U.S. News & World Report published its eighth annual list of the top 10 universities in the world on Tuesday, October 26, 2021.
The 2022 ranking evaluates 1,750 universities from over 90 countries on 13 key criteria, including research repute, faculty publications, and international engagement.
“These rankings distinguish themselves from our previous education rankings by placing a premium on academic research,” says Robert Morse, chief data strategist at US News.
“The Best Global Universities ranking includes an overall ranking of over 1,700 universities, as well as topic rankings for an additional 255 schools, for a total of 2,005 schools, offering additional information to prospective students interested in schools with a strong research focus.”
As in past years, American colleges dominated the ranking, capturing eight of the top ten slots — which remained mostly constant from the previous year with the exception of the University of Washington in Seattle and Cambridge University, which each rose one point. The California Institute of Technology dropped two positions.
However, the rating sheds light on the world’s best universities. The University of Cape Town was elected Africa’s best university, Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, was named Asia’s best institution, The University of Melbourne was named Australia’s best institution, and Universidade de S. Paulo was awarded Latin America’s best institution.
According to US News, the top 10 universities in the world for 2022 are as follows:
Table of Contents
1. Harvard University
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts — United States
Highlight: Top-ranked university in many categories including biology & biochemistry and economics & business.
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts — United States
Highlight: MIT was ranked the best university for mathematics in the world.
3. Stanford University
Location: Stanford, California — United States
Highlight: U.S. News identified Stanford as having the best chemistry program in the world.
4. University of California, Berkeley
Location: Berkeley, California — United States
Highlight: This year, UC Berkeley was recognized for having the second-best chemistry program.
5. University of Oxford
Location: Oxford, England — United Kingdom
Highlight: Oxford was found to have the best arts & humanities program, worldwide.
6. Columbia University
Location: New York City, New York — United States
Highlight: Columbia University was recognized by U.S. News for being among the best places to study cardiovascular systems.
7. University of Washington, Seattle
Location: Seattle, Washington — United States
Highlight: The University of Washington, Seattle was found to have one of the world’s best clinical medicine programs.
8. University of Cambridge
Location: Cambridge, England — United Kingdom
Highlight: Cambridge’s faculty has included some of history’s most famous mathematicians. This year, the university earned fifth place for its mathematics program.
9. California Institute of Technology (tied with John Hopkins University)
Location: Pasadena, California — United States
Highlight: Home to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CalTech was identified as the top-ranked university in space science.
9. Johns Hopkins University (tied with CalTech above)
Location: Baltimore, Maryland — United States
Highlight: Known for its medical research, Johns Hopkins was found to have the second-best infectious disease program, as well as the second-best surgical program, in the world.
