Did you know Singapore was recently crowned the third most educated country worldwide for 2025? Similarly, some of the city’s top universities have achieved major milestones in the latest UNIRANKS 2025 World University Rankings. In fact, the National University of Singapore (NUS) secured the #1 top spot as the best university in Asia and placed 20th worldwide. Of course, this means NUS is the best university to attend in Singapore.
UNIRANKS 2025 lists the National University of Singapore a top school for academic excellence, robust research output, and its pivotal role in shaping higher education in the region. Meanwhile, it scored a 94.24 which sets a benchmark for other Asian universities—reflecting its commitment to innovation, internationalization, and student success. Read on to see why the National University of Singapore (NUS) excels in education and what other universities made the top 20.
Asia’s top university 2025 – Singapore
UNIRANKS 2025 evaluated more than 14,000 universities worldwide. This led to NUS emerging as one of the only four Singaporean institutions to earn the prestigious Elite University status, alongside Nanyang Technology University (NTU). In fact, NTU ranked 147th worldwide on the list. The other two are Singapore Management University (ranked 614th) and Singapore University of Technology and Design (ranked 788th).
The 2025 ranking takes into account factors like global presence, research impact, and academic performance—highlighting NUS’s strengths in these areas. But overall the higher education sector in Singapore stands out globally for its academic reputation.
This year’s global top 20 list sees NUS competing alongside world-renowned institutions from the United States, United Kingdom, and other leading countries. Here’s the UNIRANKS 2025 top 20 below.
- Harvard University (United States)
- Stanford University (United States)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States)
- University of Oxford (United Kingdom)
- University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)
- University of Pennsylvania (United States)
- Columbia University (United States)
- University of California, Berkeley (United States)
- John Hopkins University (United States)
- University of Michigan (United States)
- Cornell University (United States)
- Yale University (United States)
- University of Toronto (Canada)
- University of California UCLA (United States)
- University of Washington (United States)
- University of Chicago (United States)
- Imperial College London (United Kingdom)
- Duke University (United States)
- New York University (United States)
- National University of Singapore NUS (Singapore)
Notably, these universities are seen as global leaders for world-class education.
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