THE FUTURE OF COLLEGE

WHAT MIGHT THE WORLD'S TOP UNIVERSITIES OF 2026 LOOK LIKE TOMORROW?

- RAJ CHETTY AND JOHN FRIEDMAN

TODAY'S DEBATE OVER THE FUTURE OF HIGHER education is often framed as a choice between diversity and meritocracy, as if universities must choose between the identity and the quality of their students. But while that paradigm fits into the extreme partisan politics of today, a better question may center on the role of wealth in the admission process. What if we could design admission policies that are more meritocratic and increase socioeconomic diversity?

The tension is reflected in TIME's new ranking of the World's Top Universities, in partnership with data firm Statista. The ranking places emphasis on the extent to which students achieve extraordinary success, for instance in patenting new inventions or rising to leadership roles in business. It's structured around three pillars: academic capacity and performance (via statistics like expenditures per student, faculty-to-student ratios, research citations, and Nobel Prizes), innovation and economic impact (via things like patents filed and online courses), and global engagement (which takes into account international students and faculty). Institutions received scores on each pillar, which were then aggregated into a final score.

These lists help us understand where students are likely to achieve the greatest success and contribute most to society as the world order shifts; U.S. and U.K. universities continue to lead in academic performance, while China's universities are catching up in innovation and economic impact. But they also reveal an uncomfortable reality: in most countries, these top universities are most accessible to children from high-income families, limiting their socioeconomic diversity.