Only two Sri Lankan universities have been ranked among the top 1000 universities in the world according to the latest Times World University Rankings 2023 which was released this week. The University of Peradeniya has been placed among the universities ranked from 501-600, while the University of Colombo has been placed among the universities ranked in the 601-800 bracket. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023 include 1799 universities across 104 countries and regions. The University of Oxford tops the ranking for the seventh consecutive year. Harvard University remains in second place. The University of Cambridge and Stanford University have secured joint third place while the Massachusetts Institute of Technology rounds out the top five.

The highest new entry in this year’s ranking is Italy’s Humanitas University, ranked in the 201- 250 bracket. The US is the most-represented country overall, with 177 institutions, and also the most represented in the top 200 with 58 universities. Mainland China now has the fourth-highest number of institutions in the top 200 with 11, compared to 10 last year, and has overtaken Australia, which has dropped to fifth—the ranking is shared with the Netherlands. Five countries entered the ranking for the first time—Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Mauritius.