Top 20 Universities in Europe

What are the top universities in Europe? Europe is a favorite destination for many college students who wish to go abroad for their studies. But if you have Europe on your mind for college, you should also know which the most reputable universities on the continent are.

Previously we covered the best universities in the world, best engineering colleges in America, and most affordable medical schools. Following, we would like to present you with a list we have compiled of the top 20 universities in Europe. The schools were ranked according to the World University Rankings, issued by Times Higher Education earlier this year. The British-based magazine is the world’s most reputable higher education researcher and has been ranking schools across the globe for more than a decade.

Several indicators were taken into account, such as teaching, research, international reputation and outlook, as well as knowledge transfer. Each of the schools received a score (with the maximum being 100) and the universities were then ranked according to these scores.

We have included the scores, as well as the worldwide ranking for each of the schools in our countdown. UK emerged as leaders in terms of higher education opportunities, as it is home to all top three schools in Europe. 5 other UK schools also feature on our countdown.

Curious to learn more about Europe’s top schools? Let’s take a look at the countdown.

No. 20: Erasmus University Rotterdam

530px-Rotterdam_universiteit_faculteitsgebouwPublic Domain Image: Public Domain

Location: Netherlands

Overall score: 58.1

Worldwide ranking: 73

No. 19: École Polytechnique

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Location: France

Overall score: 59

Worldwide ranking: 70

No. 18: Delft University of Technology

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Location: Netherlands

Overall score: 59.1

Worldwide ranking: 69

No. 17: Universität Heidelberg

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Location: Germany

Overall score: 59.2

Worldwide ranking: 68

No. 16: Leiden University

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Location: Netherlands

Overall score: 59.4

Worldwide ranking: 67

No. 15: École Normale Supérieure

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Location: France

Overall score: 59.8

Worldwide ranking: 65

No. 14: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

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Location: Germany

Overall score: 59.9

Worldwide ranking: 63

No. 13: KU Leven

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Location: Belgium

Overall score: 61.3

Worldwide ranking: 61

No. 12: University of Manchester

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Location: United Kingdom

Overall score: 62.3

Worldwide ranking: 58

No. 11: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

800px-LMU_-_Portal_Tierärztliche_Institute_der_UniversitätPublic Domain Image: Public Domain

Location: Germany

Overall score: 63.1

Worldwide ranking: 55

No. 10: University of Edinburgh

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Location: United Kingdom

Overall score: 67.5

Worldwide ranking: 39

No. 9: King’s College London

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Location: United Kingdom

Overall score: 67.6

Worldwide ranking: 38

No. 8: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

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Location: Switzerland

Overall score: 67.7

Worldwide ranking: 37

No. 7: Karolinska Institute

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Location: Sweden

Overall score: 67.8

Worldwide ranking: 36

No. 6: London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

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Location: United Kingdom

Overall score: 69.8

Worldwide ranking: 32

No. 5: University College London (UCL)

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Location: United Kingdom

Overall score: 77.6

Worldwide ranking: 21

No. 4: ETH Zürich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich

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Location: Switzerland

Overall score: 84.5

Worldwide ranking: 14

No. 3: Imperial College, London

763px-Imperial_College_London_Exhibition_Road_frontagePublic Domain Image: Public Domain

Location: United Kingdom

Overall score: 87.5

Worldwide ranking: 10

No. 2: University of Cambridge

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Location: United Kingdom

Overall score: 92.3

Worldwide ranking: 7

No. 1: University of Oxford

444px-Balliol_College_Chapel_(from_Fellows'_Garden),_OxfordPublic Domain Image: Public Domain

Location: United Kingdom

Overall score: 93.9

Worldwide ranking: 2 (a tie with Harvard University, US)