The best universities in the world, in one place

Everything a family needs to choose well: where each university is, what it costs, how hard it is to get in, who teaches there and who studied there.

universities
36universities
countries
9countries
notable people
178notable people
teachers
108teachers
Photo: Marco Almbauer, Harvard Yard
36 universities
How to read the cards
  • United StatesQS #1

    MIT

    Cambridge, Massachusetts

    Engineering, computing and physics; QS world No. 1 for fourteen consecutive years

    EngineeringComputer sciencePhysics
    Tuition per year$67kOver $55k a year
    IB 42–45 · A-level A*A*A*4 years15 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United KingdomQS #2

    Imperial

    London, South Kensington

    Science, engineering, medicine and business only, and second in the world for all of it

    EngineeringMedicineComputer science
    Tuition per year$46k–78kOver $55k a year
    IB 38–42 · A-level AAA–A*A*A3 years5 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United StatesQS #3

    Stanford

    Stanford, California (next to Palo Alto)

    Computer science, engineering and the start-up culture of Silicon Valley

    Computer scienceEngineeringBusiness
    Tuition per year$68kOver $55k a year
    IB 42–45 · A-level A*A*A*4 years14 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United KingdomQS #4

    Oxford

    Oxford, England

    Teaching since 1096, and still the world's most demanding undergraduate tutorial

    HumanitiesMedicinePhysics
    Tuition per year$41k–61kOver $55k a year
    IB 38–40 · A-level A*A*A–AAA3 years12 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United StatesQS #5

    Harvard

    Cambridge, Massachusetts

    America's oldest university: law, medicine, business and eight US presidents

    LawMedicineEconomics
    Tuition per year$62kOver $55k a year
    IB 42–45 · A-level A*A*A*4 years20 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United KingdomQS #6

    Cambridge

    Cambridge, England

    Newton, Darwin, Turing and the structure of DNA, all from one small town on the Cam

    PhysicsMathematicsEngineering
    Tuition per year$41k–84kOver $55k a year
    IB 40–42 · A-level A*A*A3 years23 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • SwitzerlandQS #7

    ETH

    Zurich

    Continental Europe's top university, at a fraction of the price of the Ivy League

    EngineeringComputer sciencePhysics
    Tuition per year$5k–6kUnder $10k a year
    IB 38/423 years6 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • SingaporeQS #8

    NUS

    Singapore, Kent Ridge

    Asia's strongest university, taught in English, two hours' flight from Phuket

    Computer scienceEngineeringBusiness
    Tuition per year$19k–74kOver $55k a year
    IB 38–424 years5 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United KingdomQS #9

    UCL

    London, Bloomsbury

    London's first university to admit students of any religion, and now its broadest

    EngineeringMedicineArchitecture
    Tuition per year$38k–68kOver $55k a year
    IB 34–39 · A-level A*A*A–ABB3 years5 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United StatesQS #10

    Caltech

    Pasadena, California

    A 1,000-undergraduate science institute that runs NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

    PhysicsEngineeringChemistry
    Tuition per year$69kOver $55k a year
    IB 43–454 years11 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • Hong KongQS #11

    HKU

    Hong Kong Island, Pok Fu Lam

    Hong Kong's oldest university, on a hillside above the harbour, taught in English

    MedicineLawBusiness
    Tuition per year$25k–28k$10–30k a year
    IB 38–42 · A-level 34 years4 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • SingaporeQS #12

    NTU

    Singapore, Jurong West

    A tropical garden campus built around engineering, computing and design

    EngineeringComputer scienceBusiness
    Tuition per year$18k–40k$30–55k a year
    IB 36–414 years3 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United StatesQS #15

    Penn

    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    Franklin's university: Wharton, Penn Medicine and four schools you can mix freely

    BusinessEconomicsMedicine
    Tuition per year$66k–74kOver $55k a year
    IB 40–44 · A-level A*A*A4 years6 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United StatesQS #17

    UC Berkeley

    Berkeley, California

    The world's top public university, a 30-minute BART ride from San Francisco

    Computer scienceEngineeringChemistry
    Tuition per year$55k–57kOver $55k a year
    IB 38–424 years12 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • AustraliaQS #18

    Sydney

    Sydney, New South Wales

    Australia's first university, in a sandstone quadrangle half an hour from the Opera House

    MedicineLawEngineering
    Tuition per year$32k–40k$30–55k a year
    IB 30–383 years5 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • AustraliaQS #19

    Melbourne

    Melbourne, Victoria

    Australia's best, with a curriculum that makes you choose your profession after the degree

    MedicineLawBiology
    Tuition per year$30k–38k$30–55k a year
    IB 31–38 · A-level CCC–AAA3 years4 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United StatesQS #21

    Yale

    New Haven, Connecticut

    Law, humanities, politics and the arts; Harvard's rival with a residential-college soul

    LawHumanitiesPolitics
    Tuition per year$73kOver $55k a year
    IB 42–45 · A-level A*A*A*4 years7 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • SwitzerlandQS #22

    EPFL

    Lausanne, on Lake Geneva

    Engineering by Lake Geneva: world-class labs, lectures in French, a brutal first year

    EngineeringComputer sciencePhysics
    Tuition per year$5k–6kUnder $10k a year
    IB 38/423 years4 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • GermanyQS #22

    TUM

    Munich

    Germany's engineering powerhouse in the city of BMW, Siemens and the Alps

    EngineeringComputer sciencePhysics
    Tuition per year$5k–7kUnder $10k a year
    Own entry route3 years5 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United StatesQS #25

    Princeton

    Princeton, New Jersey

    Physics, mathematics and public affairs on the most undergraduate-focused Ivy campus

    PhysicsMathematicsEconomics
    Tuition per year$68kOver $55k a year
    IB 42–45 · A-level A*A*A*4 years14 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • CanadaQS #25

    Toronto

    Toronto, Ontario

    Insulin, stem cells and deep learning all came out of the same campus

    MedicineEngineeringComputer science
    Tuition per year$45k–52k$30–55k a year
    IB 32–384 years8 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • CanadaQS #27

    McGill

    Montreal, Quebec

    A stone campus at the foot of Mount Royal, in North America's most European city

    MedicineLawEngineering
    Tuition per year$26k–44k$30–55k a year
    IB 32–38 · A-level BCC–A*A*A*A*4 years6 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United KingdomQS #31

    King's

    London

    Photo 51, Florence Nightingale and five campuses along the Thames in central London

    MedicineLawHumanities
    Tuition per year$37k–77kOver $55k a year
    IB 34–38 · A-level BBC–A*A*A3 years7 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United KingdomQS #34

    Edinburgh

    Edinburgh, Scotland

    Dolly the sheep, the Higgs boson and Britain's largest school of informatics

    Computer scienceMedicineBiology
    Tuition per year$40k–74kOver $55k a year
    IB 34–38 · A-level A*A*A*–BBB4 years8 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United KingdomQS #35

    Manchester

    Manchester

    Where the atom was split, the stored-program computer was born and graphene was found

    PhysicsChemistryEngineering
    Tuition per year$38k–82kOver $55k a year
    IB 34–383 years6 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United StatesQS #38

    Columbia

    New York, Manhattan

    Ivy League rigour and the Core Curriculum, ten minutes from Midtown Manhattan

    HumanitiesJournalismEconomics
    Tuition per year$73k–77kOver $55k a year
    IB 41–44 · A-level A*A*A4 years9 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • CanadaQS #40

    UBC

    Vancouver, British Columbia

    A forest campus on a headland, with the ocean on one side and ski slopes an hour away

    EnvironmentEngineeringComputer science
    Tuition per year$33k–45k$30–55k a year
    IB 30–374 years4 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • Hong KongQS #44

    HKUST

    Hong Kong, Clear Water Bay

    Founded in 1991 and already among Asia's best, on a campus that faces the sea

    EngineeringComputer scienceBusiness
    Tuition per year$25k–28k$10–30k a year
    IB 35–40 · A-level AAA–A*A*A*4 years2 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United StatesQS #46

    UCLA

    Los Angeles, California

    Sun, the Pacific and Hollywood next door at America's most applied-to university

    FilmMedicineEngineering
    Tuition per year$55k–56kOver $55k a year
    IB 38–424 years6 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • NetherlandsQS #47

    TU Delft

    Delft

    The Netherlands' oldest technical university, where students build solar cars and hyperloops

    EngineeringComputer scienceArchitecture
    Tuition per year$23k$10–30k a year
    Own entry route3 years4 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United StatesQS #52

    Carnegie Mellon

    Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

    Robots, computer science and a drama school whose graduates win Tonys

    Computer scienceEngineeringArts
    Tuition per year$70k–71kOver $55k a year
    IB 39–43 · A-level A*A*A4 years6 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • NetherlandsQS #53

    UvA

    Amsterdam

    A research university nearly four centuries old, woven into Amsterdam's canals

    EconomicsBusinessPsychology
    Tuition per year$16k–25k$10–30k a year
    Own entry route3 years5 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United StatesQS #55

    NYU

    New York, Greenwich Village

    A campus without gates in Greenwich Village, with outposts in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai

    FilmBusinessArts
    Tuition per year$69k–75kOver $55k a year
    IB 36–404 years5 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United KingdomQS #56

    LSE

    London, Holborn

    One square of central London that has trained more heads of state than most countries have had

    EconomicsPoliticsLaw
    Tuition per year$35k–40k$30–55k a year
    IB 37–38 · A-level A*AA–AAB3 years6 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United KingdomQS #74

    Warwick

    Coventry, West Midlands

    A 1965 campus university that became a powerhouse in maths, economics and business

    MathematicsEconomicsBusiness
    Tuition per year$38k–48k$30–55k a year
    IB 36–39 · A-level A*A*A–ABB3 years4 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet
  • United KingdomQS #113

    St Andrews

    St Andrews, Fife, Scotland

    Scotland's oldest university: red gowns, a seaside town and the Home of Golf

    PoliticsPhysicsHumanities
    Tuition per year$45k–54k$30–55k a year
    IB 36–38 · A-level AAA–A*A*A4 years5 studied here
    Read fullNo reviews yet

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