Swiss universities fall slightly in global QS rankings

The University Hospital Zurich, the main building of the University of Zurich (UZH) and the main building of the Swiss federal institute of technology Zurich (ETH Zurich). Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Swiss universities have fallen slightly behind in international comparison. In the annual QS World University Rankings, they recorded slightly more losses than gains overall. However, the federal technology institute ETH Zurich once again came out as the best university in continental Europe.

The federal technology institute ETH Zurich remained in seventh place in the 2025 university ranking, as the analysis company Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) announced on Tuesday. Of the other nine Swiss universities included in the ranking, three have risen in the table and six have fallen.

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This year’s climbers include Switzerland’s second-best university: the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) is ranked 26th, ten places higher than in last year’s ranking.

However, according to the QS University Ranking, the University of Zurich is no longer one of the best 100 universities in the world. It dropped 19 places and is now in 109th place, while the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI) lost the most places. At 407th place, it is 77 places further down in the ranking for 2025 than last year.

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The universities of Basel (rank 131), Bern (rank 161), Lausanne (rank 224) and Geneva (rank 155) also dropped places. In addition to EPFL, the University of Fribourg (ranked 539) and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ranked 781-790) also improved their positions.

The UK leads the rankings

The international ranking is led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), followed by Imperial College London and the University of Oxford. With the exception of the federal technology institute ETH Zurich and the National University of Singapore (8th place), the list of the top 10 is dominated by US and British universities.

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With 1500 universities from 105 university systems included, this year’s ranking is the largest to date, according to QS.

Adapted from German by DeepL/amva

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