Mapping the English-taught programmes of the world’s top 1,000 universities

With students having an unprecedented amount of options to study abroad, having access to all the relevant information to find and compare these options is becoming key to choosing the best study programme. StudyPortals now offers the most comprehensive information about the English-taught programmes at the top 1,000 universities in the world[1], which brings an unprecedented level of transparency to higher education and international study choice.

With a fast growing number of universities offering English-taught programmes (ETP), the competition for the 4.5 million internationally mobile is becoming increasingly global, but also more complex for students. The top 1,000 universities offer over 72,500 full-degree study options taught in English are located in over 700 cities, and cover over 200 disciplines and sub-disciplines. Students also need to worry about multiple accreditation systems, application criteria, and even programme structures, as well as over 13 different ranking systems for universities. It comes as no surprise that the study choice process is a lengthy and complex one. The role of StudyPortals is to combine all the critical information students need to make this choice, and make it easy to browse and digest.

“This is the original StudyPortals dream come true: we’ve always wanted to help students find and compare all their study option from the best universities in the world because we believe that making good decisions starts with knowing your options. Choosing a new study programme without knowing your options is similar to buying a house but only looking at your block to make the decision. We want to make sure students make good choices and follow their dreams to study abroad.”  Edwin van Rest, CEO of StudyPortals

While the world’s top ETPs are still dominated by English-speaking countries, such as the US (249 universities and 34,200 programmes), the UK (65 universities and 18,321 programmes), Australia (31 universities and 5,847 courses) and Canada (29 universities and 4,348 programmes), there is an increasing amount of variety of study options available in continental Europe, as well as Asian countries.

In the Netherlands, 12 universities are offering more than 1,034 study options for international students, while Germany offers 835 study options distributed among 54 universities. The list is continued by Sweden with 12 universities and 550 study programmes, and Denmark, where 7 universities are offering over 480 study programmes taught in English.

Asian universities have also started to respond to the increased number of students who want to study in the region, and are offering more than 1,600 number of English-taught programmes: China has the highest number of Asian top 1,000 ranked universities offering, at least, one programme in English (45) adding up to 419 study options, followed by Taiwan (20 universities and 216 programmes). Malaysia offers 239 ETPs in just five universities.

Key Facts:

• Number of top 1,000 universities offering English-taught programmes: 763
• Rankings used to determine the list of top 1,000 universities: Webometrics
• Number of ETPs at the top 1,000 universities: 72,570
• Number of unique visitors to the StudyPortals platforms: 13 million per year
• Founding year: 2008
• Founding team: Edwin van Rest (CEO) | Thijs Putman (CTO) | Magnus Olsson (Senior Representative)
• StudyPortals product portfolio: PreparationCourses | BachelorsPortal| MastersPortal| PhDportal| ShortCoursesPortal| DistanceLearningPortal| STeXX| ScholarshipPortal

[1] Based on the Webometrics Ranking of Universities.

Table 1. Top universities in English-speaking countries offering ETPs for international students

Table 2. Top universities in Europe offering ETPs for international students

Table 3. Top universities in Africa offering ETPs for international students

Table 4. Top universities in Asia offering ETPs for international students