The Home Office publishes a list of ~80 approved universities each November. The list that applies to you is determined by when you graduated — not when you apply. We check all 6 years of lists (2020–2025) automatically.
How the approved list works
The Home Office selects approved universities based on their performance across four global ranking systems. A university must appear in the top tier of at least two of these to qualify:
- QS World University Rankings
- Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings
- Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU / Shanghai Ranking)
- Financial Times Global MBA Ranking
The list is published every November and covers the academic year from November to October. Around 80 universities from over 20 countries appear on each list — the exact number varies slightly as universities move in and out of the qualifying tier.
Which year's list applies to you?
This is the most commonly misunderstood part of HPI eligibility. The relevant list is the one that was in effect when your degree was awarded — not the current list.
- Graduated November or December of year Y → year Y list applies
- Graduated January–October of year Y → year Y−1 list applies
Example: graduated June 2023 → the 2022–23 list (published November 2022) is what counts. If your university was on that list but not the current 2025–26 list, you still qualify.
Countries and regions well represented
- United States — largest group (~28 universities), including MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Caltech, Columbia, Yale
- China — Peking, Tsinghua, Fudan, Shanghai Jiao Tong, Zhejiang, Nanjing
- Australia — ANU, Melbourne, Monash, UNSW, Sydney, Queensland
- Germany — TU Munich, LMU Munich, Heidelberg, Mannheim
- Singapore — NUS, NTU Singapore
- Hong Kong — HKU, CUHK, HKUST, PolyU, City University
- Switzerland — ETH Zurich, EPFL, University of Zurich
- France — Paris-Saclay, PSL, École Polytechnique, Sorbonne, Institut Polytechnique de Paris
- South Korea — KAIST, Seoul National, Yonsei
- Japan — University of Tokyo, Kyoto University