Higher education in the Netherlands once again has something to celebrate, as seven Dutch universities have reclaimed spots in the top 100 of the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings, with Wageningen University & Research once again being ranked the best university in the Netherlands. 

THE World University Rankings 2023

Every September, THE puts together a definitive ranking of educational institutions across the globe, with 2023 marking the most comprehensive and diverse ranking yet, featuring 1.799 universities across 104 countries. Each institution is ranked according to its performance across 13 performance indicators, split into four key categories: 

• Teaching (i.e. staff-to-student ratio, reputation survey)
• Research (i.e. research productivity and income) 
• Citations (i.e. the average number of times a university’s published work is cited by scholars globally)
• Industry income (i.e. how much research income an institution earns from industry scaled against the number of academic staff it employs)
• International outlook (i.e. the proportion of international students and staff, international collaboration)

Each university featured in the ranking is awarded a score out of 100 for each of the five areas, before receiving an overall score out of 100.

The top 10 universities in the world

Once again, British and American universities have dominated the top 15, with the University of Oxford claiming the number one spot for the seventh year in a row:

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

As far as the rest of the world is concerned, ETH Zurich has once again been named the best university in continental Europe, coming in joint 11th place with Colombia University. Coming in 16th place, Tsinghua University in China has been ranked the best university in Asia.

Wageningen University once again ranked best in the Netherlands

Improving slightly on its score in the previous edition of the ranking, Wageningen University & Research has been named the best university in the Netherlands, with an overall score of 70,3. In spite of this, however, the university has seen its position slip slightly, from 53rd place last year to 59th. 

While Wageningen’s position as the top Dutch university remains strong, it is not the only university to feature in the top 100 of THE’s latest ranking. The Delft University of Technology and the University of Groningen are both climbing through the ranks, overtaking Leiden University and Erasmus University Rotterdam to be named the fourth and fifth-best Dutch universities respectively. 

The best Dutch universities in 2023

This year, 10 Dutch universities claimed spots in the top 200, with a number of institutions seeing their rankings fall slightly compared to last year:

• 59. Wageningen University & Research
• 60. University of Amsterdam
• 66. Utrecht University
• 70. Delft University of Technology
• 75. University of Groningen
• 77. Leiden University
• 80. Erasmus University Rotterdam 
• 121. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• =139. Radboud University Nijmegen
• 145. Maastricht University 
• 201-250. Eindhoven University of Technology
• 251-300. Tilburg University 
• 251-300. University of Twente

For more information about THE 2023 and to see the complete ranking, visit the THE website. 

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