British, German, French and Swiss universities were considered among the best universities in the world, according to the newly-published 2024 edition of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).

For the 22nd consecutive year, Harvard University, located in Cambridge in the United States, claimed the top spot.

Following closely were two more American institutions, Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), rounding out the top three.

The University of Cambridge in the UK secured fourth place, positioning itself as the highest-ranked university in Europe.

The University of Oxford, which is also based in the UK, ranked sixth, concluding the only two representations European institutions had in the top 10.

The remaining spots were dominated by US universities, with 8 out of the top 10 being located in the country.

How the ranking is decided

ARWU, which is published by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, determines university rankings by evaluating several academic and research performance indicators.

These include achievements such as alumni winning prestigious awards like Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals to assess the quality of education and similarly with staff to assess the quality of faculty in the institutions.

Additional criteria involve the number of Highly Cited Researchers (HiCi), publications in top-tier journals like Nature and Science (N&S), papers indexed in major citation databases (PUB), and the per capita academic output of the institution (PCP).

Here’s a rundown of the top 10 universities this year based on their scores in the performance indicators.

Top universities in Europe

Besides British institutions the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, which claimed top 10 rankings, other European universities were also mentioned in the top 50.

They were followed by Paris-Saclay University in France, which secured the 12th spot, rising three positions from last year.

ETH Zurich in Switzerland came next, ranking 21st worldwide, then Imperial College London, 25th, and University of Copenhagen, 32nd.

In terms of representation, the United States and China had the highest number of institutions in the top 100, with 38 and 14 universities respectively.

In Europe, the UK had the most number of universities in the top 100, with 8 included, followed by Switzerland, Germany, and France.

For the first time, Germany had three universities ranked in the top 50, including the University of Munich (43rd), Technical University of Munich (47th), and Heidelberg University (50th).

French universities also showed competitive advancement, represented by Paris-Saclay University (12th), PSL University (33th), and Sorbonne University (41th) in the top 50.

Some European countries like Italy, Spain, Austria and Portugal were absent from the top 100 ranking but still had some representation in the top 500.