ETH Zurich remains continental Europe’s best university

The federal technology institute ETH Zurich has been ranked the eighth best university in the world in the QS World University Rankings 2022.

Despite slipping two places compared to last year, ETH Zurich remains continental Europe’s best university for a fourteenth consecutive year in the survey published on Tuesday. It shares eighth place with University College London.

In total, ten Swiss universities featured in the QS ranking of 1,650 institutions. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) came 14^th, the same as last year, while the University of Zurich dropped one place to 70^th.

Among the other Swiss institutions, the University of Geneva was ranked 105^th, the University of Bern 119^th, the University of Basel 138^th and the University of Lausanne 176^th.

The Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), which first appeared in 2020, moved up 33  places to 240th in this year’s ranking.

American and British universities occupied the top five spots this year: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (1^st), the University of Oxford (2^nd), Stanford University (3^rd equal), the University of Cambridge (3^rd equal) and Harvard University (5^th).

The QS ranking is based on various indicators that include the number of specialised publications by researchers and a poll of scientists and employers.

QS first published its university rankings in 2004. Along with the Times Higher Education and Shanghai rankings, it is one of the most cited indicators of university quality.