In the past two decades university rankings have become an integral part of the higher education landscape, and whatever you think of them the reality is that millions of prospective students, alumni and staff will consult them to assess the impact of a school’s standing in the international market. Some governments now use global university rankings as part of points-based immigration programs, or as a standard for academic partnerships.

As the S of QS, my name is associated with the QS Quacquarelli Symonds rankings, and I subsequently helped Times Higher Education to launch their own THE World University Rankings in 2010. With the Academic Ranking of World Universities, ARWU (also known as the Shanghai Ranking) and US News which began publishing the Best Global Universities ranking in 2014, these four major rankings are the most influential. Beyond them there are countless other league tables based on social and economic impact, scientific papers, human resources indexes, innovation, teaching and career outcomes.

There will always be a great deal of debate about the distorting effects of rankings, and the methodologies they each adopt. The Big Four primarily measure the research performance of universities, with biases towards English-language journals and a limited assessment of teaching quality. The ARWU does not adjust for the size of an institution, which means that larger universities typically rank higher than smaller institutions with the same quality of research. The use of reputational surveys is also questioned, and critics fear that universities may focus too much attention and resources on research and activities that are rewarded by rankings. 

At the end of the day, how much should we read into the fact that ten places separate two world-class institutions in Pennsylvania and Paris? And how do the rankings help students and graduates to identify the best places both globally and locally to study their field of interest?

The four main rankings have all developed an extensive array of subject rankings to provide a more detailed assessment of the best universities in the arts & humanities, business & economics, education, engineering, law and social sciences, life sciences and medicine, the natural sciences and psychology. To broaden geographic scope and highlight institutions that are committed to greater impact to tackle environmental, social and governance challenges, both QS and THE publish regional tables and have devoted considerable time and effort to develop rankings that measure impact and sustainability.

BlueSky Thinking will be looking at each of these initiatives, but as we reach the end of the calendar year we have compiled the results of the big four university rankings of the last 12 months, and compared them to the same league tables of 2017/18. The idea of the BlueSky Ranking of University Rankings is to aggregate the performance of schools across multiple rankings. Each ranking uses a different methodology and measures different things with the inherent limitations of each assessment, so doing particularly well in one ranking and less well in another is reflected in the overall average score.

Don’t forget to check out results with 5-year performance comparison for the rest of the world:

N.America Top 50: BlueSky Thinking Ranking of University Rankings 2022/23 – North America

Europe Top 50: BlueSky Thinking Ranking of University Rankings 2022/23 – Europe

Asia & Oceania Top 30: BlueSky Thinking Ranking of University Rankings 2022/23 – Asia & Oceania

BlueSky Ranking of the University Rankings 2022/23 – Global

Global Rank 2022/23	Global Rank 2017/18	Institution Name	Country	THE 2023	QS 2023	USNews 2022/23	ARWU 2022	5-year Change
1	2	Harvard University	USA	2	5	1	1	1
2	1	Stanford University	USA	3	3	3	2	-1
2	3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	USA	5	1	2	3	1
4	4	University of Cambridge	UK	3	2	8	4	0
4	5	University of Oxford	UK	1	4	5	7	1
6	6	California Institute of Technology	USA	6	6	9	9	0
7	11	University of California, Berkeley	USA	8	27	4	5	4
8	7	Princeton University	USA	7	16	16	6	-1
9	9	Columbia University	USA	11	22	7	8	0
10	10	Yale University	USA	9	18	11	11	0
11	13	Imperial College London	UK	10	6	13	23	2
12	8	The University of Chicago	USA	13	10	22	10	-4
13	15	University of Pennsylvania	USA	14	13	15	15	2
14	14	UCL	UK	22	8	12	18	0
15	12	Johns Hopkins University	USA	15	24	10	14	-3
16	16	ETH Zurich	Switzerland	11	9	29	20	0
17	17	Cornell University	USA	20	20	21	12	0
18	33	Tsinghua University	China	16	14	23	26	15
19	18	University of California, Los Angeles	USA	21	44	14	13	-1
19	22	University of Toronto	Canada	18	34	18	22	3
21	19	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	USA	23	25	19	28	-2
22	40	Peking University	China	17	12	39	34	18
23	21	Northwestern University	USA	26	32	24	30	-2
24	25	University of Edinburgh	UK	29	15	34	35	1
25	26	New York University	USA	24	39	31	25	1
26	23	University of California, San Diego	USA	32	53	20	21	-3
26	27	University of Melbourne	Australia	34	33	27	32	1
27	34	National University of Singapore	Singapore	19	11	26	71	7
28	24	University of Washington	USA	26	80	6	17	-4
29	20	Duke University	USA	25	50	25	31	-9
30	29	King’s College London	UK	35	37	33	48	-1
31	50	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France	47	26	48	40	19
32	28	University of British Columbia	Canada	40	47	35	44	-4
33	30	The University of Tokyo	Japan	39	23	81	24	-3
34	49	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore	36	19	30	88	15
35	35	University of Manchester	UK	54	28	63	38	0
36	45	The University of Sydney	Australia	55	41	28	60	9
37	43	The University of Queensland	Australia	53	50	36	47	6
38	38	LMU Munich	Germany	33	59	47	57	0
39	39	University of Texas at Austin	USA	50	72	43	37	0
40	63	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	31	21	55	96	23
41	36	McGill University	Canada	46	31	54	73	-5
42	60	Monash University	Australia	44	57	37	75	18
43	48	Technical University of Munich	Germany	30	49	79	56	5
44	69	UNSW Sydney	Australia	72	45	37	64	25
45	172	Karolinska Institute	Sweden	49	89	51	41	127
46	47	Australian National University	Australia	62	30	62	79	1
47	41	Washington University in St Louis	USA	57	118	32	27	-6
48	44	Universität Heidelberg	Germany	43	65	57	70	-4
49	121	Zhejiang University	China	67	42	93	36	72
49	123	Université Paris-Saclay	France	93	69	60	16	74
51	42	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China	52	46	89	54	-9
51	115	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	USA	69	102	41	29	64
51	146	Sorbonne University	France	90	60	48	43	95
54	32	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland	41	16	69	125	-22
55	37	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	USA	48	85	74	49	-18
56	31	University of Wisconsin-Madison	USA	81	83	63	33	-25
57	93	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	45	38	53	125	36
58	57	KU Leuven	Belgium	42	76	50	95	-1
59	94	Fudan University	China	51	34	116	67	35
60	58	Utrecht University	Netherlands	66	112	44	54	-2
61	51	University of Copenhagen	Denmark	114	82	42	39	-10
62	62	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands	60	58	39	125	0
63	53	Kyoto University	Japan	68	36	140	41	-10
64	70	University of Zurich	Switzerland	82	83	67	59	6
65	52	University of Bristol	UK	76	61	93	81	-13
66	77	Seoul National University	South Korea	56	29	129	98	11
67	45	Carnegie Mellon University	USA	28	52	118	125	-22
68	66	University of Southern California	USA	65	134	80	53	-2
68	109	University of Science and Technology of China	China	74	94	102	62	41
70	55	University of California, Santa Barbara	USA	64	149	67	57	-15
71	53	Georgia Institute of Technology	USA	38	88	51	175	-18
72	67	Brown University	USA	61	63	129	99	-5
73	83	University of Glasgow	UK	82	81	74	125	10
74	65	University of California, Davis	USA	63	102	73	125	-9
75	79	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany	86	131	61	–	4
76	56	Boston University	USA	71	108	70	125	-20
76	76	University of Groningen	Netherlands	75	145	88	66	0
78	64	University of Maryland	USA	104	164	57	50	-14
79	100	University of Oslo	Norway	126	101	89	67	21
80	61	University of Minnesota Twin Cities	USA	101	185	57	44	-19
81	99	University of Southampton	UK	108	78	104	104	18
82	95	Free University of Berlin	Germany	91	118	87	–	13
83	108	University of Adelaide	Australia	88	109	74	125	25
84	151	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia	101	106	65	125	67
85	86	University of Western Australia	Australia	131	90	83	99	1
86	71	Leiden University	Netherlands	77	131	74	125	-15
86	74	University of Helsinki	Finland	110	106	99	92	-12
88	103	University of Birmingham	UK	108	91	89	125	15
89	155	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong	79	65	100	175	66
90	88	Ghent University	Belgium	107	143	95	74	-2
91	59	Ohio State University	USA	112	140	55	125	-32
92	98	Emory University	USA	82	155	72	125	6
93	96	Vanderbilt University	USA	98	199	78	64	3
94	81	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands	80	208	65	87	-13
95	113	University of Bern	Switzerland	94	120	107	125	18
96	89	Wageningen University & Research	Netherlands	59	124	89	175	-7
97	132	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	99	54	120	175	35
98	77	University of Pittsburgh	USA	144	181	45	82	-21
99	68	Pennsylvania State University	USA	151	93	84	125	-31
100	107	London School of Economics and Political Science	UK	37	56	236	125	7

What is striking in the 2022/23 results is the remarkably consistent performance of 9 universities from the US East and West Coasts and the UK. Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Oxford, Cambridge, CalTech, Berkeley, Princeton and Yale were all in the top 10 of the ARWU ranking of 2003 and the QS ranking of 2004, andnearly twenty years later they still dominant the global league tables. 

In the world of business education and the MBA we refer to the M7 – HBS, Stanford GSB, Wharton, Chicago Booth, Columbia, MIT Sloan and Northwestern Kellogg. Whether the M of M7 stands for ‘Magnificent’ or ‘Magic’, these are all prestigious and influential US business schools.

At a global university level, the Ivy League makes way for the U9 – Unshakeable and seemingly Unequaled.

But beyond the top 10, the academic landscape is shifting. Almost a quarter of the top 100 are from Asia Pacific, with six universities from China including Tsinghua and Peking University among the top 25. 

And while the UK continues to shine with twelve universities, continental Europe is catching up fast. Who knew that The Netherlands is such a higher education powerhouse, with six of the top 100 universities in a country with a population of 17.5 million. Switzerland, with a population of only 8.7 million similarly impresses with four institutions. And France, which did not feature in any of the world university rankings as recently as ten years ago now has three national champions.

Comparing the 2022/23 Ranking of Rankings results to those of 2017/18 there are a significant number of winners and losers in the 5-year period.

Biggest gains

Scandinavia: Karolinska Institute +127 places (major shift in the QS ranking); University of Oslo +21 places

France: emergence of several mega-universities, including Sorbonne University +95 places; Université Paris-Saclay +74 places; Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) +19 places

China / Hong Kong: Zhejiang University +72 places; Hong Kong Polytechnic University +66 places; University of Science and Technology of China (+41 places); Chinese University of Hong Kong +36 places; Fudan University +35 places; City University of Hong Kong +35 places; University of Hong Kong +23 places; Peking University +18 places; Tsinghua University +15 places

Saudi Arabia: King Abdulaziz University +67 places

Australia: UNSW Sydney +25 places; University of Adelaide +25 places; Monash University +18 places; University of Sydney +9 places; University of Queensland +6 places

UK: University of Southampton +18 places; University of Birmingham +15 places; University of Glasgow +10 places; LSE +7 places; Imperial College London +2 places to #11 in the world

Germany: Free University of Berlin +13 places; Technical University of Munich +5 places; Humboldt University +4 places

Biggest Falls

USA: Ohio State University -32 places; Penn State University – 31 places; University of Wisconsin-Madision -25 places; Carnegie Mellon University -22 places; University of Pittsburgh – 21 places; Boston University -20 places; University of Minnesota -19 places; Georgia Institute of Technology -18 places; University of Illinios at Urbana -18 places

Switzerland: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne – 22 places

Netherlands: Leiden University -15 places; Erasmus University -13 places

UK:University of Bristol -13 places; University of Warwick – 9 places;

Scandinavia: University of Helsinki -12 places; University of Copenhagen -10 places

Look out for the three regional Ranking of University Rankings 2022/23 for Europe, Asia Pacific and North America on the BlueSky Thinking site. 

Each of the major university rankings uses a different methodology and weights the use of different data to produce their league tables, so it is important to understand what is being measured. In simple terms:

THE – the performance indicators are grouped into five areas: Teaching (the learning environment); Research (volume, income and reputation); Citations (research influence); International Outlook (staff, students and research); and Industry Income (knowledge transfer).

Teaching (30%); Research (30%); Citations (30%); International Outlook (7.5%); Industry Income (2.5%).

QS– six indicators looking at four broad categories: research reputation, the learning and teaching environment, research impact, and internationalisation. 

Academic Reputation (40%); Employer Reputation (10%); Citations per Faculty (20%); Faculty Student Ratio (20%); International Student Ration (5%); International Faculty Ratio (5%)

ARWU – considers every university that has any Nobel Laureates, Fields Medalists, Highly Cited Researchers, or papers published in Nature or Science. In addition, universities with a significant amount of papers indexed by Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) are also included.

Quality of Education (10%); Quality of Faculty (40%); Research Output (40%) Per Capita Performance (10%)

US News – calculates the rankings using 13 indicators and weights that U.S. News chose to measure global research performance.

Global Research Reputation (12.5%); Regional Research Reputation (12.5%); Publications (10%); Books (2.5%); Conferences (2.5%), Normalized Citation Impact (10%); Total Citations (7.5%); Number Of Publications Among 10% Most Cited (12.5%); Percentage Of Total Publications Among 10% Most Cited (10%); International Collaboration – Relative To Country (5%); International Collaboration (5%); Number Of Highly Cited Papers Among Top 1% Most Cited In Respective Field (5%); Percentage Of Total Publications Among Top 1% Most Highly Cited Papers (5%) 

About the author

Matt Symonds is Chief Editor of BlueSky Thinking. He is the S of QS, co-founding QS Quacquarelli Symonds, publishers of the QS World University Rankings and numerous business school rankings.

In 2010 Matt was the media consultant for Times Higher Education to support the launch of their own THE World University Rankings, and has subsequently worked for THE and WSJ for business school rankings.

Matt writes about Higher Education and management for Forbes, BBC, Times of India and formerly The Economist and Bloomberg.