Harvard, Oxford and Sandhurst dominate world leader soft power index

The US and the UK have educated 125 current world leaders between them, a new index has found.

The Hepi/Kaplan Soft-Power Index is based on a snapshot of world leaders in early August 2025, examining the number of monarchs, presidents and prime ministers who studied at a higher level in another country.

For the first time, the results are being published according to the institution where world leaders studied. Harvard University (15) and the University of Oxford (12) lead the pack, with Sandhurst in third place with eight. UAE President Sheikh Mohamed, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Sheikh Tamim, Emir of Qatar, studied at the military academy.

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The University of Cambridge, the London School of Economics and the University of Manchester make up the rest of the top six.

Harvard alone has educated more senior world leaders than all higher education institutions in Russia (13), and more than Italy (five), Spain (five) and Germany (four) combined.

In 2025, higher education institutions in the US can claim to have played their part in educating 66 senior world leaders, two below its total for 2024, which was its best year, while the UK remains comfortably in second place, having educated 59 world leaders. France performed less well than in the past but stayed in third place, with 23 leaders, down from a high of 40 in 2019. Germany dropped out of the top 10 for the first time, having educated just four serving world leaders, the same number as Canada, Morocco, the Netherlands and South Africa.

Countries that have educated a significant proportion of the world’s most senior leaders are thought to benefit from a boost to their ‘soft power’.

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: “International students bring enormous benefits to the UK. They all spend money while they are here and some then contribute to the UK labour market after studying.

"The diplomatic benefits are less well understood, even though they can be equally important. In 2025, over a quarter of the countries around the world have a very senior leader educated in the UK, which amounts to tremendous soft power.

“The current UK government have established a Soft Power Council and promised a new education exports strategy. These are welcome but they are counterbalanced by the incoming levy on international students, huge dollops of negative rhetoric and excessive visa costs.

Mr Hillman added: “Recent new obstacles standing in the way of people wanting to study in Australia, Canada and the United States provide an opportunity for the UK to steal a march on our main competitors. We are at risk of squandering this opportunity.”

When launching the Soft Power Council in early 2025, the UK’s then foreign secretary, David Lammy, said soft power was “fundamental to the UK’s impact and reputation around the world”, citing the “love and respect” generated by the country’s music, sport and education.

Linda Cowan, managing director of Kaplan International Pathways, said one trend to watch was the expansion of transnational campuses of British universities abroad, such as in India or the UAE. “These initiatives have the potential to further enhance the UK’s soft power by extending the reach of our higher education sector beyond students coming to the UK,” she said.

Who went where?

The 15 world leaders educated at Harvard are: the Prime Minister of Bhutan (Tshering Tobgay); the President of Botswana (Duma Boko); the Prime Minister of Canada (Mark Carney); the King of Denmark (Frederik X); the President of Ecuador (Daniel Noboa); the Prime Minister of Greece (Kyriakos Mitsotakis); the Prime Minister of Israel (Benjamin Netanyahu); the Prime Minister of Jordan (Jafar Hassan); the Prime Minister of Lebanon (Nawaf Salam); the Prime Minister of Luxembourg (Luc Frieden); the President of Moldova (Maia Sandu); the Chief Minister of Sierra Leone (David Moinina Sengeh); the President of Singapore (Tharman Shanmugaratnam); the Prime Minister of Singapore (Lawrence Wong); and the Prime Minister of South Korea (Kim Min-seok).

The 12 world leaders educated at the University of Oxford are: the King of Belgium (Philippe); the King of Bhutan (Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck); the Prime Minister of Canada (Mark Carney); the President of East Timor (Jose Ramos-Horta); the Prime Minister of Hungary (Viktor Orban); the Emperor of Japan (Naruhito); King Abdullah II of Jordan; the President of Montenegro (Jakov Milatovic); the King of Norway (Harald V); the Sultan and Prime Minister of Oman (Haitham bin Tariq); the President of the Philippines (Bongbong Marcos); and the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands (Jeremiah Manele).