US, India, Turkey top World University Rankings 2027 participation

The latest World University Rankings 2027 participation data shows that the United States, India and Turkey are leading globally with the highest number of ranked institutions.

According to a The Higher Education (THE) report, the United Kingdom slipped down to the fifth most-represented country as the US, India and Turkey lead on the number of ranked institutions

The THE World University Rankings 2027 will be published on 30 September, and a total of 2,297 institutions will be ranked in this year’s edition of the rankings, an increase of four percent on last year’s 2,191, with universities represented across 118 countries and territories, up from 115 in the World University Rankings 2026.

Albania and Malawi join the ranking for the first time, and Ethiopia returns to the ranking after last featuring in the 2025 edition.

India is the second most-represented country for the second year running, with 143 ranked institutions. Turkey now has the third highest number of universities ranked, with 124, up from joint fourth last year.

Meanwhile, the UK has slipped down to fifth place in terms of representation, with 110 ranked universities, behind Japan with 112. The US remains the country with the highest number of universities ranked, with 168.

New banding in this year’s edition of the ranking will provide more granularity, offering ranked universities greater insight into their performance.

The ranking will feature individual ranks up to 300 – last year it was up to 200, and then smaller bands moving down the table in groups of 25, then 50, 100 and 200.

There will be 18 bands altogether, up from 10 last year, going from 301-325 down to 2,001+.

Phil Baty, THE’s chief global affairs officer, said: “It is fantastic that the World University Rankings will be more inclusive and more diverse than they’ve ever been, as more universities from across the world meet our demanding participation criteria to join an elite group of research-intensive universities on the global stage.

“And we are delighted to reflect this consistently increasing inclusion and diversity with more detail and clarity in the published tables themselves: new, more granular rankings bandings will help users to better differentiate between institutions, and will support better benchmarking and better decision-making.”

While data submission is open to all universities, institutions are ranked in the World University Rankings 2027 only if they teach undergraduates, produce research across a range of subjects and have published at least 1,000 research publications between 2021 and 2025, with a minimum of 100 a year.

The data will also fuel THE’s 2027 Subject Rankings and Interdisciplinary Science Rankings, as well as several regional and thematic rankings, with two new regional rankings, focused on Central Eurasia and South-east Asia, joining existing tables profiling the best universities in the Arab world, the best universities in Latin America and the best universities in Asia.