Two German universities have been named among the top 20 in Europe according to the latest QS European Universities ranking for 2025. However, experts caution that these rankings should be viewed with a “healthy dose of scepticism”.
QS European Universities Ranking 2025
For the second time, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a higher education analytics firm, has published a ranking focused exclusively on European universities. The 2025 report assessed 684 universities from over 40 countries, using criteria such as academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per academic paper, faculty-to-student ratio, international faculty and student ratio, international research network, outbound exchange students, employment outcomes, and sustainability. Each institution received a score out of 100 in each category, with a weighted average used to determine the overall score. Unlike the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings, QS focuses solely on the quality of teaching.
ETH Zurich claimed the top spot, followed by Imperial College London and the University of Oxford. UK universities dominated the top 10, securing all but three positions.
TU Munich and Heidelberg in the Top 20
Since 2018, TU Munich has consistently climbed or maintained its position in the QS World University Rankings. In the 2025 European ranking, TU Munich scored 92.1 overall, though it received a lower score of 54 in employment outcomes for graduates.
Heidelberg University, Germany’s oldest institution, shared the 18th spot with the University of Birmingham, achieving an overall score of 87. The ranking praised Heidelberg for being “one of Europe’s most research-intensive institutions” and its “leading role in the scientific community”.
Growing Skepticism About University Rankings
Despite the enthusiasm that often accompanies university rankings, there is growing international skepticism about their value and methodology. In September 2023, the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands withdrew from the THE ranking, citing “highly questionable” data and methods. The University of Zurich followed suit in March 2024.
The first global university rankings appeared in 2003, but the number of publishers has surged in the past two decades. The most influential rankings are produced by four companies that “collect vast amounts of data from universities and publicly accessible sources, which they then privatize to market to universities, governments, and other stakeholders,” according to the United Nations University (UNU).
Recent research suggests that universities purchasing products and services from QS and THE may have better chances of climbing the rankings. As a result, Jelena Brankovic, a researcher at the University of Bielefeld specializing in the university ranking industry, advises students and readers to “approach ranking information with a healthy dose of skepticism” and to consider multiple sources of information before making decisions.
Top 10 Universities in Europe According to QS
Here are the top 10 universities in Europe for 2025, according to QS:
- ETH Zurich, Switzerland
- Imperial College London, United Kingdom
- University of Oxford, United Kingdom
- University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
- University College London, United Kingdom
- University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- University of Manchester, United Kingdom
- King’s College London, United Kingdom
- Université PSL, France
- L’École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
For the complete 2025 QS ranking, visit the official website.
