Four Belgian universities made it into the top 200 universities in the world in this year’s Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.
THE’s ranking is considered one of the most reliable and influential global university rankings alongside the Shanghai Ranking and the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Ranking.
This year’s edition is dominated by universities from the United Kingdom and the United States, with both countries occupying all the positions in the global top ten.
For the tenth year running, the UK’s Oxford University, where Belgium's Princess Elisabeth completed her three-year bachelor's degree in history and politics, ranks as the top university internationally.
The US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is in second place, while Princeton University in the US and Cambridge University in the UK are tied for third place.
How did Belgium-based universities score?
The highest-ranked Belgian university in THE’s ranking is Belgium’s largest university, the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), which ranks 46th worldwide, slipping three places compared to last year’s ranking.
In second place among Belgian universities was the University of Ghent (UGent), which fell from 112th to 115th place in the ranking.
Antwerp University (UAntwerpen) was the third best performing Belgian university, coming in at 170th in the list – down two places from last year.
One French-speaking Belgian university made it into the top 200. UCLouvain was ranked 184th, falling from 175th last year. This represented the university’s worst results to date.
THE's ranking assesses 18 performance indicators, divided into five pillars, focusing on "core missions of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and internationalisation".
KU Leuven jumped from 63rd to 60th place in this year's QS World University ranking, and rose two places to 76th in the Shanghai Ranking.
