Rankings: The 13 best universities in Austria for 2020/2021

Austria is a popular place for international students - and not just because of the affordable tuition fees: Although just a small country, many of its universities gain respectable scores in international university rankings.

The top university in Austria is the University of Vienna, which looks at nearly 800 years of academic tradition, and its alumni include celebrated scientists like Sigmund Freud or Erwin Schrödinger. Overall, however, the Austrian university landscape is rather young and modern: More than half of all institutions were established from 1960 onward, and many of those also rank highly, for example the University of Linz (founded in 1966) or Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt (founded in 1970). Many of the smaller universities focus on specific disciplines, so you can find a range of business schools, medical schools, art schools and others that offer the courses you are looking for.

Top ranked universities in Austria

University	QS Ranking 2020	THE Ranking 2020	ARWU Ranking 2019
University of Vienna	154	134	151
TU Wien	192	351	301
University of Innsbruck	266	401	201
Graz University of Technology	311	501	601
Johannes Kepler University Linz	412	601	601
University of Graz	541	501	401
Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt	601	301	801
University of Salzburg	751	–	901
Vetmeduni Vienna	–	–	701
Medical University of Graz	–	201	501
Medical University of Innsbruck	–	251	401
Medical University of Vienna	–	201	201
University of Leoben	–	601	–

Explained: How do the university rankings work?

The QS World University Rankings are among the most important, most-referenced rankings. The QS ranking relies heavily on its academic survey, asking thousands of academics worldwide about the reputation of universities.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings (or the THE Rankings for short) compile a wide range of statistics. Equal weight is put on teaching quality, research excellence, and research impact through citations (meaning how often a university’s research is referenced elsewhere).

The Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University (often just Shanghai Ranking, or ARWU) focuses on research output and quality, for example measured by the number of published and cited scientific papers and the number of staff or alumni winning the Nobel Prize or Fields Medal.

Study in Austria

There are many compelling reasons to study abroad in Austria: World-class teaching at renowned universities, a high quality of life at cheap cost of living, and very low tuition fees for international students. With many universities and hundreds of English-taught courses to choose from, the central European country is not just something for mountain enthusiasts - there is something to be found for everybody.