QS World University Rankings 2025: Top Global Universities, Methodology
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QS World University Ranking 2025: Looking to explore the top universities globally? The QS World University Rankings are out! If you are wondering what is QS ranking, it is a prestigious ranking by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), which evaluates universities worldwide across various metrics. Beyond the overall rankings, QS also provides in-depth subject-specific rankings. Dive into the article to discover the world's best universities 2025 according to QS, along with a breakdown of their ranking methodology.
As part of the ranking methodology, QS World University Ranking 2025 takes the below-mentioned parameters into account that effectively capture university performances, and a list of top-performing universities is derived for a particular year by scoring the universities (Overall Score) against these fields. Three metrics - Sustainability, Employment Outcomes, and International Research Network, were added. Universities are evaluated on the following given parameters for QS World University Rankings 2025:
- Academic Reputation
- Sustainability
- Employment Outcomes
- International Research Network
- Employer Reputation
- Faculty/Student Ratio
- Citations per faculty
- International Faculty Ratio /International Student Ratio
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QS World University Ranking 2025
Below is a list of top universities for 2025 as per QS World University Rankings 2025:
| Top University |
QS World University Rankings 2025 |
Overall Score |
|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Cambridge, United States |
#1 |
100 |
| London, United Kingdom |
#2 |
98.5 |
| Oxford, United Kingdom |
#3 |
96.9 |
| Cambridge, United States |
#4 |
96.8 |
| Cambridge, United Kingdom |
#5 |
96.7 |
| Stanford, United States |
#6 |
96.1 |
| Zürich, Switzerland |
#7 | 93.9 |
| National University of Singapore (NUS) Singapore, Singapore |
#8 | 93.7 |
| University College London (UCL) London, United Kingdom |
#9 |
91.6 |
| California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Pasadena, United States |
#10 |
90.9 |
| Philadelphia, United States |
#11 |
90.3 |
| University of California, Berkeley (UCB) Berkeley, USA |
#12 |
90.1 |
| Parkville, Australia |
#13 |
88.9 |
| Peking University Beijing, China (Mainland) |
#14 |
88.5 |
| Nanyang Technological University Singapore, Singapore |
#15 |
88.4 |
| Ithaca, United States |
#16 |
87.9 |
| Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR |
#17 |
87.6 |
| Sydney, Australia |
#18 |
87.3 |
| The University of New South Whales (UNSW Sydney) Kensington, Australia |
#19 |
87.1 |
| Tsinghua University Beijing, China (Mainland) |
#20 |
86.5 |
| Chicago, United States |
#21 |
86.2 |
| Princeton, United States |
#22 |
85.5 |
| New Haven, United States |
#23 |
85.2 |
| Universite PSL Paris, France |
#24 |
84.7 |
| Toronto, Canada |
#25 |
84.1 |
| EPFL – École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne Lausanne, Switzerland |
#26 |
83.5 |
| Edinburgh, United Kingdom |
#27 |
83.3 |
| Technical University of Munich Munich, Germany |
#28 |
83.2 |
| Montreal, Canada |
#29 |
83 |
| Australian National University (ANU) Canberra, Australia |
#30 |
82.4 |
QS World University Rankings – Methodology
Launched in 2004, the QS University Rankings has grown to become one of the most influential university rankings in the world. The QS World University Rankings talk about the top universities in the world for a given year. Universities are evaluated on the following given parameters along with their respective weightage for the ranking process:
| Parameters |
Weightage |
|---|---|
| Academic Reputation The highest weightage to determine the best university in the world is allocated to the academic reputation of the university. In doing so, QS University Rankings takes into account the expert opinion of over 100,000 individuals who belong in the higher education space and are involved with teaching and research quality at world universities. |
40% |
| Employer Reputation University education has always boiled down to the effectiveness of being eligible for the job market. Hence, employment reputation looks at how successful a university is in providing this preparedness to the student for the employment market. The data for the employment reputation is collated based on almost 50,000 responses to the QS Employer Survey conducted by QS University Rankings. The QS Employer Survey asks employees to identify institutions from which they source the most capable, effective, and innovative graduates. |
10% |
| Faculty/Student Ratio For students, teaching quality is one of the most important determinants when choosing universities. Though it is extremely difficult to measure the same, however, QS University Rankings, believes that outlining the Faculty/Student Ratio provides an alternative to measuring teaching quality. This particular parameter takes into account the number of tutors or teaching professionals the institution can provide to students, as a higher number of faculty members per student would greatly unburden each individual academic. |
20% |
| Citations per faculty If teaching is important to establish university credentials so is research output. At QS University Rankings, university research quality is measured using the Citations per Faculty metric. The process includes taking the total number of citations received by all papers produced by a university across a five-year period by the number of faculty members at that institution. |
20% |
| International Faculty Ratio /International Student Ratio A highly recommended university comes with advantages, above all, it demonstrates the ability to attract international students and faculty from across the world, which suggests the strong international reputation the university enjoys. This particular parameter takes into account the global outlook that is essential for a university operating in the global education sector. Other factors that are calculated here are providing students with a multinational environment, exchanging best practices, and bringing about global awareness. The International Faculty Ratio and the International Student Ratio contribute 5% each to the total weightage of the QS World University Ranking. |
10% |
Students are advised to use the QS World University Rankings as a good starting point to narrow down university preferences. Study Abroad aspirants are highly advised to visit university websites, attend open days, watch videos and chat with students about their experiences to arrive at their final decision. Once you have done your research based on QS World University Rankings 2025, and understood what you want to achieve from your university experience, then you can take the right decision for your future. You can also get in touch with Shiksha Study broad Counsellors for assistance with university admissions.
Best of Luck!
The University of the West of Scotland has five modern and diverse campuses in United Kingdom. The University has welcomed more than 3,000 international students which are representing 1/3 of the globe. They also have 130 European partners who are actively in global study and exchange options through the Commonwealth universities programmes. The University also offers study abroad opportunities for UWS who are eligible for the same and also have more than 20 transnational education partners worldwide which helps them deliver UWS Bachelors and Masters Degrees around the world.
University of Wales, Trinity Saint (UWTSD) was founded in 2010, is a public institution for higher education and research at multiple locations. It was set up under the 1828 royal charter of Lampeter, the institution was the result of the merger between Trinity University College and the University of Wales. The institution merged with the Swansea Metropolitan University in 2013.
- Top Ranked University: The UWTSD is not ranked by any major ranking body, however as per the university ranking given on the official website of the university, it is ranked among:
- #1st in Wales and UK Top 5 Film Production and Photography
- #1st in Wales and UK Top 5 Fashion and Textiles
- #1st in Wales and UK Top 20 Graphic Design
- #1st in Wales and UK Top 5 Education
- #1st in Wales and UK Top 20 Sports Science
- #1st in Wales and UK Top 20 Mechanical Engineering
- #1st in Wales for Fine Arts
- Variety of Courses: UWTSD offers more than 300 programs at various levels including undergraduate, postgraduate degrees as well as multiple online courses.
- Highly distinguished and learned faculties: the faculty at UWTSD is highly learned and distinguished which enables students to be the best in their field of study.
- High Placements: According to Graduate Outcome data 2019-2020 quoted by the UWTSD, more than 95% of its graduates were found to be employed within 15 Months of graduation. The average salary of a graduate is not explicitly released by UWTSD, however, as per some unofficial sources the average salary of the graduates of UWTSD is approximately INR 30-35L. with the highest salary being reported as high as INR 66.5L for jobs in Financial Services.
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The application process at the University of Manchester can change depending on course chosen and level of study. The steps to apply for undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the university are given as follows:
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To make your admission better, check out the following: How Admission Officers Evaluate your application.