Rankings: The 5 best universities in Norway for 2021/2022
Norway is an extremely popular country for international students: Norwegian universities are world-class, the country offers an exciting mix of modern urban life and wild, untamed nature, and tuition is free - which makes up for the very high cost of living.
And for a small country of just over 5 million people, Norway achieves respectable positions in university rankings. The top university is usually the University of Oslo, often among the best 100 institutions in the world; closely followed by the University of Bergen and the well-renowned Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
| University | QS Ranking 2021 | THE Ranking 2021 | ARWU Ranking 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Oslo | 113 | 127 | 60 |
| University of Bergen | 194 | 201 | 301 |
| Norwegian University of Science and Technology | 360 | 401 | 101 |
| University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway | 416 | 351 | 501 |
| Norwegian University of Life Sciences | – | 601 | 601 |
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.
Known for its stunningly beautiful coastlines, Norway is also one of the countries with the highest quality of life. Norway’s universities offer high-quality education, and there are hundreds of English-taught study programmes in this small country. And although the cost of living is probably higher than anywhere else in Europe, tuition is free.
Read more about studying in Norway
