ETH still the best university in continental Europe

According to the new QS World University Rankings, the ETH Zurich is the sixth-best university in the world. This means it is able to defend its placing from last year, when it advanced one place to overtake the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

The ETH’s placement puts it among the best 0.5 percent of all institutions assessed. This year, the ETH was only behind four American universities – the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, Harvard University, and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) – and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

According to ETH President Joël Mesot, the success of the ETH is based on excellent conditions for talent, combined with academic freedom and the long-term importance of research, teaching, and innovation in politics and society. Additionally, he adds that the strong specialist skills of ETH staff and their exceptional engagement in the service of the university are an important condition.

Other Swiss universities also feature prominently in the rankings. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) gained four places, bringing it into 14th place. The University of Zurich was even able to improve by seven places, making it to 69th place. The top 200 universities also include the universities of Genf (106th place), Bern (114th place), Basel (149th place), and Lausanne (169th place). The Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) is represented in the ranking for the first time and is in 273rd place.

The QS ranking is based on the survey results from researchers and employers regarding the quality of universities. Universities’ reputations among researchers are weighted particularly highly, at a share of 40 percent. Other criteria are the status of a university as viewed by employers (10 percent), scientific publication activity (20 percent), the supervisory relationship (20 percent), and the proportion of international students and lecturers out of the total number (5 percent each).