World 100 Reputation Network members continue to perform strongly in the QS rankings, although it appears that recent methodological changes may be beginning to bite, impacting the influence of institutional reputation.
World 100 members made up eight of the top 30 in the 2025 edition of the QS rankings, with National University of Singapore (8th) and UCL (9th) maintaining their top 10 positions.
However, 21 World 100 Network members saw their overall ranking decline this year, compared to 19 that saw an increase. QS introduced major tweaks to their methodology last year, with Academic Reputation scores decreasing from 40% to 30% of the overall score and the Employer Reputation increasing to 15%.
Although 5 years of data is used to determine the reputation scores, the decrease in the proportion for academic reputation is starting to feed through for some institutions.
Many UK universities, for example, saw decreases in scores – perhaps reflecting wider challenges relating to funding and government actions. 13 World 100 members from the UK saw their rankings fall, although University of Birmingham bucked the trend, rising four places to 80th.
Among other universities improving their scores this year were University of Melbourne (14, up 1), University of Sydney (18 up 1). Australian universities have performed strongly in reputation scores with global employers over the years, and have benefited from the introduction of a new sustainability metric last year.
Hong Kong universities also did well this year, with Chinese University of Hong Kong rising 11 places to 36th, and City University of Hong Kong continuing its progress, up from 70th to 62nd and reflecting its strong performance in the Young Universities Ranking and list of most international universities.
University of Alberta broke into the top 100 at 96th place with a 15 place rise. Other Canadian institutions did well, with McMaster rising 13 places, and both Ottawa (up 14 places) and Queen’s (rising by 16 places) breaking into the top 200 – as did Keio University from Japan (up 26 places).
University of Navarra (rising 31 places), University of Galway (up 16) and Dalhousie University (up 24) also saw significant improvements in overall rank.
World 100 will be looking in more detail at the implications of the changes to the reputation scores in the latest rankings – watch out for further analysis.