U.S. News & World Report, a global leader in quality education rankings and consumer advice, has revealed its 2024–2025 Best Global Universities rankings. In its 10th year, the rankings have expanded to include more schools and subjects. This edition evaluated over 2,000 schools from more than 100 countries and added four new subject rankings. Focused primarily on research, it comes after the release of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2025 and the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2024, which highlight employability and sustainability, respectively.
The US News Best Global Universities rankings are fundamental in the higher education sector. It influences not just student application decisions, but institutional funding, as well. It also paints a picture of the state of the industry, providing insights into trends in the global education landscape.
The U.S. News & World Report rankings
The 2024–2025 Best Global Universities rankings undergo a unique methodology. They use Web of Science data and InCites metrics from Clarivate, a trusted provider of insights and analytics on academia. It weighs factors that measure a university’s international and regional research reputation and academic performance. It also looks into bibliometric indicators (e.g. publications, citations and internal collaboration) to determine overall rankings.
In addition to global and country-specific rankings, U.S. News & World Report also considers subject-specific rankings, which look into schools’ positions in over 50 individual disciplines. Each of these rankings has its own weighting based on metrics in that specific area.
U.S. News & World Report also has lists of the Best High Schools, Best Colleges and Best Online Programs in the US to empower students in all academic levels.
Expanded scope
This year’s global rankings considered 2,250 universities across 100+ countries – up more than 10% from the previous list of 2,000. It also included four new subject rankings:
- ecology
- green and sustainable science and technology
- environmental engineering
- marine and freshwater biology.
These additions reflect the ranking’s commitment to reflecting the most relevant trends and information in higher education today. It also gives a glimpse of changes in the disciplinary offerings at universities around the world.
China and the US dominate
China and the US are the leaders in the 2024–2025 Best Global University Rankings. With 396, China boasts the most schools on the list, followed by the US with 283, Japan with 112, India with 109 and the UK with 96. Almost half (24) of the top 50 schools are located in the US. Notably, four out of the top five are US institutions, including Harvard University, which tops the list again this year.
upGrad GSP Partner Institutions in the Top 100
upGrad GSP is proud to be partners with institutions recognised by the U.S. News & World Report as the best global universities:
- University of New South Wales – Kensington, Australia (36)
- University of Queensland – Brisbane, Australia (41)
- University of Glasgow – Glasgow, UK (61)
- University of Technology Sydney – Ultimo, Australia (85)
- University of Western Australia – Crawley, Australia (91)
- University of Adelaide – Adelaide, Australia (92)
We also extend our congratulations to Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, Ireland – 206) and the University of Auckland (Auckland, New Zealand – 132) for being crowned the best university in their respective countries.
To connect with these universities and other high-ranking global institutions in key study-abroad destinations, contact our business development experts today.
