Tokyo (SCCIJ) – Switzerland has the world’s best university system. This is the result of this year’s rankings from the global university analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The thirteenth edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject identified the world’s best university offerings for 54 academic disciplines.
A total of 32 Swiss university programs are among the top ten in the world for their respective disciplines (© ETH Zurich/Alessandro Della Bella).
Leading in most subjects
A total of 32 Swiss university programs are among the top ten in the world for their respective disciplines. This constitutes 15 percent of all Swiss university programs – the highest proportion worldwide.
This also means that Swiss universities occupy 6 percent of all top ten subjects and lead in the most subjects. This proportion is only exceeded by the USA at 47 percent and the UK at 27 percent. The ranking assessed a total of 1,594 universities from 93 countries across 54 academic subjects.
ETH, EPFL, EHL
Switzerland came in first place for four of these specialist areas. Three were attributable to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ): Earth and Marine Sciences, Geophysics, and Geology. It has come in the first place more than any other university in mainland Europe.
ETH ranks in the top ten for several subjects, such as Architecture (third place), Engineering – Mechanical, Aeronautical & Manufacturing (fifth place), Chemistry (seventh place), and Math, Physics, and Astronomy (all eighth place).
Switzerland is also a leader in the subject of Hospitality and Leisure Management with the EHL Hospitality Business School in Lausanne. EHL stands for “Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne”. Seven of the ten leading hotel management schools in the world are based in Switzerland.
Strength in Dentistry
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) has entered the top ten in the world with two subjects: Data Science (9) and Civil Engineering (10). Mathematics at EPFL also climbed into the top 20.
The greatest leap in the rankings made in Switzerland was for Biological Sciences at the University of Geneva. It improved by 18 places to reach 62nd place.
Besides, two of the world’s top ten dentistry courses are located in Switzerland: The University of Bern takes seventh place in this respect, followed by the University of Zurich in eighth.
New subjects
The QS World University Rankings by Subject are compiled annually to help prospective students identify the leading universities in a particular subject. Research citations, along with the results of major global surveys of employers and academics, are used to rank universities. This year’s rankings include three new subjects: data science, history of art, and marketing.
More information about this year’s methodology and rankings is available here.
Text: © S-GE (Editing by SCCIJ)
