Harvard Tops 2022 U.S. News Best Global Universities Rankings

Pursuing a college or graduate degree at a school outside one's home country is not uncommon. A report released this September by OECD, an international economic policy organization with 38 member countries, reveals that a significant proportion of university students in OECD nations came from abroad in 2019. The representation of international students in the average OECD country was 9% at the undergraduate level, 21% at the master's level and 29% at the doctoral level.

Attending a university on foreign soil can be great for someone with an adventurous spirit -- especially if he or she loves to travel, appreciates a variety of world cultures and hopes to gain fluency in a language besides his or her native tongue. That said, those who are seriously considering a faraway school should consider whether the school is in a location where they can imagine themselves feeling happy without the nearby support of close family and friends.

Prospective students who want to earn a degree from a high-quality, world-famous school outside their own nation may refer to the eighth edition of the U.S. News Best Global Universities rankings, released on Oct. 26, 2021.

[Read: How to Use Student Experiences to Find a Global University.]

This year's general ranking, which reflects the overall scholarly impact of global universities across multiple academic disciplines, incorporates 1,750 schools -- about 250 more than last year -- and those schools are in 91 countries across the globe. U.S. News also provides an assortment of Best Global Universities rankings that distinguish between schools within the same region or country, as well as subject-specific rankings of schools that excel within a particular field of study.

The 2022 Best Global Universities rankings were created using statistics from Clarivate, an information and services company. The methodology for these rankings is different from other U.S. News school rankings, such as Best Colleges and Best Graduate Schools, as it focuses entirely on an academic institution's research output and reputation. These rankings do not consider admissions figures or student outcome data and are not ratings of any particular undergraduate or graduate program.

Like last year, Harvard University in Massachusetts claimed the top spot in the general Best Global Universities ranking. The top 10 schools this year were the same as last year; however, the order of some schools changed. The University of Washington in Seattle rose from No. 8 to No. 7, the University of Cambridge in England jumped from No. 9 to No. 8 and California Institute of Technology fell from No. 7 to a tie at No. 9.

[See: Top 20 Best Global Universities.]

Also like last year, eight of the top 10 global universities are in the United States while two are in the United Kingdom. The highest-ranking U.K. school is the University of Oxford, which held at fifth place.

Among the countries with ranked global universities in the overall ranking, the U.S. had by far the most, per usual, with 271 schools on the list -- 16 more than last year. China had the second-highest number of schools, which was also true last year, but this time 253 Chinese universities made the cut -- 77 more than before.

Potential international students who want to study within a particular country, region or continent can consult one of the U.S. News geographic rankings, which spell out which schools within that area performed best in the general Best Global Universities ranking.

The top schools in the regional rankings for areas outside the U.S. -- such as Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, Latin America or Africa -- are all the same this year as last year. Within the Asia ranking, Tsinghua University of Beijing is No. 1, while the University of Cape Town claimed that honor for the Africa ranking. The University of Melbourne is the front-runner in the Australia and New Zealand ranking, and the Universidade de São Paulo leads the Latin America ranking. First place in Europe goes to the University of Oxford.

[Read: Frequently Asked Questions: Best Global Universities Rankings.]

Future overseas students who know which topic they wish to study can consult the most relevant U.S. News subject rankings. These 43 rankings evaluate the quality of a school's research within a particular field of study, such as microbiology.

This year, U.S. News introduced five new subject rankings: condensed matter physics, food science and technology, optics, physical chemistry and polymer science.

A total of 15,650 universities earned spots in the 43 Best Global Universities subject rankings -- a number 22.8% higher than in the prior year. Among the schools that achieved a subject ranking, 14.5% are in China, and 20.7% are in the U.S. Only one academic institution in the world made the cut for all of the 43 subject rankings: Monash University in Australia.

See the complete rankingsof the Best Global Universities.