View the full list of the world’s top universities led by women
More than a quarter?of the world’s top universities are now led by women, marking a new sector record, according to data?gathered by?Times Higher Education.
Fifty-five of the top 200 universities in the THE?World University Rankings 2025 have a female vice-chancellor or president, representing 27 per cent and a milestone for the seventh consecutive year. This is up from 25 per cent in 2024, when there were 50 female university leaders, and 24 per cent in 2023, when the total stood at 48.
This means that in the?11 years?the data has been collected, the number of female?university leaders has almost doubled, from 28 in 2015?– a 96 per cent increase.?
The figures on the global?higher education sector, which have been released ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March, far outpace the proportion of female leaders at the world’s biggest companies; only 5.4 per cent of firms in the have a female chief executive.
World’s top?10 universities led by women in 2025
| World University Rank 2025 | University | Country | Leader |
| ?1? | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | Irene Tracey |
| ?2? | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | United States | Sally Kornbluth |
| ?5? | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | Deborah Prentice |
| ?10? | Yale University | United States | Maurie McInnis |
| ?=18? | Columbia University | United States | Katrina Armstrong (interim) |
| ?25? | University of Washington | United States | Ana Mari Cauce |
| ?32? | ?cole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne | Switzerland | Anna Fontcuberta i Morral |
| ?33? | New York University | United States | Linda Mills? |
| ?39? | University of Melbourne | Australia | Emma Johnston |
| ?=47? | Universit?t Heidelberg | Germany | Frauke Melchior |
Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the US all saw their number of female university leaders rise, but Switzerland had the?largest year-on-year increase, with the appointments of Virginia Richter at the University of Bern, Audrey Leuba at the?University of Geneva and Anna Fontcuberta i Morral at ?cole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.?
Meanwhile, the number of female vice-chancellors in the UK fell from nine to eight, after Duncan Ivison replaced Nancy Rothwell at the University of Manchester; and Sweden’s number of female leaders dropped from two to one. France’s tally fell by two, the biggest country decline, meaning only one of its five universities in the top 200 – Sorbonne University – has a female leader.
For the second year in a row, four of the world’s top 10 universities have a female leader; while Carol Christ’s retirement means the University of California, Berkeley?is no longer part of this group, Yale University has joined following the appointment of?Maurie McInnis as president?in July.
Wisdom from women leaders in higher education
The year hasn’t been without its controversies, with Minouche Shafik?resigning as president of Columbia University?in August following criticisms of her handling of a Congressional grilling on antisemitism and subsequent student protests. She?was replaced by interim president Katrina Armstrong.
It remains to be seen whether?Donald Trump’s war on diversity, equity and inclusion policies across?America’s universities?will have an?impact on?the number of women at the top of?the country’s institutions.
Of the 30 countries or territories with universities?in the top 200, half (15) had none represented by a female leader, including China, Canada and South Korea.
Note:?The analysis was based on the university leader in post on 1 February 2025 and?included 202 institutions because four universities were tied in 199th place.
