World University Rankings 2025: Elite universities go increasingly global

When the World University Rankings first emerged 20 years ago, they were very much a UK initiative. The creation of the global league table was first recommended in a 2003 report to the UK government by Richard Lambert, a former director general of the Confederation of British Industry and a one-time chairman of the British Museum.

His Lambert Review on university-business collaboration explained that “a league table of the world’s best research-intensive universities would provide the government with a way of assessing its research funding efforts,” in a context in which “government policy is to finance university research in such a way as to ensure that the UK has a number of institutions able to compete with the best in the world.”

Eleven months after the Lambert Review, in November 2004, the UK-based Times Higher Education (THE) published the first edition of the THE World University Rankings. The assurance Lambert sought for the UK government was provided: the UK had two of the world’s top ten universities in that first edition, Oxford and Cambridge; and, 30 of the full list of 200 universities. That’s 15% of all ranked universities. The US occupied 31%, with 62 of the 200, including seven of the top ten and all four of the top spots, with Harvard in first place.

Today, twenty years on, while the very top of the list remains remarkably similar to that of 2004, and the UK and US still dominate the highest ranks, the 2025 edition of the THE World University Rankings represents a very different and more dynamic global university sector – and much more competitive geopolitics of knowledge and innovation.

The rankings show a thriving, diverse global research community, with many more universities across the world publishing world-class research, a much more even distribution of excellence across the continents and a global levelling up of excellence between the dominant West and the rising East – as well as the steady rise of the Global South.

The ranking has grown from 200 universities in 2004 to over 2,000 in 2025. The US makes up 8% of all ranked institutions (down from 31% in 2004) while the UK takes 5% (down from 15%). The 2025 edition includes 115 countries, compared to 29 countries in 2004. India now matches the UK’s total tally of ranked universities, with 107, while China takes 94 places and Hong Kong six. Pakistan has 47 places.

Africa’s representation is surging, as more institutions develop their research infrastructure, increase research productivity and seek to compete with the best in the world. Nigeria added six universities to the global rankings, taking its total to 21, while in the north, Egypt added seven to reach 35.

Seven countries make their debuts in the world rankings: Bahrain; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Mongolia; Paraguay; Rwanda; Syria and Uzbekistan, as their universities begin to compete in global research.

And, the two decades since the first ranking have not just witnessed the emergence of a much more diverse range of countries with universities represented among the growing global research elite – it has also seen a surge in performances that challenge the traditionally dominant Western nations.

The composition of the 2025 top 200 is revealing.

For 2025, the US has 55 of the top 200 group, down from 62 in 2004. The UK has 25, down from 30.

In the immediate term, other Western powerhouses are under pressure. In the Netherlands, of its 11 top-200 universities, seven have fallen in the rankings for 2025 and the country – facing major research funding cuts and a clamp down on internationalization – has lost its top 50 status as Delft University of Technology slips from 48^th to 56^th. Australia now has just ten universities in the world's top 200, down from 12 as recently as 2021 – and eight of the remaining ten have fallen this year.

In contrast, the Far East is thriving. China has 13 of the top 200, compared to two for most of the 2000s and Hong Kong has seen its representation rise from four to six.

China’s Beijing powerhouse universities, Tsinghua University and Peking University this year occupy record high positions of 12^th and 13^th in the world respectively, edging ever closer to the elite global top 10. Hong Kong’s universities are rising to consolidate positions in the top 100, with the Chinese University of Hong Kong entering the top 50 (44^th from 53^rd) closing in on Hong Kong University, which holds firm in 35^th place.

Singapore’s two global research universities, for the first time ever, now occupy world top-30 positions – with National University of Singapore rising to 17^th from 19^th last year and Nanyang Technological University, one of the fastest-rising universities in the world over the last decade, moving from 32^nd to 30^th. South Korea now has six top 200 universities, compared to three in 2004.

Moreover, the 2025 edition has seen some eye-catching top-200 breakthroughs. In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has a debuting world top-200 university with King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals taking 176^th place and other Saudi universities surging up the rankings. The United Arab Emirates has its first top 200 place, with Abu Dhabi University taking 191^st and all of its top five universities rose.

In South America, Brazil has broken into the top 200, with the University of Sao Paulo taking 199^th place.