The QS World University Rankings 2021 released today, QS ranks USA Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge the world’s No. 1 university for 2020-21, the ninth year in a row it’s achieved this feat.
The QS World University Rankings 2021 USA MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology has again been named the world’s top university, placing ahead of Stanford University (second) and Harvard University third ranks.
California Institute of Technology took the fourth spot while the UK’s Oxford University took fifth place in the ranking.
Institutes from the United States and the United Kingdom and one from Switzerland (ETH Zurich-Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at rank six) dominated the top 10 spots.
Explore the List Of Best 200 QS World University Rankings 2021
| QS World University Rankings 2021 | ||
| RANKING | UNIVERSITY NAME | LOCATION |
| 1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | United States |
| 2 | Stanford University | United States |
| 3 | Harvard University | United States |
| 4 | California Institute of Technology (Caltech) | United States |
| 5 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom |
| 6 | ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology | Switzerland |
| 7 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom |
| 8 | Imperial College London | United Kingdom |
| 9 | University of Chicago | United States |
| 10 | UCL | United Kingdom |
| 11 | National University of Singapore (NUS) | Singapore |
| 12 | Princeton University | United States |
| 13 | Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU) | Singapore |
| 14 | EPFL | Switzerland |
| 15 | Tsinghua University | China (Mainland) |
| 16 | University of Pennsylvania | United States |
| 17 | Yale University | United States |
| 18 | Cornell University | United States |
| 19 | Columbia University | United States |
| 20 | The University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom |
| 21 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | United States |
| 22 | The University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong SAR |
| 23 | Peking University | China (Mainland) |
| 24 | The University of Tokyo | Japan |
| 25 | Johns Hopkins University | United States |
| 25 | University of Toronto | Canada |
| 27 | The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology | Hong Kong SAR |
| 27 | The University of Manchester | United Kingdom |
| 29 | Northwestern University | United States |
| 30 | University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | United States |
| 31 | The Australian National University | Australia |
| 31 | King’s College London | United Kingdom |
| 31 | McGill University | Canada |
| 34 | Fudan University | China (Mainland) |
| 35 | New York University (NYU) | United States |
| 36 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States |
| 37 | Seoul National University | South Korea |
| 38 | Kyoto University | Japan |
| 39 | KAIST – Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology | South Korea |
| 40 | The University of Sydney | Australia |
| 41 | The University of Melbourne | Australia |
| 42 | Duke University | United States |
| 43 | The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) | Hong Kong SAR |
| 44 | The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) | Australia |
| 45 | University of British Columbia | Canada |
| 46 | The University of Queensland | Australia |
| 47 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | China (Mainland) |
| 48 | City University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong SAR |
| 49 | The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) | United Kingdom |
| 50 | Technical University of Munich | Germany |
| 51 | Carnegie Mellon University | United States |
| 52 | Université PSL | France |
| 53 | Zhejiang University | China (Mainland) |
| 54 | University of California, San Diego (UCSD) | United States |
| 55 | Monash University | Australia |
| 56 | Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) | Japan |
| 57 | Delft University of Technology | Netherlands |
| 58 | University of Bristol | United Kingdom |
| 59 | Universiti Malaya (UM) | Malaysia |
| 60 | Brown University | United States |
| 61 | Ecole Polytechnique | France |
| 61 | University of Amsterdam | Netherlands |
| 62 | The University of Warwick | United Kingdom |
| 63 | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Germany |
| 64 | Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg | Germany |
| 65 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | United States |
| 66 | National Taiwan University (NTU) | Taiwan |
| 66 | Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) | Argentina |
| 69 | Korea University | South Korea |
| 69 | University of Zurich | Switzerland |
| 71 | University of Texas at Austin | United States |
| 72 | Osaka University | Japan |
| 72 | University of Washington | United States |
| 74 | Lomonosov Moscow State University | Russia |
| 75 | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University | Hong Kong SAR |
| 76 | University of Copenhagen | Denmark |
| 77 | Pohang University of Science And Technology (POSTECH) | South Korea |
| 77 | University of Glasgow | United Kingdom |
| 79 | Tohoku University | Japan |
| 80 | Georgia Institute of Technology | United States |
| 81 | The University of Auckland | New Zealand |
| 82 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | United States |
| 83 | Sorbonne University | France |
| 84 | KU Leuven | Belgium |
| 85 | Yonsei University | South Korea |
| 86 | Durham University | United Kingdom |
| 87 | University of Birmingham | United Kingdom |
| 88 | Sungkyunkwan University(SKKU) | South Korea |
| 89 | Rice University | United States |
| 90 | University of Southampton | United Kingdom |
| 91 | University of Leeds | United Kingdom |
| 92 | The University of Western Australia | Australia |
| 93 | The University of Sheffield | United Kingdom |
| 93 | University of Science and Technology of China | China (Mainland) |
| 95 | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | United States |
| 96 | University of St Andrews | United Kingdom |
| 97 | Lund University | Sweden |
| 98 | KTH Royal Institute of Technology | Sweden |
| 99 | University of Nottingham | United Kingdom |
| 100 | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) | Mexico |
| 101 | Pennsylvania State University | United States |
| 101 | Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin | Ireland |
| 103 | Technical University of Denmark | Denmark |
| 104 | University of Helsinki | Finland |
| 105 | Washington University in St. Louis | United States |
| 106 | The University of Adelaide | Australia |
| 106 | University of Geneva | Switzerland |
| 108 | The Ohio State University | United States |
| 109 | Purdue University | United States |
| 110 | Boston University | United States |
| 110 | Nagoya University | Japan |
| 112 | University of California, Davis | United States |
| 113 | University of Oslo | Norway |
| 114 | Queen Mary University of London | United Kingdom |
| 114 | University of Bern | Switzerland |
| 115 | Universidade de São Paulo | Brazil |
| 115 | Wageningen University & Research | Netherlands |
| 117 | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Germany |
| 118 | Université de Montréal | Canada |
| 119 | University of Alberta | Canada |
| 120 | Eindhoven University of Technology | Netherlands |
| 121 | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC) | Chile |
| 121 | University of Southern California | United States |
| 121 | Utrecht University | Netherlands |
| 124 | Kyushu University | Japan |
| 124 | Nanjing University | China (Mainland) |
| 124 | Uppsala University | Sweden |
| 127 | Aalto University | Finland |
| 128 | Leiden University | Netherlands |
| 128 | University of Groningen | Netherlands |
| 130 | Freie Universitaet Berlin | Germany |
| 131 | KIT, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology | Germany |
| 132 | Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) | Malaysia |
| 133 | University of Technology Sydney | Australia |
| 135 | Lancaster University | United Kingdom |
| 135 | Ghent University | Belgium |
| 137 | Politecnico di Milano | Italy |
| 138 | CentraleSupélec | France |
| 139 | Chalmers University of Technology | Sweden |
| 139 | Hokkaido University | Japan |
| 141 | Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) | Malaysia |
| 142 | Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) | Malaysia |
| 143 | King Abdulaziz University (KAU) | Saudi Arabia |
| 144 | McMaster University | Canada |
| 145 | RWTH Aachen University | Germany |
| 146 | Hanyang University | South Korea |
| 147 | Aarhus University | Denmark |
| 148 | Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin) | Germany |
| 149 | University of Basel | Switzerland |
| 150 | University of Vienna | Austria |
| 150 | University of York | United Kingdom |
| 152 | Newcastle University | United Kingdom |
| 152 | University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) | United States |
| 152 | University of Maryland, College Park | United States |
| 155 | Tecnológico de Monterrey | Mexico |
| 156 | University of Pittsburgh | United States |
| 157 | Michigan State University | United States |
| 158 | Emory University | United States |
| 159 | Cardiff University | United Kingdom |
| 160 | Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna | Italy |
| 161 | École Normale Supérieure de Lyon | France |
| 162 | Case Western Reserve University | United States |
| 162 | University of Florida | United States |
| 164 | The University of Exeter | United Kingdom |
| 165 | Al-Farabi Kazakh National University | Kazakhstan |
| 166 | University of Rochester | United States |
| 166 | University of Waterloo | Canada |
| 168 | National Tsing Hua University | Taiwan |
| 169 | Texas A&M University | United States |
| 169 | University of Lausanne | Switzerland |
| 171 | Sapienza University of Rome | Italy |
| 172 | Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) | India |
| 173 | Technische Universität Dresden | Germany |
| 173 | University of Bath | United Kingdom |
| 175 | Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen | Germany |
| 175 | Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet Freiburg | Germany |
| 177 | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem | Israel |
| 177 | University College Dublin | Ireland |
| 177 | University of Minnesota Twin Cities | United States |
| 180 | Universidad de Chile | Chile |
| 181 | Stockholm University | Sweden |
| 181 | University of Liverpool | United Kingdom |
| 183 | Universitat de Barcelona | Spain |
| 184 | University of Otago | New Zealand |
| 185 | Indian Institute of Science | India |
| 186 | King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals | Saudi Arabia |
| 187 | Universiti Teknologi Malaysia | Malaysia |
| 187 | Vanderbilt University | United States |
| 189 | Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) | Belgium |
| 189 | Waseda University | Japan |
| 191 | Keio University | Japan |
| 191 | Vienna University of Technology | Austria |
| 193 | Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) | India |
| 194 | University of Bergen | Norway |
| 195 | University of Göttingen | Germany |
| 196 | University of Wollongong | Australia |
| 197 | Erasmus University Rotterdam | Netherlands |
| 197 | The University of Newcastle, Australia (UON) | Australia |
| 197 | University of Twente | Netherlands |
| 200 | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid | Spain |
Most of Hong Kong’s universities scored better marks in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2021 with the University of Hong Kong moving up three places to 22nd and the University of Science and Technology rising five spots to 27th rank while Polytechnic University rising from 91st to 75th globally.
the QS World University Rankings 2021, 18 British universities were featured in the top 100, with Oxford University ranking highest at fifth place. Cambridge University was ranked seventh, while Imperial College London and University College London came eighth and 10th respectively.
India based IIT Bombay, Indian Institute of Science and IIT Delhi feature in the Top 200 list of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2021
QS CEO Nunzio Quacquarelli said, “QS surveyed 33,000+ prospective university students since the start of the pandemic. Though COVID-19’s effects on higher education will resonate for years to come, our research reveals that students are not deterred from pursuing their education goals. It is our hope that this ranking will provide students with an insightful comparative tool, as they prepare for the next steps in their educational journey.”
QS World University Rankings is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). QS an annual ranking of universities based on six key indicators as Academic peer review, Faculty/Student ratio, Citations per faculty, Employer reputation, International student ratio and International staff ratio.
