New global data reveals European universities are outperformed by those in Asia

Europe’s status in the global higher education sector is shrinking as the continent’s universities are outperformed by those in Asia, the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2025 have shown in new research released today.  

Europe is now home to 91 of the world’s top 200 universities, a drop of eight universities, from 99, in 2019, and many of those that remain within the top 200 are declining. The trend is particularly visible in Western Europe, according to the data.  

Eight of the Netherlands’ 12 ranked universities have fallen in the rankings this year, including the top-ranked Delft University of Technology, which drops out of the top 50, from 48th to joint 56th.

Meanwhile, 19 of France’s 50 ranked universities have declined, with 10 institutions achieving their worst ever rank.

The pictures in Germany and Switzerland are more mixed, with the countries’ top institutions performing strongly but others slipping down the table.

Europe’s steady decline occurs as countries in Asia improve. Chinese mainland is getting ever closer to a position in the global top 10, while Japan and South Korea’s top universities are also rising.

Europe used to be the most-represented continent in the THE World University Rankings. However, for the second year in a row, the most-represented continent is now Asia.

 Over the past five years, Asia has contributed the most new entrants to the ranking. Of the 211 universities that joined the ranking for the first time since the 2021 edition, 60 per cent are from Asia whereas 17 per cent are from Europe.

However, there are still bright spots in Europe’s performance. For example, Belgium’s highest ranked university, KU Leuven, is now 43rd, up from 45th, while second-ranked Ghent University has risen three places to joint 112th.

Also, Ireland’s highest ranked university is Trinity College Dublin, which achieves a top 150 place, at 139th, a slight drop on last year when it was 134th.

Of the nine Irish universities ranked, five dropped down the ranking, three remained in the same position, and one (Dublin City University) improved.  

This 21st year of the rankings has 2,092 universities ranked – up from 1,907 last year – from 115 countries and regions. This represents a 9.7 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of ranked universities, the biggest rise in the past five years, and compares with a 6 per cent growth last year. 

The THE World University Rankings 2025 assesses research-intensive universities across 18 performance indicators (metrics), which are divided into five pillars, covering their core missions of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and internationalisation.  

 Within Europe, the best represented countries are nearly all in Western Europe. The UK has 107 ranked universities, Italy and Spain have 55, France and Germany have 50.  

 On average, when comparing the top 10 European countries with the most ranked universities, Germany, UK, and Italy and have the best research quality scores on the continent.

The UK leads the continent in international outlook, followed by France and Germany. France, Germany and Italy all beat the UK in industry score, reflecting stronger collaboration between their higher education sectors and industry.

 Phil Baty, Times Higher Education’s chief global affairs officer, said: “It is great to see so many of Europe’s top 200 universities move up Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings.

 “But European universities should be in no doubt that competition in the ranking is increasing year-on-year and this is coming from Asia with universities from Chinese mainland and South Korea, in particular, rapidly moving up the table.

“With more universities participating each year it makes it harder just to even retain a position in the ranking. European universities need to work even harder if they want to retain their position in the higher echelons of our ranking.”

The world’s best higher education institution is the University of Oxford, which has maintained the top spot for a record nine years in a row. Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the second highest ranked university in the world and in third place is Harvard University.

This year 2,860 institutions submitted data, up 6.9 per cent on last year (last year it was 2,674) from 133 countries and territories. The remaining 768 institutions gained ‘reporter’ status, which means, although they submitted data, they did not meet THE’s eligibility criteria to receive a ranking.

The THE World University Rankings started with 200 universities and now has more than 2,000 making it the most global and inclusive university ranking in the world.