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How Do the Universities Rank? (2010)

The annual Times Higher Education survey of the Top 200 World Universities (2010) is a good barometer for seeing how universities around the globe compare to each other. In the rankings below, we have edited the list to concentrate on universities in the three main German-speaking countries.

NEW for 2011: Top 100 Universities by Reputation
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich ranks 24th; the University of Munich is 48th. There are only four German universities on the list. (See below.)

As in previous years, the Times Top 200 list continues to be dominated by universities in the US and the UK. The top 15 world universities in 2010, with country/score and (rank) in the previous year:

  • 1 Harvard University US/96.1 (1)
  • 2 California Institute of Technolgy (Cal Tech) US/96.0 (9)
  • 3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) US/95.6 (8)
  • 4 Stanford University US/94.3 (16)
  • 5 Princeton University US/94.2 (10)
  • 6 University of Cambridge UK/91.2 (2) Tie
  • 6 University of Oxford UK/91.2 (5) Tie
  • 8 University of California, Berkeley US/91.1 (39)
  • 9 Imperial College London UK/90.6 (5)
  • 10 Yale University US/89.5 (3)
  • 11 University of California, Los Angeles US/87.7 (32)
  • 12 University of Chicago US/86.9 (7)
  • 13 Johns Hopkins University US/86.4 (13)
  • 14 Cornell University US/83.9 (15)
  • 15 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zürich) Switzerland/83.4 (20) Tie
  • 15 University of Michigan US/83.4 (19) Tie

Times Higher Education Rankings: Top Universities in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland

The rankings below are listed by country. The first number is the 2010 world rank of the university named. The number in ( ) is that university’s rank in 2009. There have been some dramatic changes in rankings for universities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for 2010. This is due in part to changes made by Times Higher Education in the way the rankings were calculated for 2010, including partnering with Thomson Reuters and a requirement that institutions had to agree to take part in the ranking process. Institutions with a previous ranking shown as (--) were not in the previous year’s top 200.

AUSTRIA 2010

  • 187 University of Innsbruck (--)
    Tied with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany)
  • 195 University of Vienna (132)

In 2009 Vienna was the only university in Austria to make the world Top 200, but it has fallen in rank for the last several years. It dropped from 115th in 2008 to 132nd in 2009 to 195th in 2010. In 2007 Vienna ranked 85th. Innsbruck got into the Top 200 for the first time in 2010, outranking Vienna, which, if the trend continues, may no longer be in the top 200 in 2011.

GERMANY 2010

  • 43 University of Göttingen (186)
    Tied with the Australian National University (Australia) and two other institutions
  • 61 University of Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians U., 98)
  • 83 Heidelberg University (Ruprecht-Karl U., 57)
    Tied with the University of Utah (USA)
  • 101 Technical University of Munich (Technische Hochschule, 55)
  • 132 University of Freiburg (122)
  • 168 University of Würzburg (--)
    Tied with the University of Leeds (UK)
  • 172 J.W. Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (--)
  • 173 Bielefeld University (--)
  • 178 Humboldt University of Berlin (146) and University of Bonn (--) Tie
  • 182 Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen (182)
  • 186 University of Konstanz (--)
  • 187 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology** (KIT, 184)
    Tied with the University of Innsbruck (Austria)
  • 189 Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (149)

**In 2009, the University of Karlsruhe merged with the city's nuclear research centre to form KIT.
Underlined universities are also listed on the 2011 Top Universities by Reputation.

Perhaps Germany’s recent “Excellence Initiative” funding for some of its public universities has paid off. (See Part 1 for more.) The number of German institutions on the Top 200 list in 2010 grew by four, for a total of 14 (10 in 2009). While most of the German universities on the Times Higher Education list for 2010 dropped in rank, compared to 2009, Göttingen climbed from 186 to 43! Munich also climbed, but less dramatically, from 98 to 61. New to the Top 200 in 2010 are Würzburg (168), Frankfurt (172), Bielefeld (173), Bonn (178) and Konstanz (186). The Free University of Berlin (94 in 2009) dropped off the list in 2010. For a different ranking list for Germany and the world, see the link below. (ShanghaiRanking Consultancy)

WEB > Academic Ranking of German Universities 2010 (ShanghaiRanking Consultancy)

SWITZERLAND 2010

  • 15 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zürich, 20)* - Tied with the University of Michigan (USA)
  • 48 Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (42)
  • 90 University of Zurich (92)
    Tied with the University of Southampton (UK) and
    Wake Forest University (USA)
  • 95 University of Basel (108)
    Tied with George Washington University (USA) and
    the University of Arizona (USA)
  • 118 University of Geneva (72)
  • 136 University of Lausanne (168)

*The only German-speaking institution and the only non-North American/non-UK institution to be ranked in the top 20 of the Times Higher Education Top 200.
Underlined universities are also listed on the 2011 Top Universities by Reputation.

Note: Basel and Zurich are in the German-speaking region of Switzerland, while the other cities listed are French-speaking. The University of Bern dropped out of the top 200 in 2010.

Source: Times Higher Education - Top 200 World Universities 2010

NEXT > Top German Universities 2009

BACK > German Universities - Part 1

WEB > Academic Ranking of World Universities 2010 (ShanghaiRanking Consultancy)

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