Opportunities only in Vienna

Austrian universities: Top 100 remains a distant dream

Only the University of Vienna could achieve the government's goal of being among the top 100 by 2030.

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH (Symbolbild))

In the latest edition of the "Times" university rankings, Austrian universities have come only slightly closer to the government's goal of having two domestic universities in the top 100 by 2030. The University of Vienna was the best Austrian institution, moving up nine places to 110th, but for all others the top 100 places remain a long way off.

According to the latest edition of the "Times Higher Education World University Ranking", the dream of ranking among the top 100 remains a distant dream for Austrian universities. The government's goal was to have two Austrian universities in the top 100 by 2030.

Only the University of Vienna shows an upward trend
Only the University of Vienna was able to continue its upward trend of recent years - it improved its position as the best Austrian institution by nine places to 110th place. Research can be cited here as an indicator of improvement. For all others, however, the top 100 places remain a long way off: the Austro universities (Medical Universities of Vienna and Graz) ranked next outside the top 200.

As in the previous year, the medical universities of Vienna and Graz remain in places 201 to 250 (from 201, the ranking is in steps of 50, later in 100s and 200s). As in the previous year's ranking, the Medical University of Innsbruck was ranked 251-300, while the Vienna University of Technology (TU) slipped down from this range to 301-350, where the University of Innsbruck remains.

Other institutions remain far behind
There were also no changes in the rankings for the next-ranked domestic universities. The University of Linz remains in places 401-500, while the Universities of Klagenfurt and Graz are both ranked 501-600. 

Behind them, Graz University of Technology lost places and ended up in positions 601-800 (previous year: 501-600), where the University of Salzburg also remains. Montanuni Leoben made it into the top 1,000 this year (places 801-1,000).

1st place again: University of Oxford
First place in the Times ranking goes to the University of Oxford (UK) for the ninth time in a row. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) follows in second place, with Harvard University (both USA) in third place. The best continental European and German-speaking university remains ETH Zurich (Switzerland) in eleventh place, while the best German university is TU Munich, which improved to 26th place.

The authors of the ranking generally note a downward trend, particularly among Western European universities. Despite many top places, they are tending to lose ground - while 99 European universities were still represented in the top 200 last year, this year there are only 91. 

Asian universities are catching up
For example, ten French institutions recorded their worst position since the ranking was introduced, and two thirds of Dutch universities were also affected by the trend reversal. Conversely, many Asian universities improved. Two Chinese universities (Tsinghua University and Peking University) are just about to enter the top ten, in 12th and 13th place respectively.

The long-standing methodology of the ranking was changed somewhat last year. There are now 18 indicators to evaluate the universities appropriately. These include the areas of teaching, research environment and quality, internationalization and cooperation with industry. Among other things, this time 157 million citations of scientific publications were analyzed and 93,000 scientists worldwide were surveyed.