In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2025, released in 2024 Australia has:
- 6 universities in the world’s top 100
- 10 universities in the world’s top 200
- 33 universities in the world’s top 500
- 9 universities outside the world’s top 500
UK has
- 12 universities in the world’s top 100
- 24 universities in the world’s top 200
- 51 universities in the world’s top 500
- 90 universities outside the world’s top 500
USA has
- 37 universities in the world’s top 100
- 53 universities in the world’s top 200
- 102 universities in the world’s top 500
- 2,526 (four-year) universities outside the world’s top 500 (another 1,268 two-year universities are beyond the scope of this analysis).
Numbers of world ranked universities are important. Numbers of students in world ranked universities may provide more insight.
Student Numbers
In Australia
- 26% of students are at universities in the world’s top 100
- 36% of students are at universities in the world’s top 200
- 90% of students are at universities in the world’s top 500
- 10% of students are at universities outside the world’s top 500
In UK
- 15% of students are at universities in the world’s top 100
- 26% of students are at universities in the world’s top 200
- 44% of students are at universities in the world’s top 500
- 56% of students are at universities outside the world’s top 500
In USA
- 9% of students are at universities in the world’s top 100
- 13% of students are at universities in the world’s top 200
- 23% of students are at universities in the world’s top 500
- 77% of students are at universities outside the world’s top 500
The finding that does not beat about the bush:
- 26% of students in Australian universities are at universities in the world’s top 100
- 26% of students in UK universities are at universities in the world’s top 200
- 23% of students in US universities are at universities in the world’s top 500.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings describes its rankings as the only global performance tables that judge research-intensive universities across all their core missions: Teaching (the learning environment); Research environment (volume, income and reputation); Research quality (citation impact, research strength, research excellence and research influence); International outlook (staff, students and research); and Industry (income and patents).
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025, released in 2024, are at
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking
Detailed analysis of numbers of students, based on the 2025 rankings, is in the March 2025 paper Global Rankings of Australian Universities 2025 on the Directors page of www.spre.com.au
Strategy and Policy are guided by Research in Education: www.spre.com.au
