It’s officially uni league table season. As millions of teenagers across the globe start thinking about their next steps once school is over, world university rankings for 2026 – like the Complete University Guide and QS World University Rankings – are dropping left, right and centre to help them make a decision.
British unis always do pretty well in the rankings, if we say so ourselves. But what do our friends across the Atlantic think of our esteemed institutions? Well, to give us an idea, US News & World Report has just dropped its Best Global Universities rankings for 2025-2026.
Oxford and Cambridge were, predictably, the UK’s highest ranking institutions. They landed in fourth and fifth place respectively. Oxford University was scored 88.3 out of 100 and was awarded first place in two of US News’ subject rankings: immunology and arts and humanities.
Cambridge earned an overall score of 86.8 out of 100. It didn’t get gold medal in any subject rankings but was named third in the world for arts and humanities and number four for molecular biology and genetics.
University College London was the third and final UK uni to make it into the top ten, securing seventh place. It was given a score of 86.2 and ranked second in the world for arts and humanities and pharmacology and toxicology and third for social sciences and public health. That means that, while we weren’t in the global top three overall, the top three universities in the world for arts and humanities were all British.
The rest of the top 10 was dominated by American universities, with Harvard University awarded first place. If you suspect a hint of bias, US News didn’t just measure unis on name and recognition. It used data from Clarivate’s Web of Science and InCites platforms to ensure each school was judged on actual impact, assessing things like research quality and global research reputation.
Obviously, that’s not all that matters when you’re picking a uni. See here to find out which unis have the happiest students and here to see which ones are more likely to get you a job after graduation.
ICYMI: One of the most beautiful buildings in the world is in the UK.
Plus: The best British university to study medicine, according to the 2026 Complete University Guide.
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