Top 100 Universities in the World – QS 2023 Rankings

This page displays the historic QS World University Rankings for 2023, with the Top 100 universities in the world ranked that year. It provides a simple overview of which institutions excelled in terms of teaching, research, and reputation in 2023. It is also useful for looking back through time to see how the global higher education system has changed as the world moves forward. If you want to see the latest results, click on the latest QS Top 100 universities rankings (2026).

One of the most reliable rankings for top universities in the world is the 'QS World University Rankings®'. Their university rankings for the year 2023 are the largest ever. They ranked around 1,500 universities from across the world.

Historic QS 2023 Rankings – Top 100 Universities

Below is the list of the top 100 universities in the world for 2023, based on the QS World University Rankings.

Rank Name City Country
#1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge United States
#2 University of Cambridge Cambridge United Kingdom
#3 Stanford University Stanford United States
#4 University of Oxford Oxford United Kingdom
#5 Harvard University Cambridge United States
#6 California Institute of Technology Pasadena United States
#6 Imperial College London London United Kingdom
#8 University College London London United Kingdom
#9 ETH Zurich Zürich Switzerland
#10 University of Chicago Chicago United States
#11 National University of Singapore Singapore Singapore
#12 Peking University Beijing China
#13 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia United States
#14 Tsinghua University Beijing China
#15 University of Edinburgh Edinburgh United Kingdom
#16 Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne Lausanne Switzerland
#16 Princeton University Princeton United States
#18 Yale University New Haven United States
#19 Nanyang Technological University Singapore Singapore
#20 Cornell University Ithaca United States
#21 University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Hong Kong
#22 Columbia University in New York New York City United States
#23 University of Tokyo Tokyo Japan
#24 Johns Hopkins University Baltimore United States
#25 University of Michigan Ann Arbor United States
#26 Paris Sciences et Lettres University Paris France
#27 University of California, Berkeley Berkeley United States
#28 The University of Manchester Manchester United Kingdom
#29 Seoul National University Seoul South Korea
#30 Australian National University Canberra Australia
#31 McGill University Montreal Canada
#32 Northwestern University Evanston United States
#33 The University of Melbourne Melbourne Australia
#34 Fudan University Shanghai China
#34 University of Toronto Toronto Canada
#36 Kyoto University Kyoto Japan
#37 Kings College London, University of London London United Kingdom
#38 Chinese University of Hong Kong New Territories Hong Kong
#39 New York University New York City United States
#40 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong Hong Kong
#41 The University of Sydney Sydney Australia
#42 KAIST - Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology Yuseong-gu South Korea
#42 Zhejiang University Hangzhou China
#44 University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles United States
#45 The University of New South Wales Kensington Australia
#46 Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai China
#47 University of British Columbia Vancouver Canada
#48 Polytechnic Institute of Paris Palaiseau France
#49 Technical University of Munich München Germany
#50 Duke University Durham United States
#50 The University of Queensland St Lucia Australia
#52 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh United States
#53 University of California, San Diego San Diego United States
#54 City University of Hong Kong Kowloon Hong Kong
#55 Institute of Science Tokyo Meguro-ku Japan
#56 London School of Economics and Political Science London United Kingdom
#57 Monash University Clayton Australia
#58 University of Amsterdam Amsterdam Netherlands
#59 Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich München Germany
#60 Sorbonne University Paris France
#61 Delft University of Technology Delft Netherlands
#61 University of Bristol Bristol United Kingdom
#63 Brown University Providence United States
#64 The University of Warwick Coventry United Kingdom
#65 University of Heidelberg Heidelberg Germany
#65 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Kowloon Hong Kong
#67 University of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Argentina
#68 Osaka University Suita Japan
#69 Paris-Saclay University Gif-sur-Yvette France
#70 University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
#71 Pohang University of Science and Technology Pohang South Korea
#72 The University of Texas at Austin Austin United States
#73 Yonsei University Seoul South Korea
#74 Korea University Seoul South Korea
#75 Moscow State University Moscow Russia
#76 KU Leuven Leuven Belgium
#77 National Taiwan University Taipei Taiwan
#78 University of Southampton Southampton United Kingdom
#79 Tohoku University Sendai Japan
#80 University of Washington Seattle United States
#81 University of Glasgow Glasgow United Kingdom
#82 University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark
#83 University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison United States
#83 University of Zürich Zürich Switzerland
#85 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign United States
#86 University of Leeds Leeds United Kingdom
#87 University of Auckland Auckland Central New Zealand
#88 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta United States
#89 KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm Sweden
#90 The University of Western Australia Crawley Australia
#91 University of Birmingham Birmingham United Kingdom
#92 Durham University Durham United Kingdom
#93 Pennsylvania State University University Park United States
#94 University of Science and Technology of China Hefei China
#95 Lund University Lund Sweden
#96 The University of Sheffield Sheffield United Kingdom
#96 University of St Andrews St Andrews United Kingdom
#98 Trinity College Dublin Dublin Ireland
#99 Sungkyunkwan University Seoul South Korea
#100 Rice University Houston United States

Explore Other Years

Want to see how the rankings have changed over time? Use the following dropdown to browse the Top universities from other years and track global trends.

Top Countries in 2023

The QS 2023 results also highlight the countries that had the most top-ranked universities. Here are the top 10 countries with the highest number of institutions ranked in 2023.