Rankings: The 13 best universities in Switzerland for 2025/2026
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Switzerland has a lot to offer to international students: Swiss universities provide world-class education, and their degrees are recognised around the globe. With its high quality of research and teaching, Switzerland regularly ranks high in the Study.EU Country Ranking.
ETH Zurich is the uncontested top dog; the highly respected institute of technology belongs to the top 10 universities of the world. And other Swiss institutions are also well-recognised in academia and business, for instance the University of Zurich, the University of Geneva, or the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
Although only a small country, with a population of around 8 million, Switzerland’s impressive presence in international university rankings underlines its reputation as a prime destination for studying abroad. If you are seeking a Bachelors or Masters programme of high academic regard and can afford the relatively high cost of living, Switzerland should be among the top of your list when choosing a country to study abroad.
| University | QS Ranking 2025 | THE Ranking 2025 | ARWU Ranking 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ETH Zurich | 7 | 11 | 21 |
| Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) | 26 | 32 | 55 |
| University of Zurich | 109 | – | 67 |
| University of Basel | 131 | 126 | 95 |
| University of Geneva | 155 | 171 | 58 |
| University of Bern | 161 | 104 | 101 |
| University of Lausanne | 224 | 134 | 101 |
| USI Università della Svizzera italiana | 405 | 301 | 601 |
| University of Fribourg | 539 | 401 | 501 |
| ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences | 781 | 1001 | – |
| University of St. Gallen | – | 351 | – |
| University of Neuchâtel | – | 501 | – |
| University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland | – | 1201 | – |
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.
Switzerland is a small country located at the heart of Europe, with a multilingual population of just over 8 million. While the cost of living is very high, the tuition fees are comparably low, and with some of the world’s best universies, the country attracts a growing number of foreign students every year.
Read more about studying in Switzerland
