Swiss universities slip down in QS global ranking

A view of the main buildings of the University of Zurich (left) and the federal technology institute ETH Zurich (right). © Keystone / Christian Beutler

The federal technology institute ETH Zurich remains the best university in continental Europe, according to this year’s QS ranking. But overall Swiss universities again lost ground.

ETH Zurich moved up two places to seventh in the university ranking, the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) research group announced on Tuesday. In 2020 it was sixth.

However, other Swiss universities slipped down the table. The Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) dropped twenty places this year to 36th.

+ Swiss universities slip in global ranking

The University of Zurich, Switzerland’s third best university, also fell eight places to 91st. The Università della Svizzera italiana [University of Italian-speaking Switzerland] dropped from 240th to 328th place.

Lower down the table, the universities of Basel (124th), St Gallen (436th) and Fribourg (563rd) all made certain progress.

+ ETH Zurich ranked top university in continental Europe

Globally, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) headed the QS list for the 12th year in a row, followed by Cambridge and Oxford universities.

The ranking, one of several big international education comparisons, draws up its list based on indicators including academic and employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, research citations, and international profile. Sustainability was added this year.

QS said Switzerland’s slight overall decline this year was probably due to the fact that “it is struggling to spread its obvious quality around the world, and particularly in the labour market”.

Swiss universities scored highly for their influence in research, measured in terms of research citations, and the quality of the teaching, the number of students per teacher.

The QS World University Ranking 2024 lists 1,499 higher education institutions from around the world.