The United States has a new leading university as Massachusetts Institute of Technology rises to 2nd place, up from 3rd, in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025, released today (October 8). MIT has overtaken Stanford University, which dropped to 6th place from 2nd, as the U.S. East-West rivalry intensifies.
MIT leads the way for the East Coast with Harvard and Princeton universities following suit. Harvard is 3rd up from 4th, and Princeton jumps to 4th place from 6th. Meanwhile, there are signs of stagnation on the West Coast as Stanford falls from its previous top U.S. position of 2nd place down to 6th, and California Institute of Technology stays in the same position at No. 7. Princeton has shown continuous growth, climbing five positions in the past five years. The University of California, Berkeley was the other university in the top 10 that moved up from 9th last year to 8th this year.
Despite having seven of the top 10 ranked schools, U.S. universities’ global reputation is at a record low: In THE’s 2016 reputation survey, American universities received 47% of the votes for teaching and research combined; this year, their vote share dropped sharply to 38% — the steepest long-term decline of any country.
TOP 10 UNIVERSITIES IN THE’S WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS 2025
University | Country | Rank 2025 | Rank 2024 |
University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 1 | 1 |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | United States | 2 | 3 |
Harvard University | United States | 3 | 4 |
Princeton University | United States | 4 | 6 |
University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 5 | 5 |
Stanford University | United States | 6 | 2 |
California Institute of Technology | United States | 7 | 7 |
University of California, Berkeley | United States | 8 | 9 |
Imperial College London | United Kingdom | 9 | 8 |
Yale University | United States | 10 | 10 |
Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings
U.S. HAS 23 OF THE TOP 50 UNIVERSITIES & 55 OF THE TOP 200
The THE World University Rankings 2025 is a comprehensive global ranking assessing research-intensive universities across 18 performance indicators, which are divided into five pillars, covering their core missions of teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and internationalization. (THE is Poets&Quants‘ parent company.)
Three other U.S. institutions achieved their best performance since the 2016 edition:
- University of Massachusetts entered the top 100 for the first time, ranked tied for 84th, up from joint 123rd last year
- University of California, Irvine is tied for 90th, up from joint 92nd last year
- University of Rochester is 127th, up from 133rd
In the THE World University Rankings 2025 the U.S. dominates the top 10 with seven universities, and has 23 universities in the top 50, 38 in the top 100 (up from 36 last year), and 55 in the top 200 — more than any other country. However, its top-200 number has dropped slightly from 2021, when the U.S. had 59 universities in the top 200. (See page 2 for the top 100 ranked schools overall and all the U.S. schools ranked from 51 to 1,000.)
ONLY 17 U.S. SCHOOLS IN THE 101-200 TIER
Stanford University’s lowest position since 2010 is driven by a fall in its teaching score from 99 to 97.5 and lower scores for research environment and international outlook (see chart above). The drop under teaching is due to a lower score for doctorate-to-staff ratio and it has declined in research income and productivity, and international staff and co-authorship.
The data reveals steady improvements in MIT and Princeton University’s positions since 2016. Princeton has better scores under the doctorate-to-staff ratio as well as the doctorate-to-bachelor ratio, and it has improved in industry income, with a score of 93.7 this year, up from 90.2 last year. MIT has progressed in all metrics over the past 10 years.
While the U.S. has improved its representation in the top 100 with 38 institutions ranked this year up from 26 last year, there appears to be a hollowing out of the next tier — the global 101-200. This year there are only 17 U.S. universities in this group, its lowest number ever. An analysis of the U.S. universities that ranked 101-200 last year shows that these universities suffer drops in research productivity, as well as three out of the four research quality metrics: citation impact, research strength, and research excellence.
The U.S. has 174 institutions ranked this year, five more than last year’s 169, which is more than any other country. Among the large countries (with 50 or more ranked universities in both 2024 and 2025), the U.S. recorded the third-worst decline in average research quality score.
DECLINE OF U.S. SCHOOLS’ REPUTATION ‘QUITE SIGNIFICANT’
The 21st edition of the THE ranking has 2,092 universities ranked — up from 1,907 last year — from 115 countries and regions. Participation increased significantly, by 9.7% this year, making it the biggest rise in the past five years and compares to a 6% growth last year.
“With U.S. universities dominating the top 10 there is intense competition with the country’s elite institutions jockeying for position with relatively significant rises and falls in the top ten,” says Phil Baty, Times Higher Education’s chief global affairs officer. “Most notable was Stanford’s relatively dramatic drop this year and on the flip side is Princeton’s continued rise over several years — two to definitely watch.
“While the reputation of U.S. universities is the highest in the world, amongst academics, its decline over recent years has been quite significant and its global reputation is at a record low with U.S. global reputation for excellence and prestige in major, steady global decline.”
TOP U.S. UNIVERSITIES RANKED 2024-2025
Higher education institution | Rank 2025 | Rank 2024 |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 2 | 3 |
Harvard University | 3 | 4 |
Princeton University | 4 | 6 |
Stanford University | 6 | 2 |
California Institute of Technology | 7 | 7 |
University of California, Berkeley | 8 | 9 |
Yale University | 10 | 10 |
The University of Chicago | =14 | 13 |
University of Pennsylvania | =14 | 16 |
Johns Hopkins University | 16 | 15 |
Columbia University | =18 | 17 |
University of California, Los Angeles | =18 | 18 |
Cornell University | 20 | 20 |
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | =22 | 23 |
Carnegie Mellon University | 24 | 24 |
University of Washington | 25 | 25 |
Duke University | 27 | 26 |
Northwestern University | 31 | 28 |
New York University | 33 | 27 |
University of California, San Diego | 34 | 34 |
Georgia Institute of Technology | 40 | 36 |
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | 46 | 42 |
University of Texas at Austin | =50 | 52 |
Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings; =joint
FROM 200 TO 2,000: THE‘S RANKING GROWTH
This year 2,860 institutions submitted data, up 6.9% from last year (last year it was 2,674) from 133 countries and territories. The remaining 768 institutions gained “reporter” status, which means, although they submitted data, they did not meet THE’s eligibility criteria to receive a ranking.
The THE World University Rankings started with 200 universities and now has more than 2,000 making it the most global and inclusive ranking in the world.
View the full World University Rankings 2025 results and see World University Rankings 2025 methodology.
See the next page for the top 100 universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025, as well as all the U.S. universities ranked from 51-1,000.