Universities on YouTube

2024 YouTube University Rankings

Introduction

What are the most popular universities on YouTube? uniRank answers this question by publishing the 2024 YouTube University Rankings, featuring higher education institutions worldwide ranked by the number of their YouTube channel subscribers and meeting the following uniRank selection criteria:

being chartered, licensed or accredited by the appropriate higher education-related organization in each country
offering at least three-year bachelor's degrees or postgraduate master's or doctoral degrees
delivering courses predominantly in a traditional, non-distance education format

This uniRank page features the most extensive list of universities by country with an official presence on YouTube (choose a country below). It also provides valuable data and insights on the adoption of YouTube among higher education institutions. Read also our article about the importance of Social Media for Universities and prospective students.

YouTube University Rankings by Country

Overview

uniRank YouTube Adoption Rate

Currently, an estimated 9,466 out of a total of 13,888 (68.16%) higher education institutions included in the uniRank database have adopted an official institutional YouTube channel. The estimated number of Universities adopting a YouTube channel has been calculated by identifying institutional YouTube channels through two methods:

direct submission from Universities
a search of YouTube channel links publicly published on the universities' homepages

For this reason, the above number and the uniRank YouTube Adoption Rate^™ below could be underestimated if higher education institutions have not submitted a YouTube channel to us or if they do not publicly publish a link to their official YouTube channel on their website's homepage.

	Oct 2018	May 2019	Oct 2019	May 2020	Apr 2023	Sep 2023	Apr 2024
Total number of Universities in uniRank	13,590	13,598	13,619	13,723	13,837	13,909	13,888
Number of Universities on YouTube	7,019	7,589	8,153	8,381	9,226	9,352	9,466
uniRank YouTube Adoption Rate^™	51.65%	55.81%	59.86%	61.07%	66.68%	67.23%	68.16%

Popularity and Engagement factors

University YouTube channels reach different levels of adoption, popularity and engagement depending on various factors including:

Micro Factors

the University's reputation and size
the University's overall level of online presence, web popularity and distance education adoption rate
the University's level of adoption and use of YouTube as an additional channel to the institutional website

Macro Factors

the Country's Tertiary Education size
the Country's level of Internet penetration, usage and connection speeds
the Country's level of adoption and use of YouTube as a social media platform

uniRank YouTube University Ranking aim and methodology

The uniRank YouTube University Ranking seeks to offer an approximate measure of popularity for each university on the YouTube social media platform, based on their total number of subscribers. It is important to note that this ranking does not assess the quality of education or the level of academic services provided by these institutions.
Some larger universities have established multiple YouTube pages, often associated with specific faculties or administrative areas such as Admissions, Marketing and Communications, Alumni and so on. For the purpose of uniRank YouTube University Ranking^™, we have selected the most general institutional YouTube page for each university to compile rankings for each country and identify the top 200 universities on YouTube.

20 oldest Universities' YouTube channels

Here is a uniRank list of the 20 oldest universities' YouTube channels, created as early as July 2005, just a few months after YouTube's inception, for your curiosity: