QS World University Rankings: Europe 2026 results

Oxford tops QS Europe 2026 ranking as UK universities dominate top 10

The University of Oxford has been named the best university in Europe in the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2026, moving ahead of ETH Zurich and Imperial College London.

Edu-Live Global reports that the latest edition ranks 950+ European institutions from 42 countries and territories, using 12 performance indicators designed specifically for regional comparison and benchmarking.

Top 10 universities in Europe (QS Europe 2026)

QS says Oxford leads the ranking after scoring 100/100 in five indicators, boosted by improvements in Sustainability and International Student Ratio. ETH Zurich and Imperial were impacted by declines in exchange-student metrics, while Imperial also saw a sharper drop in Papers per Faculty.

Big movers and a reshuffle in the top 20

Positions 11–20 saw major volatility, with no university holding the same rank as the previous year. Notable climbers include Delft University of Technology (up to 11th) and LMU Munich and the University of Warwick (both rising into the =17th group).

What’s different about the Europe methodology?

QS notes the Europe ranking uses a tailored set of indicators to reflect the region’s characteristics, including:

• separating Citations per Paper and Papers per Faculty from broader citation measures,
• using International Student Diversity (instead of only international ratio),
• including Inbound and Outbound Exchange Student Ratios.

Other regional highlights

Among locations with five or more ranked institutions, QS reports:

• Denmark has the highest average score across seven indicators,
• Ireland is the most improved location (with 87.5% of its ranked universities rising),
• Western Europe is the most represented and the most improved sub-region,
• Istanbul is the most represented metro area with 29 ranked universities,
• Baku Engineering University recorded the largest jump, rising 96 places to =395.

290+ new entrants join the list

More than 290 universities were newly ranked this year. The highest new entrant is City St George’s, University of London at 127th. New additions also include Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg (placing =321) and TUHH Hamburg University of Technology (=336th).

Employability: Oxford leads, but gaps remain

QS highlights employability as a growing focus across Europe. Oxford tops both Employer Reputation and Employment Outcomes. Cambridge and Imperial follow Oxford on employer reputation, while Cambridge and LSE rank highly for employment outcomes.

QS notes that some universities show a clear gap between Employer Reputation and Employment Outcomes, suggesting there is room for stronger promotion of graduate strengths and better alignment between perception and outcomes.

QS World University Rankings: Europe 2026 also highlights regional leaders across Europe and nearby sub-regions: in Eastern Europe, Charles University leads at =92, followed by the University of Warsaw (113) and Jagiellonian University (126); in Southern Europe, Politecnico di Milano (=45) tops the list ahead of the University of Bologna (59) and Spain’s University of Barcelona (60); in Western Asia, Türkiye dominates the top spots with Middle East Technical University (=116) leading, followed by Istanbul Technical University (124) and Koç University (=143); while Western Europe is led by ETH Zurich (2), alongside top performers such as Université PSL (8), EPFL (10), Delft University of Technology (11) and the Technical University of Munich (=12).