Eight U.S. schools feature in the top 15 of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2024, two better than last year. University of California, Berkeley, and Cornell University are the two new schools, moving up 17 and 7 spots, respectively. On the top of the list sits the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It’s the twelfth time MIT has claimed this position in the 20 editions QS has held an international ranking.
Since last year, Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania each moved up one spot to claim the fourth and twelfth spots, respectively. However, three schools did see their standings fall, including Stanford University (-2), California Institute of Technology (-9) and the University of Chicago (-1).
While eight U.S. universities made the top 15 in 2024, only four made the top 10—one fewer than last year. ETH Zurich in Switzerland broke into the top 10, while Chicago and CalTech both dropped out. The U.S. and U.K. each share four universities in the top 10.
Still, the U.S. maintains the largest presence among the top 15 with eight universities. The U.K. follows with four, followed by Switzerland, Singapore and Australia each nabbing one university on this list.
QS examines 1,500 institutions, 17.5 million academic papers and the expert opinions of over 240,000 academic faculty and employers for its ranking system. Responding to changing demands, QS introduced three new metrics including sustainability, employment outcomes and international research network. Other categories include academic reputation, employer reputation and citations per faculty, to name a few.
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QS World Rankings 2024 – Top 15
Note: This ranking list rates schools in a more holistic sense and should not be confused with QS’ annual university rankings by subject.
