Top 50 Research Universities Worldwide 2025-2026
Rankings compiled from multiple authoritative sources. Data includes academic reputation, research quality, student enrollment, endowment size, acceptance rates, and other key institutional metrics.
1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Cambridge, United States
Total Students
11,685
Acceptance Rate
4.52%
Avg. Undergraduate Tuition
$59,750
Endowment
$27.4B
Faculty-Student Ratio
3:1
Nobel Laureates
101
Key Strengths
Engineering and TechnologyComputer ScienceArtificial IntelligenceEntrepreneurshipInnovation
2
Harvard University
Cambridge, United States
3
Stanford University
Stanford, United States
4
University of Oxford
Oxford, United Kingdom
5
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, United Kingdom
6
Imperial College London
London, United Kingdom
7
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Pasadena, United States
8
National University of Singapore (NUS)
Singapore, Singapore
9
University College London (UCL)
London, United Kingdom
10
Princeton University
Princeton, United States
11
Yale University
New Haven, United States
12
University of Chicago
Chicago, United States
13
ETH Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland
14
Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Singapore, Singapore
15
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, United States
16
Tsinghua University
Beijing, China
17
Peking University
Beijing, China
18
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, United States
19
Columbia University
New York, United States
20
University of Toronto
Toronto, Canada
21
Cornell University
Ithaca, United States
22
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, United States
23
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
24
University of Tokyo
Tokyo, Japan
25
University of Manchester
Manchester, United Kingdom
26
King's College London
London, United Kingdom
27
McGill University
Montreal, Canada
28
University of Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia
29
University of Sydney
Sydney, Australia
30
Northwestern University
Evanston, United States
31
London School of Economics (LSE)
London, United Kingdom
32
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, Canada
33
Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Munich, Germany
34
New York University (NYU)
New York, United States
35
University of Washington
Seattle, United States
36
Duke University
Durham, United States
37
Seoul National University
Seoul, South Korea
38
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, United States
39
Australian National University
Canberra, Australia
40
Rice University
Houston, United States
41
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Los Angeles, United States
42
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, United States
43
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
44
University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
45
Brown University
Providence, United States
46
Dartmouth College
Hanover, United States
47
Karolinska Institute
Stockholm, Sweden
48
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, United States
49
Yonsei University
Seoul, South Korea
50
Sorbonne University
Paris, France