Universities in UK, France & Switzerland Among World’s Best

The United Kingdom, France, and Switzerland are home to some of the best universities in the world, according to newly released rankings.

The UK’s University of Cambridge and Oxford dominated among the top ten universities worldwide in the 2024 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), securing fourth and sixth spots, respectively, Erudera.com reports.

France’s Paris-Saclay University climbed three places from last year to secure the 12th spot. The University College London in the UK (16th) and ETH Zurich in Switzerland (21st) followed next.

The rankings published by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy show that in Europe, the UK had the most universities on the list of the top 100, with eight universities included, followed by Switzerland, Germany, and France.

Three German universities ranked in the top 50 for the first time: the University of Munich (43rd), the Technical University of Munich (47th), and Heidelberg University (50th).

Similarly, French institutions showed improvement in these rankings, with three universities making it into the top 50: Paris-Saclay University (12th), PSL University (33th), and Sorbonne University (41th).

These three countries are also top host destinations for international students, attracting tens of thousands yearly. International student numbers in the UK surpassed 600,000, while Germany has more than 458,000 international students.

At the same time, in the 2022/23 academic year, France welcomed 412,000 international students who chose the country to pursue a higher education degree. Campus France data showed a 3 percent increase in one year and a 17 percent increase over five years in international student enrollment in France.

Additionally, on a global level, the United States led with 38 universities in the top 100, while China had 14 universities on the list. According to ARWU 2024, Harvard, the oldest university in the US, secured first place for the 22nd year in a row.

Harvard is closely followed by Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), completing the top three, scoring 74.8 and 69.1. The top 10 universities in the world, based on their performance scores, are:

• Harvard University
• Stanford University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• University of Cambridge
• University of California, Berkeley
• Princeton University
• University of Oxford
• Columbia University
• California Institute of Technology
• University of Chicago

Of the eight Ivy League universities, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania are among the top 15 universities worldwide. Princeton ranked 5th, Columbia 6th, Yale 9th, Cornell ranked 10th and University of Pennsylvania 12th.