Always the bridesmaid and now finally the bride: after gracing the top 10 in the global ranking and coming second last year, ETH Zurich has now been ranked as the best university on the continent by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The top university in Switzerland was joined by its sister institution in Lausanne in the top 10.

QS returns with its ranking of top European universities

For the second time ever, QS has published a report that solely focusses on universities and institutes of higher education in Europe. 684 different universities from over 40 countries and territories were analysed and ranked through the following categories:

• Academic reputation
• Employer reputation 
• Citations per academic paper
• Faculty-to-student ratio
• International faculty and student ratio, and student diversity
• International research network
• Outbound exchange students
• Employment outcomes
• Sustainability

Each institution was given a score out of 100 in each category, with a weighted average used to generate an overall score. Unlike the Times Higher Education rankings, QS’s report focuses solely on the quality of teaching rather than the overall student experience.

ETH Zurich the best university in Europe, according to QS

After a so-close-but-so-far score of 99,4 points last year, ETH Zurich has surged to the top of the ranking, placing first with a perfect score of 100. Last year’s winner, the University of Oxford, dropped to third (99 points) behind Imperial College London (99,5).

The premiere university in Zurich took the win thanks to its extremely high reputation within academic circles, the number of international students and faculty it houses and how well the university is connected with others around the world. Graduates of ETH are also given some of the best chances to find a job after their studies, thanks to high employer reputation and outcome scores.

Despite being given a score of 100, even a perfect performance meant some room for improvement. While ETH was rated as being good at working with other universities on research, the same cannot be said for student exchange programmes, which scored poorly. In addition, while giving it an above-average score, QS found that it could also improve its faculty-to-student ratio.

Six Swiss universities among the 100 best in Europe

ETH Zurich was joined in the top 10 by another Swiss institution: L'École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) took 10th place, a slight decline in performance compared to its ninth-place finish in 2023. The university was given similar scores to ETH but was rated comparatively poorly when it came to employment outcomes.

Other universities in Switzerland also fared well in the ranking, with the universities of Zurich (36th), Geneva (53rd), Basel (80th) and Bern (84th) all placing in the top 100 in Europe. The University of Lausanne narrowly missed out in 101st, while Fribourg (=237th), the University of Italian Switzerland (245th), the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (338th) and the University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland (478th) placed further down the order.

Europe's 10 best universities ranked

In all, here are the 10 best universities in Europe, according to QS:

1. ETH Zurich, Switzerland
2. Imperial College London, United Kingdom
3. University of Oxford, United Kingdom
4. University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
5. University College London, United Kingdom
6. University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
7. University of Manchester, United Kingdom
8. King’s College London, United Kingdom
9. Université PSL, France
10. L'École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland

To see which other universities were rated highly, and for more details on methodology, check out the official website.

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