The World's Fastest-Rising Universities Revealed

Recently, U.S. News and QS released their latest annual global university rankings. The U.S. News Best Global Universities Rankings cover 2,250 institutions across more than 100 countries and territories, while the QS World University Rankings evaluate over 1,500 universities from 106 countries and regions. WorldHE has compiled the year-on-year ranking changes among the top 500 universities worldwide in both rankings.

According to the rankings, among the U.S. News Top 500 universities, Pakistan's University of Lahore recorded the largest improvement, rising 109 places from 588th last year to 479th globally. Argentina's University of Buenos Aires also made remarkable progress, climbing 103 places to 348th worldwide.

Other notable movers include Nigeria's University of Ibadan, which advanced 96 places; China Mainland's Peking Union Medical College, up 90 places; the UK's Liverpool John Moores University, up 82 places; and Spain's University of Seville and Malaysia's Sunway University, both of which improved by 81 places.

Among the highly competitive global top 100 universities, China Mainland's Fudan University rose 21 places to enter the global top 50. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) climbed 19 places to 82nd globally, while Australia's University of Adelaide improved by 14 places.

In the QS Top 500 universities, the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) recorded the largest gain, soaring from 519th last year to 266th globally—an impressive rise of 253 places. SUTD is Singapore's fourth public university, founded with Professor Thomas L. Magnanti, former Dean of Engineering at MIT, serving as its inaugural president. The university continues to maintain a close strategic partnership with MIT.

The Education University of Hong Kong climbed 124 places to 406th globally. Malaysia's INTI International University and Singapore's Singapore Management University (SMU) also improved by more than 100 places compared with last year.

Among the highly competitive global top 100 universities, University College Dublin posted the strongest improvement, rising from 118th last year to 100th. The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and Nanjing University also made significant gains, climbing 14 and 13 places, respectively.