The ranking of the best universities in the world for 2025 has been published and the USA and Great Britain dominate the list, while European universities are declining.
The University of Oxford has retained its position as the world's best university for the ninth consecutive year, according to the list, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in second place, followed by Harvard University and Princeton University rose from sixth place to fourth place in 2025.
The University of Cambridge remained in fifth place, unchanged from last year, while Stanford University dropped from second place to sixth.
Institutions from the United States and Great Britain shared all of the top 10 places, ie. seven of them are schools from the USA, and those from Great Britain are three in total.
The ranking is based on 18 performance indicators in five categories, including teaching, research environment, research quality, international perspective and industry.
Many European universities fell on the list
Excluding other countries and regions, the top three universities in Europe are all from the United Kingdom and include the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London.
The Swiss university ETH Zurich was ranked fourth in Europe and 11th in the world. It is followed by University College London (UCL), which was 22nd in the world.