Top Universities in the World's best 10

Top Universities in the World 2019

Every year, millions of graduate and undergraduate students study at a foreign college.

There are over one million international students studying in the United States alone. The most recent figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that over 4.5 million students enroll in a college located in a country where they are not citizens.

OECD research also suggests that the number of international students is rising sharply. Between 2005 and 2019, the share of students studying outside of their home country increased by all percent.

The QS World University Rankings 2019 is out now, showcasing 1,000 of the world’s top universities in 85 countries, based on a methodology which assesses each university on six metrics, including its reputation among academics and employers.

Top 10 university

10. UCL (University College London

Down three spots but nonetheless included among the 10 top universities in the world, the UK’s UCL earns its best score in the academic reputation indicator, and also achieves a strong score for its proportion of international students, making it a diverse place to study.

9. University of Chicago

University of Chicago
The US’ University of Chicago retains its position of ninth in the world in 2019, with a particularly high score for its reputation among academics.

8. Imperial College London

Imperial College London
Imperial is ranked eighth in the world this year and is now London’s highest-ranked university. Like UCL, it boasts an excellent score for the international students indicator, meaning you’ll be in good company if you study at either university as an international student.

7. ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)

ETH Zurich
Switzerland’s ETH Zurich is the highest-ranked university in continental Europe and climbed three places in this year’s ranking, with its best score for citations per faculty member, a measure of research impact.

6. University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge slips one place in this year’s ranking but does achieve higher scores than rival Oxford for its reputations among academics and employers, ranked second in the world for both after Harvard.

5. University of Oxford

Oxford
The 2019 results see Oxford overtake Cambridge and climb one place to rank fifth in the world and first out of the UK’s 76 entries, with top-10 scores for its academic and employer reputations as well as its faculty/student ratio.

4. California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

The smallest university in the top 10, Caltech retains its position of fourth in the world this year. Students benefit from an excellent student/faculty ratio, and Caltech also beats rival MIT in the citations per faculty member indicator, for which it’s ranked fifth in the world.

3. Harvard University

Harvard University
Harvard continues to rank third in the world as of the 2019 results but remains first in the world for both employer and academic reputation.

2. Stanford University

Also retaining its position from last year is Stanford, which achieves its best scores for its reputation among academics and employers (fifth for both).

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

And finally, MIT appears to be unbeatable as the world’s highest-ranked university, holding on to the top spot for a record seventh year in a row this year. MIT also gets its highest scores for its reputations with academics and employers, at third and fourth respectively.