Most of Belgium's universities have lost ground in the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2027, with KU Leuven being the only Belgian university to gain ground.
Ten Belgian universities appear in the global ranking, with eight of them still inside the top 500.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings compared thousands of universities across hundreds of countries using a range of indicators focused mainly on teaching and research. It scored each university on the quality of its teaching environment, its research volume and quality, the impact of the university on wider innovation in various industries, and its attractiveness for foreign students.
KU Leuven won one place compared to last year's ranking. It now ranks 45th globally, obtaining its highest ranking since 2016, when it came in at 35th. It ranks high in research quality and impact on industry, scoring perfect marks for the latter, while struggling with the quality of teaching.
Ghent University dropped one spot from 115th to 116th. It has been on a steady decline since 2022, when it peaked at the 96th spot in the ranking. It ranks high in impact on industry and research quality, while struggling with the quality of teaching and the overall research environment.
Students leaving the aula after the opening of the College of Political Sciences Professor Devos at the UGent. Credit: Belga/Nicolas Maeterlinck
The University of Antwerp fell from 170th to 185th. As with the other Belgian universities ranked high on the list, it holds strong scores for research quality and impact on industry, but lags behind in teaching and research environment.
UCLouvain dropped out of the top 200, slipping from 184th to 205th, the university’s worst result ever in the ranking.
The Université Libre de Bruxelles and Vrije Universiteit Brussel are similarly ranked, with the VUB scoring higher on industrial impact and the ULB having a more favourable international outlook. However, both fell in the rankings for 2027, with the ULB listed 252nd and the VUB 261st.
University of Liège (326-350th), Hasselt University (351-375th), University of Mons (701-800th), and University of Namur (801-1000th) rank further down in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
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The highest ranked universities in the world
At the top of the global table, the University of Oxford in the UK retained its first place, as it has since 2017. It was followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University, both in the United States.
The top 10 was made up entirely of British and American universities. The first university outside of those countries is the Chinese Tsinghua University, ranking 11th globally. The highest-ranked university in mainland Europe is ETH Zurich at 12th.
