The University of Oxford has maintained its position as the world’s top-ranked university for a record-breaking ninth consecutive year, according to the newly released 2025 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.

It was followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, and Princeton University, which moved up from sixth to fourth place for 2025.

The University of Cambridge remained in fifth place, unchanged from the previous year, while Stanford University dropped from second to sixth position.

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The highest rankings were dominated by institutions from the United States and the United Kingdom, which shared all of the top 10 spots.

While seven of those were schools from the US, the UK claimed the remaining three, including the top place.

How does each university get graded?

The latest THE World University Rankings featured more than 2,000 universities from 115 countries and regions.

The rankings were based on 18 performance indicators across five categories, including teaching, research environment, research quality, international outlook, and industry.

The 2025 rankings also showed a shifting global landscape, with many European universities slipping in the ranking while Asian institutions continued to improve their global positions.

Which European universities are the best in the world?

According to the overall scores in the 2025 THE rankings, the top three universities in Europe were all from the UK and included the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and Imperial College London.

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Swiss university ETH Zurich ranked fourth in Europe and 11th globally. It was followed by University College London (UCL), which was 22nd worldwide.

Germany was also represented in Europe’s top 10, with the Technical University of Munich and LMU Munich which respectively ranked 26th and 38th globally.

Other top European universities included France’s PSL Research University and Belgium’s KU Leuven, both of which secured spots in the global top 50 schools.

Decline of European universities

For the second consecutive year, Asia was the most represented continent in the THE rankings.

Some European institutions have also experienced a steady decline, while universities in Asia, particularly from mainland China, Japan, and South Korea, have been improving.

“It is great to see so many of Europe’s top 200 universities move up Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings,” Phil Baty, Times Higher Education’s chief global affairs officer, said in a statement.

“But European universities should be in no doubt that competition in the ranking is increasing year-on-year and this is coming from Asia with universities from Chinese mainland and South Korea, in particular, rapidly moving up the table”.

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Countries like France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland have seen their universities drop in the rankings. For example, eight of the Netherlands’ 12 ranked universities have fallen, with Delft University of Technology dropping to the 56th position globally.

In France, 19 out of 50 universities declined, while 10 saw their worst-ever rankings.

Switzerland also had declines for several universities, though it still maintains some highly ranked institutions.

Despite these trends, some European countries have made notable improvements.

This includes Germany which recorded a milestone with the Technical University of Munich rising to 26th place, the highest-ever position for a German university in the rankings.

Although Europe owes most of its highest global rankings to the UK, countries like Germany, France, and the Netherlands also have a strong presence, with multiple universities in the global top 100.

The Nordic countries, particularly Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, also continue to show steady progress in the global rankings, as their universities either improved or maintained their positions.

Sweden was able to retain its presence in the top 50, with the Karolinska Institute climbing one spot to 49th, while Denmark secured a place in the global top 100, represented by the University of Copenhagen, ranked 97th this year.