ETH is once again the seventh best university in the world

(CONNECT) For the eleventh time in a row, ETH has been ranked among the ten best universities in the world in the Quacquarelli Symonds(QS) World University Ranking. In the recently published edition for 2026, ETH is ranked 7th for the third year in a row, making it the best-ranked university in continental Europe, ahead of only universities in the USA and the UK. A total of 1501 universities from 105 higher education systems were assessed.

Decisive factors for ETH's top ranking include the criteria of academic reputation (99.7 points out of 100), the internationality of its researchers (99.3 points) and the high number of widely cited publications (98.8 points). In contrast, it is only in the midfield in terms of the ratio of teaching staff to students.

As in previous years, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Imperial College London took the top two places. In third place is Stanford University, which climbed three places, ahead of Oxford, Harvard and Cambridge Universities.

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) improved from 26th to 22nd place, making it the second best university in continental Europe together with the Technical University of Munich, which also improved. The University of Zurich rises nine places to 100th. The University of Geneva is ranked 155th, the University of Basel 158th and the University of Bern 184th. The University of Lausanne is in 212th place and the University of Italian-speaking Switzerland is in 473rd place.

The USA leads with 192 universities represented, followed by the UK (90), mainland China (72), India (54) and Germany (48). For the first time in the 22-year history of this ranking, most of the universities assessed are in Asia. As a result, Ben Sowter, QS Senior Vice President, speaks of a “redistribution of global academic influence”. As he emphasizes, these shifts underline “an increasingly multipolar academic world”. ce/mm