The list of most international universities in the world in 2025 is compiled using scores from the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025 series data on international students, international staff, international co-authorship and international reputation indicators for universities around the world.
For the sixth consecutive year, institutions from Hong Kong, China are the world's most international universities and occupy the top 4 positions in the world. In this year's ranking list, City University of Hong Kong reigns as number one, while the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the University of Hong Kong are ranked 2-4.
Abu Dhabi University in the United Arab Emirates ranked 5th. Three British universities: the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London followed in 6th-8th place.
20 universities in the Mainland are on the list, led by Tongji University, Peking University and Nanjing University.
This year, the performance of Hong Kong, China institutions has risen significantly, mainly due to an across-the-board increase in the international co-authorship scores - an indicator based on the share of journal articles that are co-authored with international authors - of its five universities on the list. The data shows that the number of journal articles co-authored by authors from Hong Kong and the Mainland increased by about 70% between 2019 and 2023.
This year, the performance of Hong Kong, China institutions has risen significantly, mainly due to an across-the-board increase in the international co-authorship scores - an indicator based on the share of journal articles that are co-authored with international authors - of its five universities on the list. The data shows that the number of journal articles co-authored by authors from Hong Kong and the Mainland increased by about 70% between 2019 and 2023.
Research powerhouses such as the US, China, Germany and France dominated the ranking of the 217 institutions, as expected. There is also a general improvement in the performance of universities in the UK, the Netherlands and Australia, with more universities in these countries/regions moving up the rankings than down. However, they are not the frontrunners in this ranking - Oxford University slipped from 3rd to 6th place in the 2024 rankings, while the Australian National University fell from a tie for 15th to 22nd place.
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