The world's best universities have been crowned for 2026 – here's the top 20
It's no easy task choosing where you want to spend your undergraduate years. Some of us crave adventure abroad, others want somewhere closer to home; high-achievers will evaluate the best academic standing, while the social butterflies will be assessing the extra-curricular culture.
Thankfully, the annual QS World Universities Ranking has just landed to shed some light on which institutions stand in the best stead for 2026, and the same world-famous US college has topped the ranks.
For the fourteenth consecutive year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (more commonly referred to as MIT) in Cambridge, USA has ranked as the world's most outstanding university.
More than 1,500 institutions were assessed this year, and MIT gained a perfect score of 100. Its strongest categories include academic reputation, the number of citations per faculty, and its reputation among employers. It also scored 93.8 for sustainability, and 94.1 for its international research network.
Imperial College London also retained its second-place spot, beating its historic British counterparts Oxford and Cambridge. In third place was Stanford University. American institutions claimed nine of the top 20 spots – read on to see which ones.
These are the 20 best universities in the world
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
Imperial College London, UK
Stanford University, USA
University of Oxford, UK
Harvard University, USA
University of Cambridge, UK
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
National University of Singapore, Singapore
University College London, UK
California Institute of Technology, USA
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
University of Chicago, USA
Peking University, China
University of Pennsylvania, USA
Cornell University, USA
Tsinghua University, China
University of California, Berkeley, USA
University of Melbourne, Australia
University of New South Wales, Australia
Yale University, USA
To read QS Top Universities full top 50 ranking, head to the website.
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