The QS World University Rankings 2027 have shown competitors closing in on America’s international education standing, as the number of US universities in the global top 100 has fallen from 32 to 26 over the past decade.
“The United States continue to lead the world in the QS World University Rankings 2027,” said QS CEO Jessica Turner. “However, long-term trends suggest that global peers are gaining ground on the US’s leading position”.
And yet, Turner highlighted that top US institutions continued to retain their dominant positions, most notably Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which was named the world’s number one university for the 15th consecutive year.
MIT president Sally Kornbluth welcomed the news, noting that the institution’s success “springs from a longstanding focus on merit, an insistence on the highest standards of intellectual and creative excellence, and enthusiasm for taking on humanity’s hardest problems”.
After MIT, Stanford, Harvard and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) came in at joint second, fifth and seventh respectively, tying the US and the UK as the most represented countries in the top ten, with four appearances each.
Overall, US institutions ranked number one in five of the rankings’ nine indicators, including employer reputation and employment outcomes where Harvard tops the list.
Meanwhile, roughly three quarters of US entries improved or held steady in academic and employer reputation.
Long-term trends suggest that global peers are gaining ground on the US’s leading position
Jessica Turner, QS
But the rankings also revealed a shift – with only 13% of American institutions improving their positions this year, compared to 72% in Mainland China, 58% in Australia and 33% in the UK, while 66% of Canadian universities slipped down the rankings.
What’s more, while China boasted the most new entries of any system at 13, the total number of US universities fell to 184 from 192 in 2026.
As such, experts have highlighted a “momentum gap” between the US and many of its peers, particularly in global talent attraction and research citations, with the latter seeing an 80% decline.
Earlier this year it emerged that China had officially surpassed the US in research spending, while American universities have raised the alarm about federal funding streams drying up.
Notably, Kornbluth released a video message last month noting that shrinking federal awards were leading to declines in research activity at MIT. “A striking loss for one of the most influential and productive research communities in the world.”
The declines are part of a wider picture in which this year’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants are down by nearly 50% compared to historical averages, due to the US government shutdown, staff shortages and the White House obstructing the release of funding.
What’s more, scrutiny of alleged national security threats have seen US institutions forced to end research collaborations with international universities, particularly in China.
On internationalisation, the QS rankings showed the US as an outlier for its international student ratio, with the Illinois Institute of Technology marking the only American university in the global top 50 for this metric.
Commentators have long emphasised the relatively small proportion of international students in the US, who make up approximately 6% of the overall student population and are expected to continue falling for the rest of the decade.
According to QS forecasts, a worst-case decline rate could lead to 600,000 fewer international students at American institutions, a level at which the UK could overtake the US as the world’s leading destination.
Currently, international students comprise a much larger proportion of the total student body in the UK (27%), Australia (31%) and Canada (38%), according to the Institute for International Education (IIE).
As for the international faculty ratio, no US institutions appeared in the QS top 50, as a recent Nature poll off 1,200 US scientists found roughly three quarters were considering leaving the country, with a notable exodus to Europe.
