After ETH Zurich leapfrogged its way up to fifteenth place last year thanks to – or because of – the ranking methodology the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE) introduced in 2011, it has moved up even further to twelfth in the new edition. The top ten is thus within its grasp. With this top classification, ETH Zurich remains the best university outside the Anglo-American sphere.

In particular, ETH Zurich achieved a higher score than last year in teaching and research. Individual subjects areas also improved, such as engineering (from ninth to eighth) and the life sciences (from twenty-first to sixteenth place).

President of ETH Zurich Ralph Eichler is delighted with the university’s excellent performance in the latest THE Rankings: “I was especially pleased with the systematic improvement of the teaching. Also the life sciences took a big step forward.” The only minor fly in the ointment was the fact that the citation rate was down slightly, albeit at a high level, Eichler concedes.

The THE Rankings confirm the results of other university ranking lists, such as the Shanghai or QS Rankings, where ETH Zurich is also a frontrunner.

Like last year, Caltech (Californian Institute of Technology) took the top spot in the THE Rankings. Tied in second place are the University of Oxford and Stanford, which knocked Harvard off the podium and consigned it to an honourable forth. MIT leapt to fifth place (last year: seventh).

US universities fall behind

In all, seven Swiss universities are in the top 200 universities in the world. As the country’s only university other than ETH Zurich, the EPFL jumped six places to fortieth, thus making ETH Zurich’s sister institution the second best university in Europe outside Great Britain according to these rankings.

The other six Swiss universities, however, ranked considerably lower than last year. The University of Geneva got off the most lightly, only falling three places to 133^rd. The University of Zurich, however, dropped twenty-eight positions and is now in eighty-ninth place (last year: 61^st). The University of Lausanne lies in 130^th (last year: 116^th). Basel slid from 111^th to 142^nd and Berne from 112^th to 151^st.

According to the ranking makers, quite a few US universities have cause for alarm as, despite the country’s impressive dominance (seven of the top ten and seventy-six of the top 200 are located in the USA), fifty institutions have lost ground compared to last year, having been ousted by universities from Asian countries, especially China, whose investments in higher education slowly but surely are beginning to pay off.

Netherlands gaining ground

More surprising perhaps is the rise of Dutch universities. Twelve of them rank among the best 200 universities – only the USA and Great Britain have more institutions in the top 200. All the universities in the Netherlands improved on their positions this year. The top Dutch university is Leiden, which leapfrogged from 79^th to 64^th, thus overtaking Utrecht in 67^th place. One reason for the ascent of the Dutch universities is the fact that they have greatly improved their data collection and input.