The WUR 2026 Supplement
QS World University Rankings 2026
Some of the surprising, and not so surprising trends, in the latest edition QS flagship rankings.
By Anton John Crace
With the 2026 QS World University Rankings officially launched, we now embark on the latest cycle of QS rankings which will take us through to about May next year. Each new cycle brings with it insights on where the sector has been (as of now, at least, the rankings take in historical data) and predictions, or at least indicators, of where the sector might be going.
Let’s take a look at some of the highlights from the latest iteration of the QS World University Rankings.
In a case of 2023 calling, which will be explored again a little further down in the section on the US, the results of the 2026 rankings echo some of the results from the 2023 rankings. For the first time since then, the universities within the top 10 remain unchanged from the previous year.
Notably, only ranks 3-6 have shuffled, while ranks 1, 2 and 7-10 remain exactly as they were the previous year. This is quite unique, and not something that has been seen before, at least in this decade.
New entrants
Every year, new universities are admitted into the rankings. For this rankings, 112 new institutions are included, and for the first time, there are universities from Guatemala, Honduras and Libya.
One new entrant of note is the newly formed Adelaide University, a merger of the University of South Australia and the University of Adelaide. Debuting at 82, it retains the position the University of Adelaide held in last year’s rankings.
US Remains Top and Strengthening (For Now)
The US’ position as the stronghold of global higher education remains. Not only did it secure the number one spot for an eleventh straight year with MIT, but it now also occupies two of the top three spots, a feat it hasn’t achieved since the 2023 edition, thanks to Stanford reclaiming its number three rank.
While the country is reliving glory days in one sense, the US still failed to relive its past success of representing half of the global top 10, falling agonisingly short with only four, and consequently tying with the UK. You would also need to go back to the 2023 edition for the last time the US dominated to that extent.
The top 3 and top 10 aren’t the only bright spots. Expanding to the top 100, the US had the most upward movement of any location, with 11 institutions improving their position, including Stanford, the University of Chicago, Yale, Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University, Carnegie Mellon, UCSD, Brown, Penn State, Boston University and Purdue.
No US institutions fell out of the top 100 this year, but the 11 aforementioned rankings improvements were matched by just as many drops.
That said, while slight movements happen frequently between editions of the rankings, what has remained is the presence of the US, again having the most ranked institutions, with 192.
Policy, or more specifically political rhetoric, however, is having an impact, which we discuss in greater detail in “A perfect storm?”. The US, along with the UK, Canada and, to a lesser extent, Australia, saw decreases to international student ratios.
It seems unlikely that any policy has had a direct impact on this indicator in this rankings, considering the time in which surveys and analysis were conducted. It is more likely reputation and perception based. At the time of the US election, QS published research which indicated that overall, international students were less likely to consider the US as a study destination if the Republicans won, which they did.
India On The Rise And Rise
Indian’s strong performance from both last year’s edition of the QS World University Rankings, which at the time saw its largest number of institutions ranked, and the recent 2025 QS World University Rankings by Subject released in April, continued for 2026.
One of the clear influences on India’s improvements in the rankings is its National Education Policy 2020 (NEP), which will mark five years next month. Among a raft of goals across all levels of education, the policy “envisions a complete overhaul and re-energising of the higher education system”. There is a clear emphasis on re-energisation.
Impressively, 41 percent of Indian universities improved their position in the rankings, compared to only 20 percent that moved down. Even more compellingly, along with China, India had the largest number of major movers this year, that being universities improving 10 or more places in the rankings.
Positively, India also has the most new entrants for this rankings, with eight.
Other highlights include Indian institutions making up seven of the top 20 biggest climbers in the Academic Reputation metric. Meanwhile, the country has also started to close the gap with its regional competitors in the Citations per Faculty and International Research Network metrics.