The University of Oxford has secured the top position in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026 for an unprecedented tenth consecutive year, leading a strong performance by UK institutions.
The prestigious list also saw the University of Cambridge rise to joint third place from fifth in 2025, while Imperial College London climbed one spot to eighth.
In total, 11 UK universities featured within the global top 10.
Compiled annually since 2004, the rankings analyse nearly 19 million research papers, 1.5 million survey votes, and data from over 30,000 universities.
Factors include teaching and research reputation, strength, and various income streams. Of the 2,191 institutions ranked globally, 109 were from the UK.
Thirteen improved their positions, 64 maintained their 2025 standing, and 28 saw a drop.
This is the first year since 2016 that the UK has had fewer than 50 universities that made the top 500, though it is only slightly under this with 49.
THE said the UK is joint fourth for most represented country in the rankings behind the United States, India and Japan.
The UK did well on its teaching reputation and improvement in research excellence, THE said, but saw a fall in scores for research strength, and the student-staff ratio grew from 16.8 to 20.5 students per teacher.
Those ratio figures “predate the latest developments in the UK higher education funding crisis, but the ratio is only likely to worsen as jobs cuts continue and institutions’ resources swindle”, THE said.
The University of Leeds saw its best year ever as it climbed from 123rd to 118th, while the University of Liverpool jumped from joint 160th to 143rd.
City St George’s, University of London, which merged last year, is in the top three new mergers to join the rankings, and made the 351-400 range.
On the other side of things, both the London School of Economics (LSE) and Political Science and the University of Warwick saw their worst performances in these rankings. The former dropped out of the top 50 to come 52nd, and the latter fell from 106th to joint 122nd.
The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2026 ranked London School of Economics and Political Science first in the country for the second year in a row in September.
A spokesperson for LSE said universities like it which specialise in social sciences are disadvantaged by the methodology of some rankings if they favour “broader institutions with science, engineering and medicine faculties”.
Phil Baty, THE’s chief global affairs officer, said: “This year’s rankings highlight a dramatic and accelerating trend – the shift in the balance of power in research and higher education excellence from the long-established, dominant institutions of the West to rising stars of the East.
“The US and much of western Europe have suffered significant lost ground in the world rankings, while East Asian nations, led by China, continue to thrive and surge up the table.
“This clear trend is set to persist as research funding and international talent attraction continue to be stymied in the West.”
Other than the three UK institutions, the rest of THE’s global top 10 is made up entirely of US universities, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology taking second and Princeton University coming joint third with Cambridge. The US also dominates much of the top 30.
Elsewhere in the world, Ireland’s top-ranked university – Trinity College Dublin – has seen its ranking fall from 139th to 173rd, its worst performance.
A spokesperson for Trinity College Dublin said the university remains the top-ranked Irish university in this ranking and others and “fluctuations are to be expected” given the list of universities covered by the ranking is growing every year.
“It’s important to note that methodologies differ and in the recent 2026 QS World University Ranking, Trinity improved its position to rank 75th in the world,” they added.
Universities in China took 12th and 13th, the National University of Singapore came in 17th, and the University of Tokyo rose up two places to 26th.
