The QS World University Rankings 2027 includes over 1,500 universities from 106 countries around the world. For the fifteenth consecutive year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tops the list. It is followed by Imperial College London, Stanford University, Harvard University, and the University of Oxford. For Latvia, the ranking results were less optimistic. No Latvian university managed to enter even the top 750 best universities in the world. A total of 13 universities from the Baltic countries are included in the ranking. Lithuania has the most representatives with six, Estonia is represented by four universities, while Latvia has only three. At the same time, the University of Life Sciences and Technologies of Latvia dropped out of the ranking this year, while the Estonian University of Life Sciences, on the contrary, entered the list of the best universities in the world for the first time. The advantage of neighboring countries is particularly noticeable in the upper part of the ranking. Among the Baltic universities that made it to the top 700, there are four universities—two from Estonia and two from Lithuania. There are no Latvian universities in this group. For many years, the University of Tartu has remained the leader among the Baltic countries, ranking 367th in the new ranking. Despite a slight decline compared to last year, it maintains a significant lead over the other universities in the region. The second among Baltic universities is Vilnius University (465th place), and the third is Tallinn University of Technology (600th place). Lithuanian universities have also significantly improved their positions. Kaunas University of Technology rose to 696th place, while Vilnius TECH moved from the 851–900 group to the 791–800 group. The QS ranking evaluates universities not only based on research activity. The list takes into account academic reputation, employer opinions, citation of scientific publications, level of international cooperation, proportion of international students and faculty, as well as the demand for graduates in the labor market. Thus, the results of the new ranking show that higher education in the Baltic countries is developing unevenly. While universities in Estonia and Lithuania continue to strengthen their international positions, Latvian universities have not yet succeeded in narrowing the gap.
