THE World University Rankings

Published annually by the Times Higher Education (THE) magazine, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings is globally recognised and one of the go-to ranking providers for quality assessment of institutions all over the world.

Its ranking methodology is based on calibrated performance indicators, categorised within the following key areas: 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).

Each indicator contributes a percentage towards an institution’s final score.

Teaching (29.5%)

Teaching reputation: 15%
Staff-to-student ratio: 4.5%
Doctorate-to-bachelor’s ratio: 2%
Doctorates-awarded-to-academic-staff ratio: 5.5%
Institutional income: 2.5%

This performance indicator studies the perceived prestige of institutions in teaching, using data from THE’s Academic Reputation Survey. It also gauges the number of postgraduate research students as an indication of how well an institution is nurturing the next generation of academics, and appealing to graduates with teaching at the highest level. The subject mix of universities and spread of disciplines and countries are also taken into account.

Research environment (29%)

Reputation survey: 18%
Research income: 5.5%
Research productivity: 5.5%

Focusing on an institution’s reputation for research excellence, this metric is based on responses from the Academic Reputation Survey. For research income, which is key for developing world-class research, THE factors in academic staff numbers and purchasing power. To evaluate productivity, THE totals the number of publications within the Elsevier’s Scopus database, to get a sense of how much high-quality research is published by an institution.

Research quality (30%)

Citation impact: 15%
Research strength: 5%
Research excellence: 5%
Research influence: 5%

This indicator measures the influence of a university and its global influence in advancing new knowledge and ideas. Citation impact is calculated by how often an institution’s work is cited by scholars globally, examining millions of sources — including journal articles, conference proceedings and books — published over five years. The 2024 rankings introduced three measures for this indicator for research strength, excellence and influence.

International Outlook (7.5%)

Proportion of international students: 2.5%
Proportion of international staff: 2.5%
International collaboration: 2.5%

As leading universities now compete with their peers globally, THE measures this indicator to demonstrate an institution’s ability to attract students and faculty members from all over the world.

Industry (4%)

Industry income: 2%
Patents: 2%

This indicator evaluates a university’s impact on industry innovation and its ability to attract research funding. It measures how much income a university earns from industry research, and the number of patents citing the university’s research.

Below, we’ve compiled the top universities in each destination - Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and the UK. If you’re keen to find out more about studying abroad in any of these countries, have a chat with one of our friendly counsellors!

THE top 10 universities in Australia 2024

Rank	University	Global rank
1.	The University of Melbourne	37
2.	Monash University	54
3.	University of Sydney	60
4.	Australian National University	67
5.	The University of Queensland	70
6.	UNSW Sydney	84
7.	University of Adelaide	111
8.	The University of Western Australia	143
9.	University of Technology Sydney	148
10.	Macquarie University	180

THE top universities in New Zealand 2024

Rank	University	Global rank
1.	University of Auckland	150
2.	University of Otago	301–350
3.	Auckland University of Technology	401–500
4.	Lincoln University	401–500
5.	Victoria University of Wellington	401–500
6.	University of Waikato	401–500
7.	University of Canterbury	501–600
8.	Massey University	501–600

THE top 10 universities in Canada 2024

Rank	University	Global rank
1.	University of Toronto	21
2.	University of British Columbia	41
3.	McGill University	49
4.	McMaster University	103
5.	University of Alberta	109
6.	University of Montreal	111
7.	University of Waterloo	158
8.	University of Ottawa	177
9.	University of Calgary	201–250
10.	Western University	201–250

THE top 10 universities in the UK 2024

Rank	University	Global rank
1.	University of Oxford	1
2.	University of Cambridge	5
3.	Imperial College London	8
4.	UCL	22
5.	University of Edinburgh	30
6.	King’s College London	38
7.	London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)	46
8.	University of Manchester	51
9.	University of Bristol	81
10.	University of Glasgow	87

THE top universities in Ireland 2024

Rank	University	Global rank
1.	Trinity College Dublin	161
2.	University College Dublin	201–250
3.	RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences	251–300
4.	University of Galway (previously National University of Ireland Galway)	301–350
5.	University College Cork	301–350
6.	Dublin City University	401–500
7.	University of Limerick	401–500
8.	Maynooth University	401–500
9.	Technological University Dublin	1001–1200

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Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024