London, 08 June 2021:  QS Quacquarelli Symonds, global higher education analysts, have today released the eighteenth edition of the QS World University Rankings. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) celebrates an unprecedented, unbroken decade as the world’s best university.

The top five also experiences its most significant reconfiguration for half a decade: Harvard University (5^th) falls out of the top three – its lowest-ever rank – to be replaced by the University of Oxford (2^nd, up from 5^th) and the University of Cambridge (joint-3^rd, shared with Stanford University).

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.”

• Caltech (6^th) drops out of the top five for the first time since 2015.
• ETH Zurich remains continental Europe’s best university for a fourteenth consecutive year.
• In a major milestone, Mainland China is home to two of the world’s top twenty universities for the first time ever.
• Asia’s two top universities are National University of Singapore (11^th) and Nanyang Technological University (12^th).
• Australia’s four top universities rise, with Australian National University re-entering the top 30.
• The progress of Malaysia and Russia slows after years of improvement, but both are home to one of the world’s top 100 universities each.
• 48% of Japan’s universities decline.
• Latin America’s best university is Universidad de Buenos Aires (69^th). Hampered by low research impact scores, more of the continent’s universities fall than rise.
• Saudi Arabia’s top university – King Abdulaziz University, 109^th – reaches a record high.