World’s best universities
Has your university made the cut? Source: MD Duran/Unsplash

American universities have dominated the US News and World Report 2020 Best Global Universities Rankings, with eight universities dominating the top 10. 

Harvard University retained its top spot, followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and the University of California – Berkeley, ranked second, third and fourth respectively. 

The University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge are the only two universities outside the US in the top 10.

World’s best universities of 2020

Rank University Country
1 Harvard University US
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) US
3 Stanford University US
4 University of California—Berkeley US
5 University of Oxford UK
6 California Institute of Technology US
7 Columbia University US
8 Princeton University US
9 University of Cambridge UK
10 University of Washington US
11 Johns Hopkins University US
12 Yale University US
13 University of Chicago US
14 University of California—Los Angeles US
15 University of California—San Francisco US
16 University of Pennsylvania US
17 University of Michigan—Ann Arbor US
18 University of Toronto Canada
19 University of California—San Diego US
20 Imperial College London UK

Released on Tuesday (Oct 22), the rankings include data on 1,500 universities across 81 countries. The schools were evaluated based on 13 indicators that measure their academic research performance and their global and regional reputations.

The US News and World Report said the new edition evaluates schools in 81 countries – up from 75 last year. The US has the most universities in the overall ranking with 249, followed by China (188), the UK (86), Japan (82) and Germany (66).

Top universities by region 

World’s best universities

These are the best universities by region. Source: Chichi Onyekanne/Unsplash

Other highlights from the rankings include:

Top 3 universities in Asia

  1. National University of Singapore (Singapore)
  2. Tsinghua University (China)
  3. Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)

Top 3 universities in Europe

  1. University of Oxford (UK)
  2. University of Cambridge (UK)
  3. Imperial College London (UK)

Top 3 universities in Australia/New Zealand 

  1. University of Melbourne (Australia)
  2. University of Sydney
  3. University of Queensland (Australia)

Top 3 universities in Africa

  1. University of Cape Town (South Africa)
  2. University of Witwatersrand (South Africa)
  3. Stellenbosch University (South Africa)

Top 3 universities in Latin America

  1. Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil)
  2. Pontificia University Católica de Chile (Chile)
  3. State University of Campinas (Brazil)

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