Latin America's best universities revealed by Times Higher Education

Times Higher Education launches its Latin America University Rankings 2023
July 4, 2023
THE Latin America University Rankings 2023

The university with the highest grades topping Times Higher Education’s (THE) Latin America University Rankings 2023 is Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. 

The Chilean university has hit the top spot for five years in a row. In second place is Brazilian university, University of São Paulo, which it has done for seven consecutive years and another Brazilian university - The University of Campinas – has taken third spot. In fourth place is Mexican university Monterrey Institute of Technology, which has moved up one place from last year’s fifth spot. 

Top 10 universities in THE’s Latin America University Rankings 2023 

University 

Country 

Rank 2023 

Rank 2022 

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile 

Chile 

1 

 1  

University of São Paulo 

Brazil 

2 

 2  

University of Campinas 

Brazil 

3 

 3  

Monterrey Institute of Technology 

Mexico 

4 

 5  

Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) 

Brazil 

5 

 4  

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul 

Brazil 

6 

 8  

Federal University of Minas Gerais 

Brazil 

7 

 9  

Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) 

Brazil 

8 

 10  

University of Chile 

Chile 

9 

 7  

Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) 

Brazil 

10 

 12  

There are 197 universities in the ranking, from 15 countries, with two more countries than last year - Paraguay and Bolivia. Brazil has the most universities in the ranking with 65, followed by Colombia, with 36, Chile has 32 and Mexico has 24. 

Top 7 countries with the most universities in the ranking, including the country’s highest ranked university 

Country 

Number of universities 

Highest ranked university 

Rank 

Brazil 

65 

University of São Paulo 

2 

Colombia 

36 

University of the Andes, Colombia 

14 

Chile 

32 

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile 

1 

Mexico 

24 

Monterrey Institute of Technology 

4 

Ecuador 

14 

UEES, Espiritu Santo University 

54 

Peru 

9 

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia 

=33 

Argentina 

6 

Austral University 

27 

Brazil has seven universities in the top ten, 28 in the top 50 and 42 in the top 100. 

Argentina’s highest ranked university is Austral University, which is 27th this year, up a significant 17 places from last year’s 44th position. The country’s second highest university is National University of San Martín, which is joint 36th this year and has also significantly jumped up the rankings moving up 12 places from its 48th place last year. 

Paraguay enters the ranking for the first time, with Universidad Nacional de Asunción in joint 82nd place. Bolivia debuts with Universidad Mayor de San Simón, which ranks in the 126–150 band.   

The highest new entry is University of Magallanes in Chile, at position 73. Eighteen new universities are ranked this year compared with last year.  

Jamaica, Cuba and Puerto Rico each have one university in the ranking. The University of the West Indies in Jamaica moved down four places from 21st last year to 25th this year. Cuba also has a university in the top 50 with The University of Havana in 39th place, up three places from last year. The University of Puerto Rico moved down five places from 56th last year to 61st this year. 

Phil Baty, THE’s Chief Global Affairs Officer, said: 

“THE’s Latin America University Rankings 2023 wonderfully demonstrates the rich diversity of higher education institutions across a very varied region.  

“We hope those working in higher education can utilise the ranking, and the vast wealth of data that underpins the overall scores, to improve universities in their respective country even further.  

“The ranking is also intended as a valuable tool for millions of students seeking information about where to study in their country or, potentially, further afield.” 

The Latin America University Rankings uses the same 13 calibrated performance indicators that are used in THE’s World University Rankings but the weightings are specially recalibrated to reflect the characteristics of emerging economy universities. The performance indicators are grouped into five areas: teaching, research, citations, international outlook, and industry income. 

View the full Latin America University Rankings 2023 results and see Latin America University Rankings 2023 methodology. 

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