Dutch and European universities are experiencing a dip in the newly released 2016 QS World University Rankings, with many slipping several places compared with 2015.

This year only two Dutch universities have been included in the top 100, whereas in last year's ranking there were five.

University of Amsterdam still leading

According to QS, the University of Amsterdam remains the Netherlands’ top university, coming in at 57th place this year, two spots lower than in 2015.

However, the UvA retained its place as 15th-ranked university within Europe.

Delft University performs well

Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), with its reputation for nurturing innovation, has moved up two spots to 62nd place.

Technological developments from TU Delft often make the news, and include bio-concrete that can repair itself, a concept for an ambulance drone and their highly popular MOOCs online learning courses.

Utrecht, Leiden, Groningen out of top 100

In contrast to 2015, this year three of the Netherland’s top universities have been excluded from the top 100, with Leiden University, Utrecht University and the University of Groningen ranking 102, 104 and 113, respectively.

Despite this slip in rankings the Netherlands still has the third highest number of institutions in the top 200 (12), behind the US (48) and the UK (30).

2016 QS ranking of Dutch universities

NL rank	Institution	Global rank
1	University of Amsterdam	57
2	TU Delft	62
3	Leiden University	102
4	Utrecht University	104
5	University of Groningen	113
6	Wageningen University	119
7	TU Eindhoven	121
8	Erasmus University Rotterdam	144
9	Maastricht University	173
10	University of Twente	177
11	Radboud University	190
12	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	199
13	Tilburg University	330

Western European universities fare badly

Dutch universities were not the only institutions to suffer in this year’s ranking.

QS noted a general downward trend for many Western European institutions, in particular in countries like the United Kingdom and Germany.

On the other hand, universities in Russia, South Korea, China, Canada and Australia performed more strongly, with greater numbers making the top 200 and top 500.

The 2016 QS Top 10 universities

The top-ranked university worldwide is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which retains first place for the fifth year running.

Since last year Stanford University has moved up to second place, while Harvard University holds third place and the University of Cambridge slips down a spot to fourth.

The rest of the top 10 institutions remain relatively unchanged.

2016 QS top 10 universities

2016	2015	Institution
1	1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
2	3=	Stanford University (US)
3	2	Harvard University (US)
4	3=	Universty of Cambridge (UK)
5	5	California Institute of Technology (US)
6	6	University of Oxford (UK)
7	7	University College London (UK)
8	9	ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
9	8	Imperial College London (UK)
10	10	University of Chicago (US)

The QS ranking system

Produced by British publisher Quacquarelli Symonds, the QS World University Rankings is now in its 13th edition and is considered one of the world’s most important annual international educational rankings.

While the main aim is to help prospective students select a course or institution, the ranking is also widely referenced by academic professionals and governments around the world.

Ranking methodology

Based on the four key pillars of research, teaching, employability and internationalisation, the ranking evaluates the performance of universities across six indicators:
› Academic reputation (40 percent)
› Employer reputation (10 percent)
› Faculty-student ratio (20 percent)
› Citations per faculty (20 percent)
› International students (5 percent)
› International faculty (5 percent)

For this year’s edition, the QS researchers considered 3.800 institutions, of which 916 were ranked.

Other highly respected and influential university rankings are the Shanghai Ranking and the Times Higher Education World Ranking, which will be released later this month.

Sources: QS, NOS