Record 2,191 Universities Featured in THE 2026 World Rankings as Global Participation Surges

The 2026 World University Rankings, released by British publication Times Higher Education (THE), has reached a new milestone by listing 2,191 universities—the highest in its history and 2.6 times more than a decade ago. This marks the second year that over 2,000 institutions have been included.The rankings span 115 countries and territories, highlighting the rapid growth of higher education worldwide.
The United States leads with 171 ranked universities, followed by India with 128. Other nations in the top five with over 100 ranked institutions are Japan, the United Kingdom, and Turkey. For the first time, Libya, Senegal, and Yemen made the list, each with one university featured.Phil Baty, THE’s chief global affairs officer, emphasized the significance of this expansion, stating: “It is wonderful to see that the exciting increase in research capacity and internationalization in higher education means that more universities across the world – particularly the developing world – are now eligible to enter THE’s ‘gold standard’ world rankings, and that more are choosing to put themselves forward for rigorous, independent performance benchmarking to support their development.”
THE ranks universities using 18 performance indicators across five areas: teaching (30%), research (35%), citations (33%), international outlook, and industry income. To qualify, institutions must provide undergraduate programs, publish at least 1,000 research papers between 2020 and 2024, and demonstrate multi-field research.The official 2026 rankings will be released on October 9. In last year’s results, the University of Oxford claimed the top spot for the ninth year in a row, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Other institutions in the global top 10 included Harvard, Cambridge, Stanford, Princeton, Caltech, UC Berkeley, Imperial College London, and Yale.Vietnam achieved notable recognition, with nine universities ranked, led by the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City in the 501–600 band.
Meta Title: Global Expansion: 2026 World University Rankings Feature More Universities Than Ever
Key Phrase: THE 2026 World University Rankings
Meta Description: Times Higher Education has announced its 2026 World University Rankings, featuring more universities than ever before and highlighting global academic progress.