Tokyo (SCCIJ) – The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) has moved up two positions in the latest QS global ranking to take seventh place. It kept its top spot in continental Europe. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) also made it into the top ten in Europe.
Improved rank
The Swiss have grown accustomed to the fact that numerous university rankings show ETH Zurich as one of the world’s best universities every year. The latest confirmation comes from the most recent edition of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings. Ranked at #9 last year, ETHZ moved past College London (UCL) and California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) claimed the top spot again. The University of Cambridge is in second place, now followed by the University of Oxford.
“Ranking among the best signifies two things for me – it is testimony to the fact that our long-term investments in research and teaching are paying off, and serves as proof of my colleagues’ remarkable daily accomplishments,” says ETH President Joël Mesot. “Even if rankings never reflect the whole truth and have to be treated cautiously, as a university we have to take them seriously.”
New methodology
ETH Zurich also benefited this year from a change in methodology. The QS Rankings evaluate several areas, each weighted differently in the overall result. As in previous years, ETH Zurich achieved top scores of 98.9 out of 100 points for citations per faculty and 98.8 points for academic reputation. Both metrics have a strong impact on the overall ranking, accounting for 20 and 30 percent respectively.
New metrics – sustainability, employment outcomes, and international research network – have been added this year. ETH Zurich gained above-average ground in terms of employment outcomes and international research network, in particular. The new ranking formula reduced the weight attributed to the existing metrics. This means that the faculty-student ratio, where ETH Zurich continues to score lower than its peers, is only weighted with 10 instead of 20 percent. Consequently, ETH Zurich’s 177th place in the faculty-student ratio influenced the overall result less than in the previous year.
Strong Swiss showing
A look at the rankings of other Swiss universities confirms that investments in education are worthwhile for Switzerland. Two other institutions rank in the top 100, out of a total of 1,500 classified institutions. EPFL now ranks 36th (16th last year) and the University of Zurich 91st (83rd last year). Nine of the best 500 universities in the world are located in Switzerland – an outstanding accomplishment considering the small number of its inhabitants. The full ranking is available here.
Text: Simon Zogg/ETHZ News (Editing by SCCIJ)
