London, 14 June 2021: QS Quacquarelli Symonds, global higher education analysts, has recently released the eighteenth edition of the world’s most-consulted international university rankings. The 2022 edition of the QS World University Rankings sees Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) celebrate an unprecedented, unbroken decade as the world’s best university.

However, the top five experiences its most significant reconfiguration in half a decade: Harvard University (5^th) falls to its lowest position in the history of the QS World University Rankings, with the University of Oxford (2^nd) and the University of Cambridge (3^rd, shared with Stanford University) replacing it in the top three.

Harvard University’s departure from the top three is more symptomatic of the overall United States performance than MIT’s record-breaking success. Caltech (6^th) falls out of the top five for the first time since 2015, while Cornell University (21^st) loses its top-20 position for the first time since 2004 – the inaugural iteration of the tables. Duke University also falls to its joint-record low, ranking 52^nd – the second time in eighteen editions that it has not attained a top fifty rank.

Nor is the downward trend limited to America’s highest-ranking institutions. Overall, 177 American universities are ranked by QS in the published table. Of these 177:

• 91 have declined in rank (51.4%)
• 29 improve their position (16.4%)
• 38 remain neutral within their rank or band (21.5%)
• 19 are new entrants into the table.

Rafael Reif, President of MIT, said: “We deeply appreciate the recognition of our institution and the faculty, staff, alumni, and students that make MIT what it is – and we also tremendously admire the achievements of academic institutions around the globe. The world benefits from a strong higher education network that delivers countless benefits for humanity, from fundamental discoveries to novel solutions to pressing challenges in climate and health, to the education of the next generation of talent. We are proud and grateful to belong to this great human community of scholars, researchers and educators, striving together to make a better world.”

Ben Sowter, Director of Research at QS, said: “While MIT’s well-deserved success will naturally be toasted by all involved in what is, according to our metrics and dataset, the world’s leading academic ecosystem, wider observers may well be more concerned about the state of prolonged decline that American higher education has experienced over the past five years. It is true that much of this phenomenon – falling reputational scores, for example, or reduction in relative research impact results – is attributable to the intense competition it is facing from well-funded peers abroad. However, this is not the full story. 120 of the US’s 177 ranked universities have recorded a decline in their score for our International Student Ratio indicator – corroborating other sources that capture the increasing reticence among international students to invest in an American education.”

Sowter continued: “Previously, ranking falls had been confined to those American institutions outside the upper echelons of our rankings. It will therefore be intensely concerning to many stakeholders that the malaise now appears to have infected Harvard, Cornell, Duke, and other world-renowned American universities.”