World rankings of the 50 best universities 2017
Every year, thousands of universities worldwide produce graduates, undertake research and publish scientific papers. How to find out who are the leaders today in higher education? How to choose among them?
A number of global rankings are published annually. Some are focusing on academic achievements, reputation in science and the number of graduates awarded with Nobel Prize or other notable awards. Undoubtedly, these indicators are very important, but for future students, it could be only an indirect confirmation of the quality of the learning process.
Here, we represent the current World University Rankings by The Times Higher Education, which uses more than a dozen indicators to evaluate the institutions' real activities for more comprehensive comparison. The most important groups of indicators we consider:
o Teaching - is based on the evaluation of the teaching reputation, also includes such statistics as a student-to-staff ratio, doctorate-to-bachelor’s and doctorates awarded-to-academic staff ratios. It also estimates institution's financial status and ability to provide students and faculty with the required infrastructure.
o Research - is based on the university's reputation in research by the opinion of academics, also evaluates the funding of scientific programs and their productivity level.
In the table below the top universities are ranked by the overall score with an indication of their Teaching Rank (score), which is very helpful for future students seeking to obtain a world-class degree, and Research Rank (score) for those who plan further to continue in the science field.
A distinctive feature of the global leaders in education is an active promotion of distance learning. Most of them are offering a wide range of online courses in many disciplines (free or for some charge). It's a great opportunity to enhance your knowledge level in the leading institutions and get access to courses from the best professors and trainers, being thousands of kilometers away.
World rankings of the 50 best universities 2017
Rank
|
University
|
Overall score
|
Country
|
TeachingRank (score)
|
ResearchRank (score)
|
Online Courses
|
1
|
University of Oxford
|
95.0
|
UK
|
05 (89.6)
|
01 (99.1)
|
min £255
|
2
|
California Institute of Technology
|
94.3
|
USA
|
01 (95.5)
|
06 (95.7)
|
Free
|
3
|
Stanford University
|
93.8
|
USA
|
02 (92.6)
|
05 (95.9)
|
Free
|
4
|
University of Cambridge
|
93.6
|
UK
|
03 (90.6)
|
03 (97.2)
|
min £240
|
5
|
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
|
93.4
|
USA
|
04 (90.3)
|
08 (92.3)
|
Free
|
6
|
Harvard University
|
92.7
|
USA
|
09 (87.5)
|
02 (98.3)
|
Free
|
7
|
Princeton University
|
90.2
|
USA
|
06 (89.5)
|
15 (88.4)
|
Free
|
8
|
Imperial College London
|
90.0
|
UK
|
11 (86.4)
|
18 (86.6)
|
Free
|
9
|
ETH Zurich
|
89.3
|
Switzerland
|
17 (81.5)
|
07 (93.7)
|
Free
|
10
|
University of California, Berkeley
|
88.9
|
USA
|
16 (82.4)
|
04 (96.1)
|
Free
|
11
|
University of Chicago
|
88.9
|
USA
|
08 (88.1)
|
12 (89.1)
|
Free
|
12
|
Yale University
|
88.2
|
USA
|
07 (88.5)
|
16 (87.8)
|
Free
|
13
|
University of Pennsylvania
|
87.1
|
USA
|
12 (85.9)
|
14 (88.9)
|
Free
|
14
|
University of California, Los Angeles
|
86.6
|
USA
|
15 (82.9)
|
13 (89.0)
|
Free
|
15
|
University College London
|
86.5
|
UK
|
22 (77.4)
|
09 (90.0)
|
Free
|
16
|
Columbia University
|
86.1
|
USA
|
10 (86.9)
|
30 (78.9)
|
Free
|
17
|
Johns Hopkins University
|
85.9
|
USA
|
23 (77.4)
|
23 (84.3)
|
Free
|
18
|
Duke University
|
84.7
|
USA
|
18 (80.7)
|
28 (80.0)
|
Free
|
19
|
Cornell University
|
84.6
|
USA
|
19 (79.7)
|
19 (86.5)
|
Free
|
20
|
Northwestern University
|
83.7
|
USA
|
25 (75.8)
|
22 (85.0)
|
Free
|
21
|
University of Michigan
|
83.6
|
USA
|
20 (79.4)
|
21 (86.1)
|
Free
|
22
|
University of Toronto
|
83.0
|
Canada
|
28 (74.6)
|
20 (86.3)
|
Free
|
23
|
Carnegie Mellon University
|
81.8
|
USA
|
31 (70.2)
|
24 (84.0)
|
Free
|
24
|
National University of Singapore
|
81.7
|
Singapore
|
24 (76.7)
|
17 (86.9)
|
Free
|
25
|
University of Washington
|
80.2
|
USA
|
32 (70.2)
|
26 (80.4)
|
Free
|
26
|
London School of Economics and Political Science
|
80.2
|
UK
|
29 (70.8)
|
32 (74.7)
|
None
|
27
|
University of Edinburgh
|
79.2
|
UK
|
36 (67.5)
|
33 (74.7)
|
Free
|
28
|
Karolinska Institutet
|
77.6
|
Sweden
|
46 (62.1)
|
31 (76.0)
|
Free
|
29
|
Peking University
|
77.2
|
China
|
13 (84.6)
|
27 (80.3)
|
Free
|
30
|
LMU Munich
|
76.8
|
Germany
|
30 (70.5)
|
38 (73.4)
|
Free
|
31
|
EPFL
|
76.8
|
Switzerland
|
44 (62.9)
|
56 (66.1)
|
Free
|
32
|
New York University
|
76.7
|
USA
|
27 (75.1)
|
49 (68.8)
|
None
|
33
|
University of Melbourne
|
76.3
|
Australia
|
42 (65.4)
|
37 (73.6)
|
Free
|
34
|
Georgia Institute of Technology
|
76.3
|
USA
|
53 (60.8)
|
29 (79.2)
|
Free
|
35
|
Tsinghua University
|
76.2
|
China
|
21 (78.9)
|
10 (89.6)
|
Free
|
36
|
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
|
75.9
|
USA
|
41 (65.6)
|
25 (81.4)
|
Free
|
37
|
University of British Columbia
|
75.9
|
Canada
|
50 (61.2)
|
40 (72.5)
|
Free
|
38
|
King’s College London
|
75.9
|
UK
|
48 (61.5)
|
42 (71.0)
|
Free
|
39
|
University of Tokyo
|
74.1
|
Japan
|
14 (83.4)
|
11 (89.2)
|
Free
|
40
|
KU Leuven
|
73.8
|
Belgium
|
64 (57.0)
|
36 (73.7)
|
Free
|
41
|
University of California, San Diego
|
73.2
|
USA
|
51 (61.2)
|
55 (66.2)
|
Free
|
42
|
McGill University
|
73.1
|
Canada
|
39 (66.4)
|
44 (70.3)
|
Free
|
43
|
University of Hong Kong
|
73.0
|
Hong Kong
|
38 (66.5)
|
34 (74.5)
|
Free
|
44
|
Heidelberg University
|
73.0
|
Germany
|
37 (66.7)
|
58 (65.0)
|
Free
|
45
|
University of Wisconsin–Madison
|
72.6
|
USA
|
35 (68.2)
|
41 (71.4)
|
Free
|
46
|
Technical University of Munich
|
71.6
|
Germany
|
52 (61.0)
|
43 (70.5)
|
Free
|
47
|
Australian National University
|
71.3
|
Australia
|
71 (54.0)
|
35 (73.9)
|
Free
|
48
|
University of California, Santa Barbara
|
71.2
|
USA
|
83 (52.2)
|
63 (62.6)
|
None
|
49
|
HKUST
|
71.1
|
Hong Kong
|
78 (53.2)
|
53 (66.7)
|
Free
|
50
|
University of Texas at Austin
|
70.8
|
USA
|
43 (63.9)
|
57 (65.9)
|
Free
|
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