Students in the UK certainly have their pick of beautiful universities. There are brutalist lecture halls, 900-year-old libraries, ultra-modern city-centre institutions and remote, quaint campuses. Just take a look at the majestic buildings of Edinburgh, Cambridge and Oxford.
But what’s the choice like outside the UK? To guide students heading out on a year abroad, Immerse Education has analysed data from the world’s top 50 universities to determine which are the most beautiful.
The unis were ranked based on the number of Instagram and TikTok posts they’re tagged in – and claiming the top spot as the most photogenic university is the University of California LA, which boasts over 2 million social media posts.
The University of California San Diego came second, with 470,569 posts altogether, and Columbia University came in third, with 403,421. The USA completely dominates the list, claiming 15 of the top 20 spots.
However, if you ask us, there are some glaringly obvious exemptions from the list – after all, Europe has got some glorious campuses. The Paris Sorbonne and University of Bologna have gotta be some of the prettiest.
These are the world’s 20 most beautiful universities
- University of California (LA)
- University of California (San Diego)
- Columbia University
- University of Washington
- Harvard University
- University of Toronto
- University of Michigan
- Cornell University
- Duke University
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
- Princeton University
- Yale University
- Stanford University
- University of Texas Austin
- University of Illinois at Urbana
- Peking University
- New York University
- University of Sydney
- University of Chicago
- University of Melbourne
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