The World University Rankings 2025 by Times Higher Education (THE) are in and five universities in the Netherlands have been named in the top 100. It’s not all celebrations though as most Dutch universities dropped down the ranking, with none making the top 50 this time around. 

THE World University Rankings 2025

The Times Higher Education ranking scores global universities on 18 carefully selected performance indicators, and for the first time this year over 2.000 universities were included. 

Performance indicators are grouped into five areas: Teaching (the learning environment); Research environment (volume, income and reputation); Research quality (citation impact, research strength, research excellence and research influence); International outlook (staff, students and research); and Industry (income and patents).

Naturally, not all of these areas have equal weight in the ranking, with Teaching weighted at 29,5 percent, Research Environment at 29 percent, Research Quality at 30 percent, International Outlook at 7,5 percent and Industry at 4 percent. The ranking looks at data, combined with the results of the most recent Academic Reputation Survey to draw conclusions about universities in 115 different countries.

No Dutch universities make top 50 in the World University Rankings 2025

While five Dutch universities made it into the top 100 for the World University Rankings, none made the top 50 this year. In fact, eight of the 12 institutions included in the study actually dropped in the ranking. 

The top performing university in the Netherlands, TU Delft - a research university home to more than 20.000 students - slipped from 48th position in last year‘s rating to joint-56th. Erasmus University in Rotterdam dropped out of the top 100 entirely, going from 99th last year to 107th in the latest ranking. On the other hand, the University of Amsterdam rose from 61st to 58th place.

Plans by the Dutch government are a concern to the ranking creators, as limits to the number of English-language courses and higher student fees have been proposed to reduce the number of international students. “The coalition has announced cutbacks and restrictions on foreign students and researchers. This increases the pressure on the sector in times of increasing international competition,” stated Times Higher Education.

Best Universities in the Netherlands 2025

According to the THE World University Rankings, these are the top universities in the Netherlands for 2025:

• 56. Delft University of Technology
• 58. University of Amsterdam
• 67. Wageningen University and Research
• 73. Leiden University
• 80. University of Groningen

Times Higher Education top 10 universities in the world

The best universities in the world according to the THE World Rankings are the following:

1. University of Oxford
2. Massachusetts University of Technology
3. Harvard University
4. Princeton University
5. University of Cambridge
6. Stanford University
7. California Institute of Technology
8. University of California, Berkeley
9. Imperial College London
10. Yale University

To see the full ranking of universities or for more information about the study’s methodology, visit the Times Higher Education website.

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