ETH Zurich retains crown as world's 7th-best university

The QS World University Rankings for 2026 are in, and ETH Zurich has once again been named the best university in Switzerland, and the seventh-best university in the world. Here’s how other Swiss universities fared. 

QS World University Rankings 2026

QS’s annual World University Ranking is a list of the best institutions for studying around the world. The 2026 edition features over 1.500 universities, representing more than 100 countries globally. 

Each university gets a score out of 100, based on 10 different metrics with their own weightings, covering everything from academic reputation and research to teaching staff to student ratios and diversity. 

In 2026, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was named the best university in the world for the 14th time in a row, coming out with a perfect score of 100. Imperial College London and Stanford University rounded out the top three. Apart from ETH Zurich, the National University of Singapore was the only university outside of the US and the UK to make it into the top 10.

ETH Zurich remains best university in Switzerland

ETH Zurich has retained its crown as the best university in Switzerland, ranking seventh overall with a score of 96,7, an improvement on its score of 93,9 from 2025.

ETH hit high scores of more than 99 when it came to the institution’s academic reputation, graduate employability, international student ratio and sustainability. It even scored a perfect 100 in the international faculty ratio. 

6 Swiss universities among top 200 in the world

Other Swiss universities to make it inside the top 100 in the world include the EPFL - École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, and the University of Zurich, which snuck back into 100th place this year after dropping out of the top 100 in the 2025 ranking. 

Other Swiss institutions featured on the list include the University of Geneva, in position 155, the University of Basel, ranked 158th, and the University of Bern, ranked 184th. While the university in Geneva managed to maintain its position from last year, both Basel and Bern have seen their positions slip, from 131st and 161st, respectively. 

Here are the positions of all the Swiss universities featured in the ranking:

• 7. ETH Zurich
• =22. EPFL - École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
• 100. University of Zurich
• =155. University of Geneva
• 158. University of Basel
• =184. University of Bern
• =212. University of Lausanne 
• =473. USI - Università della Svizzera italiana
• 642. Université de Fribourg
• 801-850 - Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW)

For more information and to see the full ranking, visit the QS website.