THE World University Rankings 2025 released

The 21st edition of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings lists 2,092 universities, up from 1,907 last year, from a record 115 countries, and is based on scores across 18 performance indicators divided into five pillars: teaching (29.5 per cent); research environment (29); research quality (30); industry (4); international outlook (7.5).

Top 10: In the latest edition, the UK’s University of Oxford retained the top spot, while Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) rose one place to second, becoming the highest-placed US institution ahead of Harvard University. The top five is completed by Princeton University, up from sixth in the previous year, and the University of Cambridge.

The authors said that the University of Oxford scored well in all five pillars, and that industry and teaching areas have significantly increased in recent years, contributing to it maintaining top position.

The University of Oxford achieved the top position for a record ninth consecutive year.

The top ten is made entirely of institutions from the USA (seven) and the UK (three), and the highest-placed university from outside of those two countries is ETH Zurich in Switzerland in 11th, while China’s Tsinghua University is the top-ranked Asian university at 12th.

More diverse top 200: However, the top 200 of the rankings has become more diverse this year, Times Higher Education said. In the 2025 edition, there are 30 countries represented in the top 200, up from 27 in each of the past four years with new entrants this year from Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Since 2021, US representation in the top 200 has dropped from 59 to 55 and the UK has declined from 29 to 25. The only countries to increase representation in the top 200 by more than one institution in this period are China (up from seven to 13), and Japan, which jumped from two to five.

Europe struggling: Europe has 684 universities ranked overall in 2025, making it the second-most ranked continent after Asia, but representation at the top end of the rankings has shrunk from 99 in the top 200 in 2019 to 91 in the top 200 this year.

Two-thirds of Dutch universities declined in the ranking this year and the Netherlands dropped out of the top 50, while ten French universities achieved their worst-ever rank and a further nine dropped, and almost half of Switzerland’s universities dropped.

However, there were positives for Europe with Poland increasing its representation to 40 institutions, Finland having two in the top 200 for the first time in four years, an entry in the top 50 for Belgium’s flagship university, and Sweden having the highest rate of improved institutions at 31 per cent. Technical University of Munich also rose to 26th place, the highest ever position for a German institution.

Phil Baty, THE’s Global Affairs Officer, said, “European universities should be in no doubt that competition in the ranking is increasing year-on-year, and this is coming from Asia with universities from Chinese mainland and South Korea, in particular, rapidly moving up the table. With more universities participating each year it makes it harder just to even retain a position in the ranking. European universities need to work even harder if they want to retain their position in the higher echelons of our ranking.”

Australia’s top universities have declined in the rankings this year.

Australia falls: There were also declines for Australia’s leading universities, with all the top five institutions having a lower ranking than in the previous year. Australia now has only 10 universities in the top 100, down from 12 in 2021. The declining scores were mainly in the teaching and research pillars, the authors said. The country’s prolonged Covid lockdown and closure to new international students were cited as factors.

“International student caps…may further erode income for some top institutions [and] diminish Australia’s world-leading reputation as an open and internationally facing sector,” Phil warned.

UK reputation: UK higher education as a whole recorded the worst year-on-year decline in research reputation among the 11 nations with at least 50 universities ranked, and among the 12 British universities in the top 100 the average teaching and research reputation scores dropped for the second year in a row.

The authors cited a funding crisis, staff redundancies, frozen domestic fees, and declining international enrolments as issues for the UK. Phil said it is “almost impossible to see how the sector can sustain its position in the coming years without significant help.”