Cornell Ranked 15th on Time Magazine’s World Rankings

On January 28, Time Magazine released its 2026 rankings of its top 500 universities in the world. Time is a newcomer to the college rankings and represents a more liberal bent than long-time ranking publication U.S. News and World Report, which has its own world rankings.

Time’s inaugural rankings were developed in conjunction with Statista R, a firm that uses global consumer and marketing data to develop rankings. The Time article covering the rankings explores whether the admissions policies of the top institutions are merit-based and why the graduates of the top schools represent more than their proportionate share of leadership roles in various institutions around the world.

It appears that Time’s criteria ignores the comparative effectiveness or efficiency of each institution’s use of resources. By ranking schools based upon total employees per student, institutional income, resource expenditures per student, and similar factors, a university can earn a higher ranking by just spending money wastefully without regard to the benefits to educational quality or to student outcomes.

The Time authors conclude:

“Expanding access to colleges that are pathways to success is particularly important in this era of growing mistrust of the establishment. Admissions policies that present non-meritocratic barriers to many students reinforce the perception that elite universities protect privilege instead of cultivating talent. This is not to say that diversity and academic merit will never be in tension in college admissions, especially given the large disparities in access to high-quality K-12 education and other resources before children apply to college. But for now, opening the gates of the world’s top universities based on talent rather than family income stands to benefit everyone—not just graduates.”

Time uses a different methodology than the other rankings, breaking down data into three subscores. The final score is calculated by weighting Academic Capacity & Performance (60%), Innovation & Economic Impact (30%), and Global Engagement (10%). Because of the data selected by Time, rankings may lag current campus conditions by several years. Three Ivies, Brown (42nd). Dartmouth (43rd) and Columbia (54th) did not make the top 15.

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Here is a comparison of the Time and U.S. News world rankings for the Ivy League schools: