Times Higher Education (THE) unveiled its 2027 world university rankings on 30/9, featuring nearly 2,300 institutions from 118 countries and territories, the largest number to date.
Signaling a significant shift, Tsinghua University (Trung Quoc) climbed one spot to 11th, overtaking ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. This marks the first time an Asian university has surpassed all continental European institutions. Furthermore, two other Asian representatives, Peking University (Trung Quoc) and National University of Singapore, entered the top 15, also a first.
According to THE, the leading positions of US and UK universities are faltering. While these two nations still have the most representatives within the top 200, their numbers decreased compared to last year. More than half of UK universities did not improve their rank, and 46% of US universities dropped, compared to 33% that improved. The decline is attributed to a financial crisis affecting UK higher education, impacting research metrics. My's setback stems from a decrease in research capacity, citation influence, and international student numbers.
France also experienced a decline among its top-ranked universities, with its four highest-ranked institutions each dropping about 10 places. Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain each lost one representative from the top 200. Conversely, East Asia and Southeast Asia showed overall improvement, primarily due to increased research and teaching scores. The University of Malaya, from Malaysia, entered the world's top 200 for the first time. Trung Quoc also added four more institutions to this group this year.
In Han Quoc, four of its five leading universities improved their ranks. Sungkyunkwan University ascended for the 4th consecutive year, climbing 19 places this year alone to enter the world's top 70. Korea University also rose nearly 30 spots, moving from outside the top 150 to within the top 130.
Despite these shifts, the top 10 largely features familiar institutions, with seven from the US and the remaining three from the UK. Oxford University (Anh) maintained its leading position for 11 consecutive years, achieving a perfect 100% score in the research environment criterion.
The 20 best universities in the world for 2027, according to THE:
| Rank | University | Country |
| 1 | Oxford University | Anh |
| 2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | My |
| 3 | Princeton University | My |
| Stanford University | My | |
| 5 | Cambridge University | Anh |
| 6 | Harvard University | My |
| 7 | California Institute of Technology | My |
| 8 | Imperial College London (ICL) | Anh |
| 9 | University of California, Berkeley | My |
| Yale University | My | |
| 11 | Tsinghua University | Trung Quoc |
| 12 | ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology | Thuy Si |
| 13 | Peking University | Trung Quoc |
| 14 | University of Pennsylvania | My |
| 15 | National University of Singapore | Singapore |
| 16 | University of Chicago | My |
| 17 | Johns Hopkins University | My |
| UCL | Anh | |
| 19 | Columbia University | My |
| 20 | University of California, Los Angeles | My |
THE is one of four influential university ranking organizations. These results are based on 18 indicators across five pillars: research quality accounts for the largest weighting (30%), followed by teaching quality (29,5%), research environment (29%), international outlook (7,5%), and industry income and patents (4%).
This year, Vietnam has 14 universities on the list, including three new entrants, though none improved their rank.
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Oxford University campus, Anh. Photo: University Fanpage |
Khanh Linh
