THE year started with great news for UWI after the Times Higher Education (THE) – the gold standard in global higher education rankings – announced that the main regional university had risen among the 33,000-plus universities and higher degree‑granting institutions in the world.

In the 2025 year-end release of the Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2026, which assess institutional performance across teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook, only 2,191 universities from 115 countries qualified to be ranked.

A press release on January 23 said that UWI continued to rise relatively as the number of universities also increased. It is selected and ranked annually based on criteria of academic excellence. It now stands in the top 3.6 per cent of these 33,000-plus institutions.