A ranking of the world’s tallest universities as requested by someone, possibly.

A while back we did this vital ranking of the UK universities which would be the last to go under in the event of rising sea levels. It proved to be an extremely popular league table, and was rumoured to have been quoted approvingly by several senior leaders from well-placed institutions, but was the subject of a number of challenges and appeals. Perhaps surprisingly the data has yet to make it into the leading domestic rankings.

The latest key ranking (2024 version) then is of the tallest university buildings in the world, courtesy of Wikipedia. These higher ed skyscrapers are defined as having an occupiable height that is 90% devoted to classroom, research, and educational administration use. Student residential accommodation does not count.

Here is the top 20 then and with all of them coming in at over 100m they certainly offer the opportunity for a dizzying educational experience for their students and staff.

Moscow (above) still rules, but excitingly, since the last run of this ranking on Wonkhe, there have been three new entries in the top 20: the IE tower in Spain, straight in at Number 3, the Zhixin Building at Shandong University in at 9 and the very impressive ASEEC tower in Indonesia.

Here is the full ranking

(All data taken from Wikipedia.)

The highest new entry is the IE tower in Madrid:

The tallest UK university according to the data sits a long way off the pace with the University of Sheffield coming in at 53rd thanks to the Arts Tower.

After the last edition of this ranking there were several appeals from those who argued that Warwick should be listed because of the presence of Warwick Business School on two floors of the Shard. However, that doesn’t quite meet the criteria and, although the views from the 17th floor are spectacular, it is a long way from the top and they need to acquire quite a bit more of the building to qualify.

I think this settles it. Until the next time.