Rankings: The 17 best universities in Portugal for 2025/2026
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Portugal is one of Europe’s most appealing study destinations, known for its excellent universities, sunny climate, and welcoming culture.
The country offers high-quality, internationally recognised education at a lower cost than many Western European countries, especially in fields like engineering, business, social sciences, and health. Studying in Portugal it’s about enjoying a high quality of life in cities like Lisbon, Porto, and Coimbra, where rich history meets modern student life.
The rankings below showcase the best universities in Portugal for international students, based on factors such as academic reputation, amount of degrees fully taught in English, global partnerships, and student satisfaction. Leading institutions include the University of Lisbon, University of Porto, and NOVA University Lisbon, all of which are known for strong research output and diverse study options. Many Portuguese universities also participate in Erasmus+ and other international exchange programmes, enhancing their global reach.
Use these ranking to find the Portuguese university that best matches your goals!
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.
Portugal looks back at 800 years of university tradition. Today, many of the universities in this Western European country are among the best in Europe, and offer first-rate study programmes in English at very low tuition fees.
Read more about studying in Portugal
