According to the ranking by British analytics firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the National University of Singapore (NUS) secured the 10th spot. This achievement makes it Asia’s top-ranked university and the region’s sole representative in the global top 10. NUS was also the first institution in Asia to ever break into this elite tier.
Students graduate from the National University of Singapore, June 9, 2026. Photo from the university’s Facebook page |
QS released the 2027 edition on June 18, assessing 1,504 universities across 106 countries and territories. The U.S. and U.K. dominated the upper echelon, claiming eight of the top 10 places, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) topping the rankings for a 15th consecutive year.
Imperial College London and Stanford University tied for second place. They are followed by the University of Oxford in fourth and Harvard University in fifth. ETH Zurich in Switzerland and NUS stand out as the only institutions outside the U.S. and U.K. to make the top 10.
Asian representation
Singapore’s educational prominence continues just outside the top 10, as Nanyang Technological University (NTU) placed at 12th.
Six Asian universities are represented within the global top 20, including the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 11th place, China’s Peking University in 13th, Tsinghua University in 14th, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 18th.
Here are the 30 best universities in the world for 2027, according to QS:
Rank | University | Country/territory | Score |
1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | U.S. | 100 |
2 | Imperial College London | UK | 99.2 |
2 | Stanford University | U.S. | 99.2 |
4 | University of Oxford | UK | 98.6 |
5 | Harvard University | U.S. | 97.4 |
6 | University of Cambridge | UK | 97.1 |
7 | California Institute of Technology | U.S. | 96.6 |
8 | ETH Zurich | Switzerland | 96.3 |
8 | University College London | UK | 96.3 |
10 | National University of Singapore | Singapore | 96.2 |
11 | University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 95.9 |
12 | Nanyang Technological University | Singapore | 93.6 |
13 | Peking University | China | 92.6 |
14 | Tsinghua University | China | 92.1 |
15 | University of Pennsylvania | U.S. | 91.7 |
16 | Cornell University | U.S. | 91.5 |
16 | Yale University | U.S. | 91.5 |
18 | Chinese University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 89.9 |
19 | UNSW Sydney | Australia | 89.8 |
20 | Johns Hopkins University | U.S. | 89.7 |
20 | University of California, Berkeley | U.S. | 89.7 |
22 | EPFL | Switzerland | 89.6 |
22 | University of Melbourne | Australia | 89.6 |
24 | University of Chicago | U.S. | 89.2 |
25 | Technical University of Munich | Germany | 89.1 |
26 | Fudan University | China | 89 |
27 | Princeton University | U.S. | 88.9 |
28 | University of Sydney | Australia | 88.4 |
29 | Australian National University | Australia | 87.6 |
30 | McGill University | Canada | 87.5 |
QS is universally recognized as one of the world’s four major university ranking organizations, operating alongside Times Higher Education (THE), the Center for World University Rankings, and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). This year, QS evaluated over 1,500 institutions, welcoming 90 new entrants from 40 different countries and territories.
The ranking methodology relies on 10 distinct evaluation indicators. Academic reputation carried the most significant weight, accounting for 30% of the overall score of 100. This was followed by citations per faculty, which made up 20% of the final assessment.
Other critical criteria, weighted between 5% and 15%, include employer reputation, faculty-to-student ratio, internationalization, international research networks, employment outcomes, and institutional sustainability.
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