World University Rankings 2026: results announced

It is remarkable that even THE falls into the trap of fixating on the flawed metrics that rankings routinely produce. As the number of universities in these rankings increases, by necessity all but a small fraction of elite institutions will slide down in the rankings - the only interesting metric is the rank relative to the total number of universities in the rankings. Given that a major portion of the rankings are driven by reputation, which is little more than name recognition, it is arguable that these metrics are essentially meaningless - sadly, the continued focus on them drives increasingly panicked responses from university managers that usually have no meaningful impact. In a time when the HE sector is facing massive headwinds spending time, money and effort on rankings is both pointless and wasteful.