QS rankings: ETH Zurich secures 7th place once again

In the new external page Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2026, ETH Zurich has come in seventh place for the third time in a row. This means that it has now been among the world¡¯s ten best universities for over 11 years and is the only continental European university in this top group.

Best university in continental Europe

As in previous years, only universities in the USA and the United Kingdom rank ahead of ETH Zurich. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) once again tops the ranking of over 1,500 universities from 106 countries around the world. Imperial College London and Stanford University follow in second and third place. The University of Oxford, Harvard, and Cambridge take the following spots.

The other Swiss universities to rank in the global top 100 are the EPFL (22^nd place) and the University of Zurich (100^th place). The EPFL has moved up four places since last year, while the UZH has climbed nine places. The universities Geneva, Basel, Bern and Lausanne, as well as the Universit¨¤ della Svizzera Italiana (USI), also rank among the 500 best universities, thus confirming the high quality of Swiss educational institutions.

Second place for sustainability

Among others, key factors in ETH Zurich¡¯s top ranking include its excellent reputation among scientists around the world, the high number of widely cited publications and the international background of its researchers. Together, these three indicators make up more than half of the overall rating. They highlight ETH Zurich¡¯s international appeal and academic recognition as well as the high visibility of its scientific publications.

According to the QS rankings, ETH Zurich is also one of the world¡¯s leading universities for sustainability, having moved up several places from last year to take second place worldwide. It is surpassed only by the University of Toronto. However, this indicator accounts for only 5 percent of the overall rating.

The indicator for which ETH Zurich has scored most poorly for several years is its student-to-staff ratio. This indicator measures the ratio of lecturers to students. For this, ETH achieves just an average ranking.