

13 countries

United States

100

Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads

United Kingdom

100

Imperial College London leads

China

100

Tsinghua University leads

Canada

University of Toronto leads

Germany

100

Technical University of Munich leads

Australia

University of Melbourne leads

France

PSL University leads

Japan

University of Tokyo leads

Switzerland

ETH Zurich leads

Netherlands

Delft University of Technology leads

Singapore

National University of Singapore leads

South Korea

Seoul National University leads

India

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay leads

Flagship ranking

Best Postgraduate Business Degrees in the United Kingdom

Eleven taught postgraduate business programmes, scored on outcomes, selectivity and employer standing.

London School of Economics

Global Master's in Management (MiM)

96.4

London Business School

MBA

94.1

London Business School

Masters in Management

92.8

Imperial College Business School

MSc Management

88.7

View the full UK business table

The six indicators

Graduate outcomes

30%

Share of the cohort in graduate-level employment or further study three months after completion.

Salary uplift

20%

Reported first-destination compensation measured against the cohort's pre-programme baseline.

Faculty & research strength

15%

Research output intensity, citation impact and the proportion of tenured staff teaching on the programme.

Selectivity

15%

Offer rate, entry profile and — where the programme requires it — median GMAT or GRE.

Employer reputation

10%

Standing with London recruiters across banking, consulting, technology and the public sector.

Cohort & network reach

10%

International composition of the cohort and the size and activity of the alumni network.

Read the full methodology