U.S. universities dominate the global top 10, with five institutions represented.

The U.K. is the only other country with universities in the top five, with the University of Oxford ranked second, followed by the University of Cambridge in third place.

Asia has a single representative in the top 10, with the National University of Singapore placing joint eighth alongside U.K.'s Imperial College London, up one position from last year.

Switzerland is also represented in the top tier, with ETH Zurich ranking 10th.

The QS ranking, compiled annually by U.K.-based educational analyst Quacquarelli Symonds, evaluate universities based on five indicators: academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per paper, research productivity and impact, and international research collaboration.

The 2026 edition, released in March, assessed more than 21,000 academic programs across 1,912 institutions in 100 countries and territories.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S. Photo courtesy of the university

Positions 11 to 20 are again led by U.S. institutions, which account for three entries.

Asian universities take three places in this range, with Singapore's Nanyang Technological University and China's Tsinghua University ranked joint 12th alongside the University of California, Los Angeles. China’s Peking University ranks 15th, down two positions from last year.

Two European institutions entered the top 20 in 2026, with EPFL in Switzerland and Université Paris-Saclay in France joining the ranking, while U.S.'s Carnegie Mellon University and China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University dropped out.

Top 20 universities for mathematics in QS 2026: