Daffodil, Gazipur Agri, JU, NSU, and DU ranked top Bangladeshi univs in THE World University rankings

The UK-based education magazine Times Higher Education (THE) publishes global university rankings every year. Several universities from Bangladesh have secured positions in THE's World University Rankings 2026. A total of 28 public and private universities from Bangladesh have made it to the list of top institutions for 2026.

In the 2026 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, no Bangladeshi university is among the top 800 globally. The list, published today (Thursday, 9 October), includes 28 universities from Bangladesh — 19 have been directly ranked, while the remaining 9 are listed as reporters.

Among them, five Bangladeshi universities are ranked in the 801–1000 bracket. These are — Daffodil International University, Gazipur Agricultural University, Jahangirnagar University, North South University, and the University of Dhaka.

The Bangladeshi universitis placed on 1001-1200 bracket are: Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, BRAC University, Jashore University of Science and Technology, Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, and University of Rajshahi.

The University of Oxford has extended its record-breaking run at the top of an international league table to a 10th consecutive year. The oldest university in the English-speaking world once again claimed the number one spot in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) remains in second place, holding its position as one of the world’s leading centres for innovation and research. Princeton University and the University of Cambridge share the third position this year, with Cambridge rising from fifth place in the 2025 rankings.

Harvard University and Stanford University are jointly placed fifth, followed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), which maintains its seventh position. Imperial College London climbed one spot to eighth, continuing its strong performance among the top global institutions.

The University of California, Berkeley takes ninth place, slightly down from last year’s eighth, while Yale University completes the top 10, holding steady at tenth.

Overall, universities from the United States and the United Kingdom continue to dominate the upper ranks of global higher education in the 2026 edition of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, with six institutions from the US and four from the UK securing places in the top 10.

The global university rankings have been produced annually since 2004, and are built on an analysis of almost 19 million research papers, 1.5 millions votes in a survey and data on more than 30,000 universities, THE said.

Tsinghua University has stalled at 12th place for the third year in a row, Peking University has moved up just one place during that time and is now 13th for the second consecutive year, and the National University of Singapore (NUS) has also failed to improve on last year’s 17th position. The number of Chinese universities in the top 200 is also steady, at 13 universities for the third year in a row.

This stability is in marked contrast to the trajectory of Asia’s top universities in the decade leading up to the 2024 edition of the rankings, during which time Tsinghua moved up 35 places, Peking 28 places and NUS seven places. This year marks the first time since the 2012 edition that none of the three institutions has improved its rank.