ETH Zurich remains in top place in THE Rankings

ETH Zurich has maintained 11th place in the Times Higher Education (THE) Rankings for the third consecutive year. This makes it the highest-ranked university in Switzerland. It is followed by EPFL, its sister university based in Lausanne, which has moved up one place to rank 32nd compared to the previous year.

The rankings are topped by the University of Oxford, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University. The top ten positions are all held by universities from the Anglo-American sphere.

Assumptions and weightings

Eleventh place: the rankings are based on quantitative data collection and surveys of the universities’ reputations. Points are awarded for five different aspects – or pillars – of a university that include teaching and quality of research. The individual ratings are weighted and combined to give a total score. This year, ETH scored 93.0 points out of a potential 100 points. As a comparison, the University of Oxford obtained 98.5 points.

The results of such rankings depend strongly on the assumptions and weightings used in the models that seek to express the quality of teaching and research as well as the benefit that a university provides society and industry. It goes without saying that other rankings using different methods and weightings arrive at different results. Of the various rankings, three have been followed more closely at ETH over the years.

In June of this year, ETH Zurich was delighted to come 7th in the QS Rankings. In August, it ranked 21st in the Shanghai Rankings. And it has now come 11th in the THE Rankings. What conclusions can be drawn from these rankings?

What information can be deduced from rankings?

First of all, it’s clear that all three rankings identify ETH Zurich as one of the world’s top universities. They also show that it receives a very consistent evaluation over time. In the past, changes to the methodologies only produced slight changes in ETH Zurich’s ranking.

The THE Rankings clearly demonstrate that ETH’s excellence is primarily attributable to its research conditions and the quality of its research. When it comes to teaching, the comparison with other top universities is slightly less favourable, which is understandable given the differences in the faculty-student ratio, for example.

Additionally, the rankings indicate that ETH Zurich has room for improvement in its knowledge transfer to industry. To address this, it established a Vice Presidency for Knowledge Transfer and Corporate Relations five years ago. However, it takes time for strategic decisions such as these to affect point scores or rankings. The data used for the current rankings is one or two years old, meaning that the data currently being collected at ETH Zurich will be crucial for the university's future rankings.