The 2023 QS World University Rankings released their list of the top 50 institutions for performing arts across the world. These rankings are updated each year and are predominantly based on the academic reputation of the university, college or conservatoire. These are the institutions they believe to be the best music colleges, conservatoires and performing arts colleges in the world.
Other factors include students' preparation for the employment market, the ratio of faculty members to students, the amount of research undertaken by faculty members and the ratio of international faculty members and students.
The top 50 music colleges, conservatoires and universities for performing arts:
- Royal College of Music, UK
- Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse en Paris, France
- Royal Academy of Music, UK
- Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wein, Austria
- The Juilliard School, US
- Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, UK
- Guildhall School of Music and Drama, UK
- Curtis Institute of Music, US
- Norwegian Academy of Music, Norway
- Moscow State Conservatory P.I. Tchaikovsky, Russia
- New York University (NYU), US
- University Mozarteum Salzburg, Austria
- Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Hong Kong
- The Royal Danish Academy of Music, Denmark
- University of Rochester, US
- Royal College of Music, Sweden
- St Petersburg Conservatory, Russia
- Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, UK
- Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Lyon, France
- Royal Holloway University of London, UK
- UCSI University, Malaysia
- University of Oxford, UK
- University of Cambridge, UK
- Harvard University, US
- Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts, Finland
- Hochschule fr Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Leipzig, Germany
- University of Huddersfield, UK
- Yale University, US
- Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, Germany
- Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), UK
- Columbia University, US
- University of Southern California, US
- The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, China
- McGill University, Canada
- Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland
- Haute école de musique de Genève, Switzerland
- University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), US
- Indiana University Bloomington, US
- Stanford University, US
- The Central Academy of Drama, China
- Northwestern University, US
- Korea National University of Arts, South Korea
- King's College London, UK
- Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
- University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, US
- Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS), Russia
- Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, Germany
- National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore
- University of Toronto, Canada
- Universität der Künste Berlin, Germany