LONDON — QS Quacquarelli Symonds, global higher education experts, have released the 2026 edition of the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability.
Lund University in Sweden has taken the top spot for the first time. University of Toronto drops to second place, followed by UCL up to third.
This year, 2000+ universities are featured across 106 higher education systems.
The US is most represented (240 universities), followed by China (163), the UK (109), India (103) and France (76).
| Top-10 | ||||
| 2026 | 2025 | |||
| 1 | =3 | Lund University | Sweden | |
| 2 | 1 | University of Toronto | Canada | |
| 3 | =5 | UCL | UK | |
| 4 | =7 | The University of Edinburgh | UK | |
| 5 | =5 | University of British Columbia | Canada | |
| 6 | =39 | LSE | UK | |
| =7 | =7 | Imperial College London | UK | |
| =7 | =12 | UNSW Sydney | Australia | |
| 9 | =15 | McGill University | Canada | |
| 10 | =9 | The University of Manchester | UK | |
Ben Sowter, QS Senior VP, said, “The publication of the QS Sustainability Rankings arrives at a pivotal moment. With only 17% of the 169 global Sustainable Development Goals on track for delivery in 2030, the need for accelerated action on environmental and social challenges has never been clearer.”
Overview
- University of California, Berkeley (11th ), remains top in the US. NYU joins the top-20.
- The UK has the most institutions in the top 10, top 50, and top 200.
- Canada has the world’s highest concentration of top-10 universities (7%)
- UNSW Sydney re-enters the top-10 (7th). Four Australian universities are in the top-20.
- Université Paris-Saclay (45th) is the only French university among the top-50.
- Germany boasts 65 ranked universities, led by Universität Hamburg (46th)
- Delft University of Technology (35th) is the Dutch leader
- 58 Spanish universities are featured in this edition, led by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (83rd)
- Seoul National University (37th) becomes Asia’s top-performer, overtaking The University of Tokyo (48th).
- China adds more institutions than any other system – 49 new entries—nearly double its closest competitor, India (+26). Fudan University is the highest ranked (140th).
- IIT Delhi remains India’s best performing institution (205th).
- National University of Singapore (69th) and Nanyang Technological University (99th) are tied in first for Environmental Research
- Universidade de São Paulo is the only Latin American university in the top-200 (90th).
- South Africa boasts all four of Africa’s top-ranked universities. University of Cape Town leads (59th)
- American University of Beirut retains highest rank in the Arab Region (176th)
