QS World University Rankings 2024

What changed in the QS World University Rankings 2024?

The QS World University Rankings 2024 marked the 20th year of the rankings and featured 1,500 institutions globally.

The 2024 edition also introduced three new indicators to reflect evolving priorities in higher education, with greater focus on sustainability, graduate employability and international research collaboration.

Reflecting on the evolution of the rankings, QS Founder and President Nunzio Quacquarelli said:

“While we have always tried to remain consistent in our methodology, we must also evolve to reflect the changing missions of universities."

He added: "We recognise that the global student community we serve understand the significance of the climate crisis and see a real responsibility among universities in supporting the sustainability agenda.”

The 2024 edition also marked the introduction of Sustainability as a core metric in the QS World University Rankings.

Top 10 universities in the QS World University Rankings 2024

Institutions in both Europe and America dominate the top 10 rankings, many of which received perfect scores of 100 in indicators such as: ‘Academic reputation’, ‘Employer reputation’ and ‘Faculty/Student ratio’.

Notably, National University of Singapore (NUS), is the only institution from Asia to sit in the top 10.

University of California (UCB) is the only institution to have earned a perfect score of 100 in our new ‘Sustainability’ indicator – followed closely by the University of Pennsylvania (ranked 12th), University of Toronto (ranked 21st) and University of British Columbia (ranked 34th) – all with scores of 99.9.

Which universities entered the QS World University Rankings in 2024?

The 2024 rankings featured 85 new entrants, more than half of which were from Asia. Bangladesh had 11 new institutions, followed by Indonesia with 10, India and Malaysia with five each, and Kazakhstan with four.

New locations represented in the rankings included Iceland, Luxembourg, Nigeria and Ethiopia. Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar and the University of Luxembourg were the highest-ranked new entrants, both placing within the global top 400.

Explore more analysis from the 2024 rankings

Read the June 2023 edition of QS Insights Magazine for further analysis of the QS World University Rankings 2024, including reflections on 20 years of the rankings.

Explore the 2025 rankings in full.