Top 100 Universities by International Student Share in 2026
Universities with the Highest Share of International Students: THE 2026 Profile Data
Central European University leads this 2026 profile snapshot, with 96% of enrolled students reported as international. Anglo-American University follows at 95%, and Macau University of Science and Technology ranks third at 94%.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!This is a single-metric comparison by international student share. It is not the broader Times Higher Education “Most International Universities” ranking, which uses several international outlook indicators. Here, the metric is only the reported percentage of enrolled students from outside the university’s host country or territory.
The table is a compiled public-profile dataset based on Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026 public profile key statistics. Coverage is 100 universities and profile institutions with visible international-student percentages in the compiled snapshot. Unit: percent of enrolled students. Direction: higher share ranks higher. All rows are source-published profile values; there are no forecast or modeled rows.
Central European University leads the compiled THE WUR 2026 public profile snapshot.
Stanford University closes this Top 100 table at 25% students from abroad.
40 listed institutions report international-student shares at or above 50%.
Numeric source: THE WUR 2026 public profile statistics; methodology and context sources are listed below.
The United Kingdom appears 30 times, followed by the United States with 17 institutions.
What the international student share measures
International student share measures the proportion of enrolled students reported as coming from outside the country or territory where the university is based. A value of 80% means that roughly eight out of ten enrolled students are classified as international under the source profile statistic.
This metric is different from total international-student headcount. A specialist school with a small domestic intake can rank very high by percentage, while a large research university may host more foreign students in total but rank lower because its domestic enrolment is also large.
The metric should also be separated from overall university quality. It does not measure teaching, research, graduate outcomes, affordability, admissions standards or student satisfaction. It measures campus composition.
Universities with the highest international student share
The Top 10 is concentrated among cross-border universities, private institutions, specialist schools and smaller education markets where international recruitment is part of the core enrolment model. Every institution in this group reports that foreign students make up a very large majority of its campus population.
This comparison ranks universities by student share only. It does not rank teaching quality, research strength, affordability, graduate outcomes or absolute international-student headcount.
Top 10 universities by international student share, THE 2026 public profile snapshot
| Rank | University | Share | Country / source note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Central European University | 96% | Austria; THE WUR 2026 public profile value; no forecast or projection. |
| 2 | Anglo-American University | 95% | Czechia; THE WUR 2026 public profile value; no forecast or projection. |
| 3 | Macau University of Science and Technology | 94% | Macao; THE WUR 2026 public profile value; no forecast or projection. |
| 4 | Cyprus International University | 93% | Northern Cyprus; source country / territory label retained. |
| 5 | Gulf Medical University | 92% | United Arab Emirates; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 6 | Carlemany University | 91% | Andorra; tied rounded share. |
| 7 | London Business School | 91% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 8 | Constructor University | 90% | Germany; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 9 | Near East University | 88% | Northern Cyprus; source country / territory label retained; tied rounded share. |
| 10 | Westcliff University | 88% | United States; tied rounded share. |
Tie rule: equal whole-number percentages are kept as separate rows. The table ranks by the displayed profile share and does not average tied institutions.
Chart: Top 20 confirmed entries
The Top 20 range is 96% to 74%. This upper band includes specialist, private, medical, business and cross-border institutions where the international cohort defines the campus mix.
The chart uses HTML and CSS bars, so full labels and values remain visible without canvas or external libraries.
Methodology
The metric is international student share: students reported as coming from outside the host country divided by total enrolled students, expressed as a percentage. The table uses the whole-number percentage shown in public THE World University Rankings 2026 profile key statistics.
Metric and unit
Metric: international-student share. Unit: percent of enrolled students. Direction: higher percentage ranks higher.
Source mode
Numeric source: THE WUR 2026 public university profile key statistics. The table is a compiled public-profile dataset, not THE’s broader international outlook ranking.
Data period
THE WUR 2026 belongs to the 2026 publication cycle. THE key statistics generally refer to university-submitted 2023 academic-year data unless a profile states otherwise.
Source hierarchy
Numeric profile values come first. THE methodology is used for definitions and data-period context. THE’s “Most International Universities” article is context only.
Inclusion rule
Institutions are included only where the compiled snapshot contains university name, country or territory label, visible percentage and source context.
Limits
The metric does not measure absolute international-student headcount, staff origin, research collaboration, reputation, teaching quality, affordability, completion rates or graduate outcomes.
Percentages are shown as whole numbers because that is the public profile format used for the compiled dataset. Equal rounded values are not averaged. When several institutions share the same percentage, they remain separate rows and keep the compiled profile-snapshot ordering. Country and territory names follow the source labels used in the dataset.
Main ranking table: international student share
Use the table to compare campus internationalisation by percentage, not by total overseas-student volume. A high share means international students form a large part of the enrolled population; it does not automatically mean that the university is larger, more selective or higher ranked overall.
Top 100 universities by reported international-student percentage, 2026 THE public profile snapshot
| Rank | University | Share | Country / source note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Central European University | 96% | Austria; THE WUR 2026 public profile value; no forecast or projection. |
| 2 | Anglo-American University | 95% | Czechia; THE WUR 2026 public profile value; no forecast or projection. |
| 3 | Macau University of Science and Technology | 94% | Macao; THE WUR 2026 public profile value; no forecast or projection. |
| 4 | Cyprus International University | 93% | Northern Cyprus; source country / territory label retained. |
| 5 | Gulf Medical University | 92% | United Arab Emirates; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 6 | Carlemany University | 91% | Andorra; tied rounded share. |
| 7 | London Business School | 91% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 8 | Constructor University | 90% | Germany; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 9 | Near East University | 88% | Northern Cyprus; source country / territory label retained; tied rounded share. |
| 10 | Westcliff University | 88% | United States; tied rounded share. |
| 11 | Bloomsbury Institute London | 87% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 12 | London Film School | 87% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 13 | University of Doha for Science and Technology | 85% | Qatar; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 14 | RAK Medical and Health Sciences University | 84% | United Arab Emirates; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 15 | European University | 82% | Georgia; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 16 | Ajman University | 81% | United Arab Emirates; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 17 | Royal College of Art | 78% | United Kingdom; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 18 | Islamic University of Madinah | 77% | Saudi Arabia; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 19 | City University of Hong Kong | 76% | Hong Kong; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 20 | VIZJA University | 74% | Poland; THE WUR 2026 public profile value; Top 20 cutoff. |
| 21 | Arabian Gulf University | 73% | Bahrain; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 22 | London School of Economics and Political Science | 72% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 23 | Eastern Mediterranean University | 72% | Northern Cyprus; source country / territory label retained; tied rounded share. |
| 24 | Istituto Marangoni | 72% | Italy; tied rounded share. |
| 25 | European University of Armenia | 69% | Armenia; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 26 | University of Bedfordshire | 68% | United Kingdom; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 27 | London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine | 65% | United Kingdom; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 28 | École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne | 64% | Switzerland; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 29 | UCL | 63% | United Kingdom; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 30 | University for the Creative Arts | 62% | United Kingdom; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 31 | Alfaisal University | 61% | Saudi Arabia; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 32 | Imperial College London | 60% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 33 | University of Suffolk | 60% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 34 | RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences | 59% | Ireland; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 35 | University of Strathclyde | 58% | United Kingdom; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 36 | King’s College London | 52% | United Kingdom; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 37 | University of Melbourne | 51% | Australia; tied rounded share. |
| 38 | Australian National University | 51% | Australia; tied rounded share. |
| 39 | University of Macau | 51% | Macao; tied rounded share. |
| 40 | Carnegie Mellon University | 50% | United States; 50% threshold row. |
| 41 | University of Edinburgh | 49% | United Kingdom; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 42 | Auckland University of Technology | 49% | New Zealand; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 43 | University of Hong Kong | 48% | Hong Kong; tied rounded share. |
| 44 | The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology | 48% | Hong Kong; tied rounded share. |
| 45 | Goldsmiths, University of London | 48% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 46 | New York University | 46% | United States; tied rounded share. |
| 47 | University of Manchester | 46% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 48 | University of Southampton | 46% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 49 | Technical University of Munich | 45% | Germany; tied rounded share. |
| 50 | University of Glasgow | 45% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 51 | ETH Zurich | 44% | Switzerland; tied rounded share. |
| 52 | UNSW Sydney | 44% | Australia; tied rounded share. |
| 53 | Bournemouth University | 44% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 54 | University of Oxford | 43% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 55 | The University of Queensland | 43% | Australia; tied rounded share. |
| 56 | Institut Polytechnique de Paris | 43% | France; tied rounded share. |
| 57 | Columbia University | 42% | United States; tied rounded share. |
| 58 | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University | 42% | Hong Kong; tied rounded share. |
| 59 | SOAS University of London | 41% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 60 | Federation University Australia | 41% | Australia; tied rounded share. |
| 61 | The University of Chicago | 39% | United States; tied rounded share. |
| 62 | University of Toronto | 39% | Canada; tied rounded share. |
| 63 | University of Amsterdam | 39% | Netherlands; tied rounded share. |
| 64 | University of Leeds | 39% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 65 | University of Cambridge | 38% | United Kingdom; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 66 | IMT Atlantique | 37% | France; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 67 | Monash University | 36% | Australia; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 68 | University of Birmingham | 35% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 69 | University of Bristol | 35% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 70 | Delft University of Technology | 35% | Netherlands; tied rounded share. |
| 71 | Aston University | 35% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 72 | Johns Hopkins University | 34% | United States; tied rounded share. |
| 73 | University of British Columbia | 34% | Canada; tied rounded share. |
| 74 | University of Vienna | 34% | Austria; tied rounded share. |
| 75 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 33% | United States; tied rounded share. |
| 76 | California Institute of Technology | 33% | United States; tied rounded share. |
| 77 | Boston University | 33% | United States; tied rounded share. |
| 78 | RWTH Aachen University | 33% | Germany; tied rounded share. |
| 79 | Royal Holloway, University of London | 33% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 80 | Georgia Institute of Technology | 32% | United States; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 81 | National University of Singapore | 31% | Singapore; tied rounded share. |
| 82 | Nanyang Technological University, Singapore | 31% | Singapore; tied rounded share. |
| 83 | Rice University | 31% | United States; tied rounded share. |
| 84 | Wageningen University & Research | 31% | Netherlands; tied rounded share. |
| 85 | Bangor University | 31% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 86 | University of Reading | 31% | United Kingdom; tied rounded share. |
| 87 | Northumbria University | 30% | United Kingdom; 30% threshold row. |
| 88 | McGill University | 29% | Canada; THE WUR 2026 public profile value. |
| 89 | KTH Royal Institute of Technology | 28% | Sweden; tied rounded share. |
| 90 | University of Groningen | 28% | Netherlands; tied rounded share. |
| 91 | Washington University in St Louis | 28% | United States; tied rounded share. |
| 92 | Hamburg University of Technology | 28% | Germany; tied rounded share. |
| 93 | Jinan University | 28% | China; tied rounded share. |
| 94 | Harvard University | 27% | United States; tied rounded share. |
| 95 | University of Southern California | 27% | United States; tied rounded share. |
| 96 | University of Pennsylvania | 26% | United States; tied rounded share. |
| 97 | Cornell University | 26% | United States; tied rounded share. |
| 98 | Erasmus University Rotterdam | 26% | Netherlands; tied rounded share. |
| 99 | Applied Science Private University | 26% | Jordan; tied rounded share. |
| 100 | Stanford University | 25% | United States; Top 100 cutoff. |
Source snapshot: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026 public profile statistics, compiled on May 23, 2026. Percentages are whole-number profile values. The table is a compiled public-profile dataset, with THE profile statistics used as the numeric source and THE methodology used for definitions.
Insights from the Top 100
Key insight
The table is highly top-heavy. The Top 20 runs from 96% to 74%, while the Top 100 cutoff is 25%. The upper tier is institutionally dependent on cross-border enrolment.
Distribution pattern
24 institutions report shares at or above 70%, 40 are at or above 50%, and 87 are at or above 30%. The sharp drop after the mid-30s separates international-majority campuses from large global universities with broader domestic bases.
Country concentration
The United Kingdom is the largest concentration with 30 institutions, followed by the United States with 17. Australia appears 6 times, the Netherlands 5 times, and Hong Kong 4 times.
Outlier
Central European University is the clear outlier at 96%. Its share reflects a cross-border institutional model rather than the scale of total enrolment.
Specialist schools rank high because their applicant pools are naturally international. Business, medical, creative and private institutions often serve cross-border demand and can reach high percentages with smaller domestic cohorts.
Famous research universities are often lower by percentage even when they are major international destinations. Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, Harvard and Stanford can host large numbers of foreign students while ranking below smaller institutions because their domestic enrolment base is also large.
What it means for readers
For applicants, the ranking helps answer a practical campus-life question: how international is the student body likely to feel? A high percentage can mean more classmates from abroad, more multilingual social networks, more international admissions experience and stronger demand for visa, housing and orientation support.
For universities, the metric is also a risk indicator. A campus with a very high foreign-student share may benefit from global tuition demand and international networks, but it can also be exposed to visa rules, currency movements, travel disruption, affordability shocks and policy changes in major source countries.
For analysts, the table should be read together with total enrolment, programme mix and level of study. Percentage and headcount answer different questions: share measures concentration, while headcount measures scale.
FAQ
Which university has the highest international student share in this 2026 table?
Central European University ranks first with 96% of enrolled students reported as international in the compiled THE WUR 2026 public profile snapshot.
Is this the same as THE’s “Most International Universities” ranking?
No. This table is a single-metric ranking by student share. THE’s broader internationalisation ranking uses more than student share, including other international outlook components such as staff, collaboration and reputation-related signals.
Does this ranking measure total foreign-student headcount?
No. It ranks by percentage of enrolment. A large research university can host more international students in total while ranking below a smaller institution by share.
Why do specialist institutions rank so high?
Specialist institutions often serve narrow global applicant markets. Business schools, medical universities, creative schools and private cross-border institutions can have small domestic cohorts and large international cohorts.
Why do famous universities appear lower in the table?
Large research universities often have substantial domestic enrolment. Even when their international headcount is high, the foreign-student percentage can be lower than at smaller specialist schools.
Does a high international student share mean a university is better?
No. The metric describes enrolment composition only. Academic quality requires separate evidence on teaching, research, admissions standards, completion rates, graduate outcomes, facilities and student satisfaction.
Why can the data year differ from the 2026 label?
THE WUR 2026 is the publication cycle. The key statistics generally come from university submissions for the 2023 academic year unless a profile states otherwise.
What should applicants check after using this table?
Applicants should check programme fit, language of instruction, tuition, scholarships, housing, visa rules, support services, total enrolment, graduation outcomes and local labour-market access.
Sources
Numeric source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026 public profiles
Main source environment for university profile pages and public key statistics used in the compiled student-share table.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking
Methodology source: THE World University Rankings methodology
Used for the definition of international students and the note that key statistics generally refer to university-submitted 2023 academic-year data unless otherwise stated.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/methodology
Row-check example: Central European University profile
Public profile example for the first-ranked institution and its displayed international-student percentage.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/central-european-university
Context source: THE Most International Universities 2026
Used only to explain that broader internationalisation rankings are not the same as a single-metric international-student-share table.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/most-international-universities-world
