For the past 10 years, the QS World University Rankings have consistently named the University of Amsterdam (UvA) the best Dutch university - until now. This year sees the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) rise into 47th place, making it the number-one university in the Netherlands. 

QS World University Rankings 2024

This year marks the 12th annual edition of the QS World University Rankings, featuring a whopping 1.500 academic institutions across 104 locations worldwide. For the first time this year, each university was assessed across nine key metrics - listed below in order of weighting - after QS added three brand new so-called performance lenses:

• Academic Reputation
• Citations per Faculty
• Employer Reputation
• Faculty-to-Student Ratio
• International Faculty Ratio
• International Student Ratio
• Sustainability
• Employment Outcomes
• International Research Network

The latest edition of the QS ranking sees the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) claim the top spot for the 12th year in a row, achieving the maximum possible score of 100 in six out of the nine metrics. ETH Zurich in Switzerland is one of just two non-American and non-British universities to feature in the top 10, coming in a very impressive seventh place.

QS ranks TU Delft top university in the Netherlands

Interestingly, after years of UvA claiming the top spot when it comes to Dutch universities, this year the institution based in Amsterdam was pipped at the post - even though it managed to rise from 58th place last year to 53rd. 

Instead, the honour of being named the number-one university in the Netherlands goes to TU Delft, which has risen from 61st place in last year’s rankings to a fairly impressive 47th place - making it one of the top 50 universities in the world. The university in Delft achieved its high scores across the majority of metrics assessed, even nabbing the maximum possible score of 100 in the International Faculty Ratio category. 

The higher education institution was let down by its performance in both the Faculty Student Radio (36,9) and Employment Outcomes (42,1) categories. In spite of this, however, this year marks TU Delft’s highest position since the first QS World University Rankings in 2012.

8 Dutch universities in top 200 in the world 

While TU Delft and UvA were the only Dutch institutions to feature in the top 100, a rather impressive eight out of the 13 universities in the Netherlands did manage to score places in the top 200.

While universities such as Wageningen University & Research and Erasmus University Rotterdam have slipped slightly in this year's ranking, others - in particular the Eindhoven University of Technology which has risen 14 places and is now the fourth-best university in the Netherlands - performed significantly better this year:

• 47. Delft University of Technology
• 53. University of Amsterdam
• 107. Utrecht University
• 124. Eindhoven University of Technology
• 126. Leiden University 
• 139. University of Groningen
• 151. Wageningen University & Research
• 176. Erasmus University Rotterdam
• 207. Vrije Universitiet Amsterdam
• 210. University of Twente
• 222. Radboud University
• 256. Maastricht University
• 371. Tilburg University

For more information about the ranking, and to see how other universities around the world did, check out the QS website.

Thumb: Frank Cornelissen via Shutterstock.com.