Best ‘Golden Age’ universities

The Golden Age ranking uses Times Higher Education data to cast a spotlight on the best universities established for more than 50 years, but less than 80 years

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Published on June 24 2020

Last updated November 4 2026

The universities in the Times Higher Education “Golden Age” ranking were established between 1945 and 1967. The ranking takes its name from what was a Golden Age in global higher education, characterised by rapid university expansion and increasing investment in research.

Because of the age of these universities (older than 50 years old but under 80), they fall outside the parameters of our overall Young University Rankings that looks at institutions under 50 years of age. They make up a unique group of higher education institutions that have embedded academic practices but haven’t been around for hundreds of years.

There are two appearances in the top 10 from the University of California System, with the University of California, Irvine in ninth place. The US has 22 universities in the ranking overall.

The UK’s sole representative in the top 10 is the University of Warwick. However, the UK has a strong presence in the ranking with 24 universities making the list, including the Universities of York, Surrey and Exeter.

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India is another well-represented country in the ranking, with 15 institutions, owing to the creation of multiple technology universities in the country during this time period.

Many of the universities in this ranking score highly for teaching and research.

This ranking has been released in conjunction with the Young University Rankings, which lists the best universities under 50 years old. This ranking was produced using the same methodology as the World University Rankings, which can be viewed here.

Golden Age university ranking 2020: Top 100

Golden Age Rank 2020	University	Country/region	Foundation year
1	University of California, San Diego	United States	1960
2	Australian National University	Australia	1946
3	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	1963
4	Seoul National University	South Korea	1946
5	UNSW Sydney	Australia	1949
6	Monash University	Australia	1958
7	University of Warwick	United Kingdom	1965
8	University of Science and Technology of China	China	1958
9	University of California, Irvine	United States	1965
10	Free University of Berlin	Germany	1948
11	University of Southampton	United Kingdom	1952
12	University of York	United Kingdom	1963
13	Lancaster University	United Kingdom	1964
14	Ulm University	Germany	1967
=15	University of Exeter	United Kingdom	1955
=15	University of Sussex	United Kingdom	1961
17	University of Mannheim	Germany	1946
18	University of California, Santa Cruz	United States	1965
=19	Eindhoven University of Technology	Netherlands	1956
=19	University of Gothenburg	Sweden	1954
21	Tel Aviv University	Israel	1956
22	University of East Anglia	United Kingdom	1963
23	Newcastle University	United Kingdom	1963
24	Macquarie University	Australia	1964
25	University of Calgary	Canada	1966
26	University of Bergen	Norway	1946
27	University of South Florida (Tampa)	United States	1956
28	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia	1967
29	University of Konstanz	Germany	1966
30	University of Dundee	United Kingdom	1967
31	Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology	Russian Federation	1946
32	University of Waterloo	Canada	1957
33	Brandeis University	United States	1948
34	University of Twente	Netherlands	1961
35	University of California, Riverside	United States	1954
36	University of Illinois at Chicago	United States	1965
37	University of Surrey	United Kingdom	1966
=38	Flinders University	Australia	1966
=38	University of Navarra	Spain	1952
=40	University of Essex	United Kingdom	1964
=40	Simon Fraser University	Canada	1965
=42	University of Bath	United Kingdom	1966
=42	Ruhr University Bochum	Germany	1965
44	University of Southern Denmark	Denmark	1966
45	La Trobe University	Australia	1967
46	University of Oulu	Finland	1958
47	Heriot-Watt University	United Kingdom	1966
48	Stony Brook University	United States	1957
49	University of Trento	Italy	1962
50	University of Newcastle	Australia	1965
51	Southeastern University	United States	1964
52	Huazhong University of Science and Technology	China	1952
53	Kyung Hee University	South Korea	1949
54	University of Malaya	Malaysia	1949
55	Umeå University	Sweden	1965
56	University of Stirling	United Kingdom	1967
57	University of Kent	United Kingdom	1965
58	Taipei Medical University	Taiwan	1960
59	Loughborough University	United Kingdom	1966
60	Brunel University London	United Kingdom	1966
61	Catholic University of Portugal	Portugal	1967
62	York University	Canada	1959
63	University of Missouri-St Louis	United States	1963
64	City, University of London	United Kingdom	1966
65	University of Strathclyde	United Kingdom	1964
66	Indian Institute of Technology Delhi	India	1961
=67	Quaid-i-azam University	Pakistan	1965
=67	University of Victoria	Canada	1963
69	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	India	1951
70	Indian Institute of Technology Bombay	India	1958
71	Teikyo University	Japan	1966
=72	South China University of Technology	China	1952
=72	Yokohama City University	Japan	1949
74	University of Campinas	Brazil	1966
75	Keele University	United Kingdom	1949
76	Bar-Ilan University	Israel	1955
77	King Saud University	Saudi Arabia	1957
=78	University of L’Aquila	Italy	1952
=78	Aston University	United Kingdom	1966
80	Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia	Peru	1961
81	University of Ibadan	Nigeria	1948
82	East China Normal University	China	1951
=83	University of Guelph	Canada	1964
=83	Hacettepe University	Turkey	1967
=83	Mashhad University of Medical Sciences	Iran	1949
=86	Amirkabir University of Technology	Iran	1958
=86	National Chiao Tung University	Taiwan	1958
=86	University of Waikato	New Zealand	1964
89	Sharif University of Technology	Iran	1966
90	Binghamton University, State University of New York	United States	1946
=91	University of Alabama in Huntsville	United States	1950
=91	King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals	Saudi Arabia	1963
=91	The University of the West Indies	Jamaica	1948
94	China Medical University, Taiwan	Taiwan	1958
95	Novosibirsk State University	Russian Federation	1959
96	Beihang University	China	1952
97	Massey University	New Zealand	1964
98	University of the Western Cape	South Africa	1959
99	University of Central Florida	United States	1963
100	Johannes Kepler University of Linz	Austria	1966

View the full Golden Age ranking here

Best ‘Golden Age’ universities

The Golden Age ranking uses Times Higher Education data to cast a spotlight on the best universities established for more than 50 years, but less than 80 years

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Golden Age university ranking 2020: Top 100

View the full Golden Age ranking here

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