Chinese university overtakes ETH Zurich for the first time

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) has lost its position as the best university in continental Europe for the first time. In the 2027 world university ranking published by the British magazine Times Higher Education (THE), the Zurich institute drops from 11th to 12th place, overtaken by Tsinghua University in Beijing, which rises to 11th. This is the first time an Asian institution has overtaken Europe's top-ranked university.

Switzerland nonetheless keeps two institutions in the world's top 50 and ten in the top 200. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) also drops one place, to 36th.

Among the ten Swiss universities in the top 200, five lose ground, three advance and two hold steady. Besides ETH and EPFL, the University of Lausanne falls from 125th to 129th place, and the University of Bern from 108th to 121st. The University of Basel, on the other hand, climbs from 120th to 111th place, and the University of Geneva gains three places to reach 163rd.

Further behind is the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), now placed in the band between 301st and 325th worldwide, after being ranked between 251st and 300th in the previous edition.

Oxford on top for eleven years

The top of the world ranking remains dominated by English-speaking universities. Oxford University holds first place for an eleventh consecutive year, closely followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Princeton and Stanford, both in the United States, share third place, followed by Cambridge in Britain and Harvard in the United States.

Within the Italian university system, the one closest to Italian-speaking Switzerland, the top-ranked institution is the University of Bologna, in 111th place worldwide, followed by Sapienza University of Rome and the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, both in 147th place. The Politecnico di Milano ranks 157th, while the Università Cattolica in Milan falls into the same band as USI, between 301st and 325th place.

According to THE, Asian universities are closing the gap with Western institutions: for the first time, three Asian institutions appear in the top 15, following the entry of the National University of Singapore. In the 2027 edition, five European universities dropped out of the top 200, replaced by an equal number of Asian institutions.

The THE ranking is based on 17 indicators covering teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook, and this year includes nearly 2,300 universities worldwide.