“75% of US scientists who answered Nature poll consider leaving”(the United States) (Witze)
“Like a six-year old dropped on Mars without parents”(Aydogan, Izmir, & Shahin)
(30 Jun 2025) The 2025 international education marketplace is undergoing changes in reaction to the new higher education landscape in the United States. Scholars are losing their funding. The fate of current international students is uncertain. Will Most International Universities in the World be useful in identifying options for students and scholars outside the United States?
The Times Higher Education (THE) modified rankings were planned before the current chaotic situation in the United States. I spent additional time on this review to see if these rankings add value to locating alternative options. Ruth’s Rankings 64 introduced the new version of THE’s World Reputation Rankings 2025 that includes 300 universities. This article examines THE’s revised international rankings with 217 universities. THE also released a prototype rankings of online universities that will not be continued (Holmes). The reputation and international rankings are based on THE’s World University Rankings.
PART ONE: MOST INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITIES in the world
Question: What is the most international university in the world?
See the Conclusion for the answer |
International Outlook is a pillar with three equally rated individual metrics in THE’s World University Rankings. The pillar contributes 7.5 percent to a university’s overall score. All of the 2092 ranked universities in the world rankings have an International Outlook score. Inclusion in this stand-alone ranking requires a fourth metric, at least 400 votes in the International Reputation survey. The metrics include:
- 25% proportion of international staff
- 25% proportion of international students
- 25% international co-authorship
- 25% international reputation
217 universities receive a composite ranking. Data include international ranks for 2024 and 2025 and the 2025 World University rank. The top four universities are from Hong Kong. Of the top 25 universities, ten are from the Asia-Pacific region,14 from Europe, of which eight are from the United Kingdom, and one from the Middle East. Twenty three of the top 25 universities are ranked in the top 100 in the World Rankings. The highest ranked US university is MIT at 33. The highest ranked Chinese university is Peking at147. Hong Kong’s international rankings are helped since it is treated as a separate geographic entity. The Hong Kong government had set a quota of international students at about 40% (Packer b). By the end of May 2025, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology “opened its doors to Harvard’s foreign student” (Packer a).
Table 1 includes THE’s top 15 Most International Universities. It compares them to the top 15 in the International Outlook Pillar in the World Rankings, the Reputation Ranking, and the World University Rankings.
Most International Universities in the world: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/most-international-universities-world
THE’s World University Rankings International Output pillar: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking#!/length/25/sort_by/scores_international_outlook/sort_order/asc/cols/scores
World Reputation Rankings: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-reputation-rankings;
THE World University Rankings: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking
To find data on the percent of international students, number of students, the ratio of female/male students, and the ratio of student per staff are available by scrolling down in each university’s entry.
EXAMPLE 1:
 |
Selected world rankings are also included for each university. The ranking includes fewer than ten percent of all the universities in THE’s World Rankings. The only data in the rankings list are ranks for 2024 and 2025 and an overall world rank. I cannot even re-rank the columns to get a list by country. (https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/most-international-universities-world)
OTHER OPTIONS
QS takes a different approach to international rankings.“ Global Engagement” is an indicator in its World University Rankings 2026. Metrics include:
- International Student ratio – Macau University is number one; 32 universities score 100.
- International Faculty ratio – Ai Ain University (UAE) is number one. Over 60 universities have a score of 100; the top 12 are from the Middle East.
- International Research Network – Oxford University is number one “in sustaining research partnerships with institutions in other locations.
- International Student Diversity, a new indicator – IE University, Segovia SP; measuring not only the size of the institution’s international student body, but also how successful the institution is in attracting students from a wide range of different countries and backgrounds. 28 universities have a score of 100.
Universities are scored for Diversity but the results are not included in calculating the 2026 world rankings. IE University, Segovia Spain, is number one and City University of Hong Kong is second. Malaysia is well represented with nine in the top 100. Illinois Institute of Technology, with a world ranking of 591, is tops in the US at 32. (Stacey). This may be a beneficial addition. QS has its weaknesses as well. There is no international composite score and multiple universities have the same score.
CWTS LEIDEN Collaboration Rankings is designed for scholars who may find CWTS Leiden’s International Collaboration rankings useful. The Traditional rankings are calculated using Web of Science data. The Open edition uses OpenAlex data. A scholar may specify a geographic region or country, a broad subject, and the number of publications. For example, using European universities with a minimum of 10,000 publications in the field of Biomedical and Health Science, KU Leuven (Belgium) has the highest percentage of international collaborations using Clarivate’s Web of Science data. Humbolt University of Berlin is first using OpenAlex data. The most recent data used cover the years 2009-2022. https://www.leidenranking.com/ranking/2024/list; https://open.leidenranking.com/information/data
See Appendix for additional data on countries and institutions
WORLD INTERNATIONAL RANKINGS CONCLUSION
I do not recommend THE’s Most International Rankings. However, the topic of internationalisation is important and challenging. The percentages of international students, faculty or research collaboration do not tell the whole story. As noted in the Aydogan quote above coupled with my experiences living in different countries, factors about the living and work environments should be important in decision making. Examples of the place of women in universities, the true diversity of international students, faculty and language need to be considered. Many students want to be taught in English and prefer faculty for whom English is a second language which is more familiar to them rather than American English. Middle Eastern universities have many international students and faculty A description may say co-ed, but are the women taught separately? These Middle Eastern universities are in countries in the bottom 20% of the Academic Freedom Index which is an important ranking to check. The US has declined significantly in the past 10 years and is at the bottom of the top 50 percent (Academic Freedom Index).
I am aware of all of the criticisms of rankings(Sawahel). Reputation rankings based on opinion rather than data are especially vulnerable to criticism. The future of international higher education is in a state of flux. No one knows what the higher education landscape will look like by the end of 2025. Data for this year’s releases have already been collected so we will not see the impact this year. Do not dismiss all rankings. The users are responsible for some of the misuse.
More useful than any international ranking is knowing someone familiar with the country.
Additional data are available In the Appendix.
NOTES:
*There is no consensus on the capitalization for Most International Universities in the World.
European countries provide resources for students and researchers. Examples include:
The European Commission is promoting Europe for research as are individual countries.. https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/events/horizon-europe-info-days_en; https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/contact-us/research-enquiry-service_en
Campus France: Choose France for research. https://www.campusfrance.org/en/actu/lancement-de-la-plateforme-choose-france-for-science-pour-l-accueil-de-chercheurs-internationaux
Germany: DAAD: https://www.daad.de/en/studying-in-germany/; https://www.daad.de/en/the-daad/contact/contact-study-research-in-germany/
For more views on internationalization, see the 28 May 2025 issue of University World News.
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20250527213626419
RESOURCES FOR INTERNATIONAL RANKINGS:
Academic Freedom Index 2025 (2025). V-Dem Institute. https://academic-freedom-index.net/research/Academic_Freedom_Index_Update_2025.pdf
Aydogan, M., Izmir, E. & Shahin, S. (24 April 2025). Like a 6-year-old dropped on Mars without parents’: faculty members’ intercultural competence and cultural adaptation in the UAE. Studies in Higher Education. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2025.2495713
Holmes, R. (20 Jun 2025). Have we reached peak ranking? University Ranking Newsletter https://thomasyeoman.substack.com/p/have-we-reached-peak-ranking
Most International Universities in the World Rankings: (19 Mar 2025). https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/most-international-universities-world
Packer, H. (23 May 2025 a). Hong Kong university opens doors to Harvard’s foreign students. Inside Higher Education https://www.insidehighered.com/news/global/2025/05/29/hong-kong-university-opens-doors-harvard-foreign-students
Packer, H. (5 May 2025 b). Nancy IP aims for ‘balance’ as HKUST targets expansion. Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/nancy-ip-aims-balance-hkust-targets-new-income-streams
Pagell, R. (21 Apr 2025). Ruth’s Rankings 64: Times Higher Education Reputation Rankings Revisited. https://librarylearningspace.com/ruths-rankings-64-times-higher-education-reputation-rankings-revisited/
Ross, J. (19 Mar 2025). International rankings 2025: Hong Kong extends its lead, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/international-ranking-2025-hong-kong-extends-its-lead (includes world rankings)
Stacey, V. (19 May 2025). Email
Witze, A. (27 Mar 2025). 75% of US scientists who answered Nature poll consider leaving. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00938-y
Ruth’s Rankings
A list of Ruth’s Rankings and News Updates is here.
GUIDELINES ON USING RANKINGS – Users of rankings have a responsibility to understand the rankings they are using:
CWTS Leiden Responsible Use https://www.leidenranking.com/information/responsibleuse
IREG Observatory on Academic Rankings and Excellence (2023)
https://ireg-observatory.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IREG-guidelines2023.pdf
*Ruth A. Pagell is emeritus faculty librarian at Emory University. After working at Emory, she was the founding librarian of the Li Ka Shing Library at Singapore Management University and then adjunct faculty [teaching] in the Library and Information Science Program at the University of Hawaii. She has written and spoken extensively on various aspects of librarianship, including contributing articles to ACCESS – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3238-9674
