THE ranks the Best Universities in Europe 2016

Times Higher Education (THE), the most prestigious higher education ranking body in the world, has just published rankings for the 200 best European universities 2016.

Overall, the UK has come out on top in THE’s most recent league table, claiming almost a quarter (46) of the positions featured in the rankings. The Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London were the UK’s most highly ranked institutions, claiming 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, respectively.

The remaining top five positions were occupied by Switzerland’s ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (4th) and University College London (5th) in the UK.

The institutions were measured in terms of their teaching environment, research environment, citations (research influence), industry income and international outlook.

Germany is the second most represented region after the UK with 36 institutions featured in the table, 11 of which snagged a spot within the top 50. LMU Munich was Germany’s highest ranked institution, claiming 10th position.

Scandinavia was also well represented, with the table boasting 11 Swedish institutions, and Finland managing to get 6 universities featured in the rankings. Karolinska Institute represents Sweden’s most respected institution, and the University of Helsinki flies the flag for Finland, claiming a top 30 spot in joint 28th. Considering Finland is home to 5.4 million people and Sweden is home to 9.6 million people, while the UK hosts in excess of 64 million people, these regions have performed exceptionally well, comparatively.

Denmark also performed well relative to its population size, with the University of Copenhagen claiming the country’s top spot in 33rd position, and five other Danish institutions making the top 200. The Republic of Ireland also boasts six institutions in the rankings, led by Trinity College Dublin in 78th position, and Switzerland hosting a total of nine institutions featured in the top 200.

Regions in the South and East of Europe performed comparatively worse, with Russia claiming just five spots in THE’s most recent rankings. Lomonosov Moscow State University was Russia’s highest ranked university in 79th position, and represents the only Russian institution to make the top 100. These factors combine to make Russia the lowest-ranked country relative to its size and GDP, despite performing well relative to its GDP per capita.

Spain represents the second-lowest country relative to its GDP with five featured institutions, led by the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 70th position.

Overall, 22 countries are represented in THE’s top 200 list of European universities, which draws upon data from the 800 universities from 70 countries in the general THE World University Rankings.

Click here to read the full list of THE’s Best Universities in Europe 2016.

Image via Barn Images.

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