One Sydney university has ranked among the world’s 20 best in the QS World University Rankings

Sydney’s good looks are rarely under question, but it’s always nice to be reminded that the Harbour City is more than just a pretty face. Recently, Sydney ranked as one of the most liveable cities in the world (not factoring in cost of living), and in seventh place on the prestigious 2025 Global Cities Index. Now, the QS World University Rankings for 2026 have just dropped, revealing which institutions stand in the best stead for the year ahead. One Sydney university cracked the top ten – hats off to you, UNSW.

More than 1,500 institutions from around the world were assessed for the 2026 rankings, including 36 from Australia. The top five were pretty similar to last year, with MIT holding onto first place with a perfect score of 100, followed by Imperial College London, Stanford, Harvard and Cambridge.

Australia’s highest-ranked institution was the University of Melbourne, which landed 19th on the global list. And just one position behind was the University of New South Wales (UNSW), which held onto its place among the top 20 universities in the world for the third consecutive year. Its overall score of 90.7 saw it drop one position from 19th in 2025, but it maintained impressive ratings for academic reputation (96.3) and ranked equal 12th in the world for sustainability. Of the 36 Australian institutions assessed, UNSW placed first in the employment outcome and international research network categories.

Overall, two-thirds of Australia’s ranked universities dropped in this year’s rankings. Meanwhile, only seven climbed higher, including Monash University’s jump from 37th to 36th. The University of Sydney slipped out of the top 20, landing at 25th, with the Australian National University and the University of Queensland also dropping two spots to 32nd and 42nd, respectively.

Despite the overall decline, we think it's still pretty impressive that nine Australian universities still made the top 100 worldwide. You can check out the full rankings here.

Here are the 20 best universities in the world 

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
2. Imperial College London, UK
3. Stanford University, USA
4. University of Oxford, UK
5. Harvard University, USA
6. University of Cambridge, UK
7. ETH Zurich, Switzerland
8. National University of Singapore, Singapore
9. University College London, UK
10. California Institute of Technology, USA
11. The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
12. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
13. University of Chicago, USA
14. Peking University, China
15. University of Pennsylvania, USA
16. Cornell University, USA
17. Tsinghua University, China
18. University of California, Berkeley, USA
19. University of Melbourne, Australia
20. University of New South Wales, Australia

Here are the 10 best universities in Australia

1. University of Melbourne
2. University of New South Wales
3. University of Sydney
4. Australian National University
5. Monash University
6. University of Queensland
7. University of Western Australia
8. Adelaide University
9. University of Technology Sydney
10. RMIT University

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