For the 15th time in a row, ETH Zurich has been ranked as the best university outside of the United Kingdom and United States by the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. While the study proved a mixed bag for other universities in Switzerland, one major Swiss institution's absence has raised broader questions about the ranking itself.
World University Rankings 2025 by THE
As sure as the changing of the seasons is the arrival of the World University Rankings each autumn. Every year, THE seeks to reveal which universities around the world are the best. Their findings are intended to be used as a guide by prospective students to which institution to attend based on their specialisms or interests.
The edition for 2025 has seen the ranking grow once again to now include 2.092 universities from 115 nations and territories around the world. Five categories and 18 different indicators were used to rank each participant. These are:
- Teaching - Reputation survey, staff-to-student ratio, doctorate-to-bachelor ratio, doctorates awarded to academic staff ratio and institutional income.
- Research - Reputation survey, research income and research productivity.
- Citations - How many times a university’s work is cited by scholars globally.
- Industry income - Transfer and value of invention given from a university to entrepreneurs.
- International outlook - The proportion of international students and staff, and whether the university collaborates with institutions abroad.
Each university featured in the top 500 was given a rating out of 100 in each category. A weighted average score is then calculated to determine each institution's place in the overall ranking.
Oxford University the world's best university
The 2025 World University Ranking sees British and American universities occupy the whole of the top 10 once again, with the University of Oxford placing first with a score of 98,5. Oxford’s run at the top of the list is now the longest in the study’s history, having taken first every year since the 2017 edition.
THE explained that Oxford’s dominance can be attributed to “significant improvements in its income from industry and the number of patents that cite its research, as well as its teaching scores.” The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard rounded out the top three.
10 best universities in the world for 2025
In all, here are the 10 best universities in the world, according to the World University Rankings 2025:
- University of Oxford (98,5)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (98,1)
- Harvard University (97,7)
- Princetown University (97,5)
- University of Cambridge (97,4)
- Stanford University (97,2)
- California Institute of Technology (96,3)
- University of California, Berkeley (94,5)
- Imperial College London (94,4)
- Yale University (94,1)
However, the UK and US dominance in university rankings may be starting to slip: THE wrote that both countries are seeing a "rapid" decline in their scores for research and teaching. This was blamed on a combination of declining reputations, the financial crisis gripping UK universities and increasing competition from abroad.
ETH Zurich the best in continental Europe for 15th year running
For 2025, ETH Zurich took 11th place in the THE ranking with a score of 93, securing its title as the best university in continental Europe. It is the third time in a row that the federal university took 11th place and the 15th time in a row that it was named best outside of the UK and US.
ETH was given high scores for the quality of the research it offers and its international connections abroad. However, for it to break into the top 10, the university needs to improve its teaching scores and connections with employers and industry.
ETH’s sister university EPFL took 32nd place, a once-place improvement on its showing from last year. This year, the Universities of Bern, Lausanne and Geneva saw their scores improve, while Basel, Italian Switzerland, Neuchâtel and the universities of applied sciences in Zurich and western Switzerland dropped down the order. St. Gallen and Fribourg’s position remained unchanged.
University of Zurich drops out of THE ranking
Those more eagle-eyed among us will have noticed the absence of the University of Zurich, which placed 80th in last year’s list. The 2025 edition is the first time that UZH has not featured in the ranking, providing an absent elephant in the room for the THE report.
Back in March, officials at the university officially withdrew from the ranking on the grounds that it “is not able to reflect the wide range of activities in teaching and research undertaken by universities.” They argued that this focus on “measurable output” encourages universities to produce more research rather than improving the quality of their teaching and output, and gives students the illusion that they provide a comprehensive analysis of each institution.
Best universities in Switzerland according to THE
In all, here are the best universities in Switzerland according to the THE study for 2025:
- ETH Zurich (11th)
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (32nd)
- University of Bern (104th)
- University of Basel (126th)
- University of Lausanne (134th)
- University of Geneva (171st)
- University of Italian Switzerland (301-350th)
- University of St. Gallen (351-400th)
- University of Fribourg (401-500th)
- University of Neuchâtel (501-600th)
- ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences (1001-1200th)
- University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland (1201-1500th)
For more information about the ranking, check out the THE website.
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