A guide to university rankings for international students
A look at the different international university rankings and why students would want to use each, including the World University Rankings, Subject Rankings, Impact Ranking and regional rankings.
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International university rankings can be confusing. There’s no definitive list of top universities; if you’re looking for the “best universities”, you won’t find just one answer. Although university rankings are useful tools for comparing universities, the relevancy and accuracy of the results depend on what you are really looking for, whether that may be institutions in a specific country, the best universities for a specific degree subject or a specific type of environment.
With many different ranking systems, each with its own focus and purpose, the list of top universities varies. However, by understanding the distinctive methodologies and resulting lists, you can select the most fitting guide to the universities that suit their priorities.
World University Rankings
As with all of ̽Ƶ’s current worldwide rankings, the focus is on assessing research-intensive universities that transfer this knowledge to undergraduates. A university must publish more than 150 articles a year and teach undergraduate students to be eligible.
The 2025 ranking features over 2,000 world-leading universities evaluated according to their teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. The number of universities and countries expands every year.
For students who are generally interested in which universities are competing at a global level, the World University Rankings provide just that insight. The results are calculated from 18 different indicators, including research and teaching reputation surveys, staff-to-student ratios and the percentage of international students.
The sophisticated methodology covers all aspects of what makes a university successful and produces a ranking that is generally useful and reliable irrespective of your particular needs or interests.
Impact Ranking
̽Ƶ's innovative Impact Ranking aims to explore the global impact that universities have. This includes looking at the policies and measures institutionshave in place to tackle some of the world's biggest issues including gender inequality,climate change, global inequalityԻ sustainability among others.
To put together the ranking we mapped how universities around the world are committing to the(SDGs). TheSDGs are a global call to action to tackle and eradicate some of the greatest challenges facing the world today.
This ranking is a crucial resource for students choosing a university, because it moves away from assessing universities on their research output, and focuses instead on the impact that universities are having on some of the world’s most pressing issues.
Subject rankings
It is likely that by the time would-be undergraduates explore university options, they already have at least a vague idea of what subject they would like to study. It can therefore be worth narrowing university options to only those that suit in that specific discipline.
To do this, broad subject rankings would be the most appropriate, particularly for students who don’tyet know exactly which degree course they hope to follow.
̽Ƶ groups subject rankings by 11 broad disciplines: arts and humanities; clinical, pre-clinical and health; engineering; life sciences; physical sciences; social sciences; education; law; psychology; computer science and business and economics.
These rankings use the same methodology as the World University Rankings, with adjusted weightings for the 18 indicators to reflect different priorities and contexts in different fields. The lists for each subject differ significantly from the overall top 100 universities, so it is certainly worth delving into the more specific rankings.
Regional rankings
It’s possible to filter the World University Rankings by a country of interest, but for a look at all countries within a region, it’s best to look at the dedicated rankings for different parts of the world. These include the AsiaUniversity Ranking,Latin America University RankingԻ Arab World Ranking.
These use the same methodology as the World University Rankings, emphasising excellent research and teaching, but recalibrated to reflect priorities of the different regions.
There are also a few unofficial “student” rankings based on World University Rankings data such as best small universities, most international universitiesԻ the top universities led by women.
For students looking to study abroad or simply keen to explore alternatives, regional rankings shine a spotlight on key areas for international students.
Interdisciplinary Science Ranking
The Interdisciplinary Science Ranking is the newest ranking from ̽Ƶ. Launched last year, in partnership with Schmidt Science Fellows, the ranking aims to measureuniversities’ contributions and commitment to interdisciplinary science. It includes 11 carefully calibrated performance indicators to assess institutions across three key areas, each representing a stage in the life cycle of research projects: inputs (funding); process (measures of success, facilities, administrative support and promotion); and outputs (publications, research quality and reputation).
